The Washington Post just ran this thought-provoking piece on the Arab Spring by former Soviet dissident refusenik and Israeli Parliamentarian Natan Sharansky. As I wrote last spring, Recent upheavals across the mideast from Egypt to Tunisia to Syria can be viewed through the prism of Sharansky’s ideas on democracy and even as validation of them. But in the messy aftermath of these hopeful uprisings, some are questioning whether the Arab world can handle freedom. In this piece, Sharansky offers his thoughts.
Tonight Newt Gingrich spoke some truth about the middle east that very few people–even including Jews–have had the courage to say or write in recent decades.
Today, addressing the Republican Jewish Coalition in Washington DC, Mitt Romney drew a clear contrast between his vision for America and that of President Barack Obama, stressing that “[Obama] is seeking to make a merit-based society into an entitlement society.”
I once heard someone say, “George W. Bush got elected because he seemed like the kind of guy you could get a beer with. Romney seems more like the guy who’d fire you.” In terms of image, Romney should loosen up a bit, get someone to muss his hair. On substance, he should make the case for digging ourselves out of the mess created in part by ideologues–as opposed to effective, realistic managers. He should also give Americans some straight talk about our economy–and the fact that it is cyclical, which means that there are no simple, instantaneous, total fixes (No hopey changey dreams that materialize just because we speak beautifully about it).
Last month, during a forum for the unemployed in her home state, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) said, “the Tea Party can go straight to hell,” adding, “And I intend to help them get there.”
Fighting in Southern Sudan’s disputed Abyei region claimed the lives of more than 30 people over the weekend, but voting that will allow the country’s Southerners - mostly Christians and animists, or practitioners of native religions - to separate from the Arab Muslim North if they choose, proceeded apace. And human rights groups including Christian Solidarity International (CSI) and The American Anti-Slavery Group ransomed Christians and others out of slavery and documented their stories.
Pictures released yesterday of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the 43-year-old mother of two sentenced to death for adultery in Iran, at home with her son sparked rumors she was free. But sadly, the photos were actually part of a state “documentary” in which she “confessed” to the crimes the Islamic Republic accuses her of.
Is anyone actually surprised by anything released by Wikileaks? Apparently, one of the site’s revelations is that leaders and diplomats from Arab Gulf states like Saudi Arabia and Bahrain have approached the U.S. and asked - even pleaded - for America to take military action to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. The Los Angeles Times has coverage here.
At last weekend’s Foreign Policy Initiative conference in Washington D.C., I asked Senator John McCain a two-part question. First, I asked if he was concerned about corruption in Iraq’s government.
With 78 percent of Jewish voters going for President Obama in the 2008 election despite his tendency to trivialize Jewish-Americans’ concerns about Israel’s security, is it any mystery that during the past two years, the U.S. President has repeatedly sought to de-legitimize Jewish communities in the West Bank, and even in Jerusalem? Even more important, by all appearances, he is leaving Israel to deal with Iran alone. Of course, Congress has passed tough sanctions, but most observers agree such sanctions are coming years too late to arrest Iran’s nuclear program.
Human rights leader Simon Deng, a former Sudanese national swimming champion and escaped slave, has launched his 250-mile freedom walk from the United Nations to Washington D.C. this week to gain U.S. support for the independence of South Sudan.
