In critical ways, Obama has reversed not just Bush policy but every president’s approach to the world since the Second World War, save for that of his soulmate Jimmy Carter.

Syria’s population is 74% Sunni Muslim.

Israel will not and should not leave until it is clear that the West Bank can be policed by Palestinians and that the region will not be a source of terrorism against Israel, as Gaza...

America was not founded to improve health care or housing; it was founded for freedom.

Terrorism exploded after the Camp David talks broke down in 2000 because the Palestinians’ leader at the time, Yasser Arafat, supported it.

At Camp David in 2000, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered the Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat 94 percent of the West Bank; ten years later, Ehud Olmert offered Abbas 93.6 percent with a one-to-one land...

The Knesset is in Israel, and the Western Wall is in Israel, and the sooner the Obama administration realizes this, the closer it will be to a Middle East policy worthy of our country and...

Can Israelis be wistful? It is not the characteristic we usually associate with them; more typically they are said to be tough, sweet, angry, thoughtful, demanding – not wistful.

Every Arab ‘republic’ has been a republic of fear, but only Saddam Hussein’s Iraq surpassed the Assads’ Syria in number of victims.

While Israelis do not care too much about Europeans moral judgments, the E.U. is an important market for them, and European sanctions of any kind would be harmful to Israel.

Both Bibi and Obama realize that they are going to have to face the problem of Iran together.

The truce brokered by Egypt between Israel and Hamas depends, above all, on the borders between Egypt, Gaza and Israel.

I well remember a leading Egyptian liberal saying to me in 2003 that she did not favor free elections right then in Egypt; she favored them in a decade’s time if she and others had...

Libya as a country is a relatively new concept. The period of Libya as a modern nation really starts after World War II.

Gadhafi’s vicious regime has left Libya far worse than he found it on the day of his coup in 1969.

The mishandling of the would-be airplane bomber Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab’s visa is only the latest piece of evidence that the granting of visas should be taken away from the State Department. For the granting...

The question was never whether the United States, E.U., NATO, Arab League, U.N. Security Council, and African Union could together using economic sanctions, diplomatic pressure, and military attacks to bring Qaddafi down. The question was...

In the Bill Clinton years, the foreign leader who visited the White House most often was Yasser Arafat – 13 times.

I first met Kim Dae Jung when he was a Korean dissident whose life was threatened by the military regime ruling in Seoul. I was Ronald Reagan’s Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights, and...

President Bush met repeatedly with human rights activists and freedom fighters from all over the world to give them encouragement and protection and to advance their cause.

Sometimes the results of a first free election will find the moderates so poorly organized that extreme groups can eke out a victory, as Hamas did when it gained a 44-to-41 percent margin in the...

The accession to power in Pyongyang of Kim Jong Un, son of Kim Jong Il and grandson of Kim Il Sung, is a unique achievement in world politics.

Needless to say, if the Arab-Israeli conflict is about interstate disputes and the need to resolve the future of the West Bank and Gaza, it can be solved; if it is a religious conflict, nothing...

As the Palestinian leadership never seems to pay any penalty for its words, America’s seriousness about the peace process is in doubt.

Terrorists that kill Americans don’t get released.

Bahai Iranians are barred from holding government jobs, their children are excluded from the nation’s university system, their marriages are not recognized and their cemeteries and holy places have been desecrated. It is government policy...

The Obama administration rarely demonstrated the ability to shift gears and change policy in its first year. Even in the face of historic events such as the continuing demonstrations against Iran’s regime, it stuck devotedly...

First impressions matter. Experts say we size up new people in somewhere between 30 seconds and two minutes.

If Iran gets a nuclear weapon, its influence and that of Hamas and Hezbollah are strengthened.

For 22 years, Bandar bin Sultan was Saudi Arabia’s influential, irrepressible ambassador in Washington.

History may someday record that the Arab awakening that began with the Arab revolt of 1916 against the Ottomans ended about a century later with a whimper.

Cheney’s memoir is not about 9/11, or solely about Bush’s administration, but about his entire life and political career.

The United States should encourage Israel to take further steps to improve the Palestinian economy.

I would have thought that if you’re going to try to punish the Syrians and prevent them from using chemical weapons again, the thing to do is a one-time strike. Maybe a cruise missile strike...

Obama isn’t good off the cuff, especially when challenged; he is far better with a prepared speech.

Iran exports about 2.2 million barrels a day.

It seems clear to me that the Obama Administration has no human rights policy. That is, while in some inchoate sense they would like respect for human rights to grow around the world, as all...

The United States already has in place comprehensive trade sanctions against Sudan, imposed because of the regime’s support for terrorism. While we maintain diplomatic relations, we do not staff our embassy there.

In the Philippines, Gloria Arroyo is the daughter of Diosdado Macapagal – but his term ended in 1965, and she was elected in 2001. Hardly a hand-off.

If you said to people you can cast a secret ballot on whether to turn back the clock and have Morsi in power again, I don’t think very many people in Washington would turn back...

Rahm Emanuel seems to think he knows Israel very well, and that the way to treat that country and its democratically-elected government is the way he treats all opponents in politics: by attacking and attacking.

The war on drugs is not being won, and it continues to threaten stability and democracy not only in the Andes but throughout the Caribbean as well, where tiny police and military forces are outclassed...

The courage of the Syrian protesters is remarkable, for they face prison, torture, or death every time they lift a banner.

The early reviews of Dick Cheney’s memoir have not evaluated the book, but instead have used its publication as an occasion for attacks on Cheney and his record, with general assaults on George W. Bush’s...

Enlightened despots are mythical creatures; real despots seem more interested in stealing money or installing their sons after them.

The Assad regime is quite reliant on oil exports.

Egypt needs law and order in Sinai to save the tourist industry in Sharm el-Sheik and prevent the area from becoming a base for terrorists that will target Egypt itself, as well as Jordan and...

The U.S. has the power to block all anti-Israel moves in the Security Council, not just some of them, and to do so without agreeing to unfair, damaging compromises.

Now in its third year in office, the Obama Administration has never championed the cause of human rights. Its slow reaction in June 2009 to the stealing of the election in Iran and the birth...

Like all forms of collective security, multilateral sanctions require a unanimity rarely achieved in international politics.