For the entire first term, Obama and his people blamed Bush for everything – which is another way of saying they felt Bush and the Bush years were the inescapable reference point for everything they...

Two presidents pursued human rights policies that were serious and effective: Reagan and George W. Bush. They understood that American support for human rights activists is a moral imperative for us and also makes the...

The story of the Jews in the Bible is replete with incidents of their ingratitude to God for His gifts to them: incidents that just as repeatedly merit and receive punishment.

The Sandinistas are dedicated Communists, and if they are going to make a compromise with democracy, it’s going to be under pressure.

The raids on Freedom House, the National Democratic Institute and International Republican Institute, the Adenauer Foundation, and other groups helping Egyptians move toward respect for democratic politics and human rights were of a piece with...

There is no way around the contradictions and dangers inherent in Israel’s decision to free over 1,000 prisoners in order to liberate Gilad Shalit.

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned, it seems, to direct the Middle East policy of the Obama administration.

Israel and the Palestinians had been at the table together for decades until the Obama/Mitchell/Rahm Emanuel decision to demand a total end to Israeli construction froze not the settlements but the diplomacy.

The intersection of religion and world politics has often been a bloody crossroads.

During most of the Bush administration, human rights and democracy in Egypt were on the front burner.

Pessimism is rife in Israel.

In Arab capitals, the failure of the United States to stop Iran’s nuclear program is understood as American weakness in the struggle for dominance in the Middle East, making additional cooperation from Arab leaders on...

Four years is a long time in politics.

On June 19, 1981, a vigorously healthy Justice Potter Stewart resigned from the Supreme Court at the age of 66.

President Obama has never summarized the Obama Doctrine with such clarity, but here is what it would look like: ‘I will undertake any military attack against our enemies, regardless of the risks and collateral damage,...

The Arab view that someone should bomb Iran and stop it from developing nuclear weapons is familiar to anyone who meets privately with Arab leaders, especially in the Gulf.

On taking office in 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama put Israeli settlements at the center of U.S. policy in the Middle East.

Never fight turf on turf. Fight it on the basis of ideas.

Being an Arab leader has its rewards: the suite at the Waldorf-Astoria during the United Nations General Assembly, travel in your own plane, plenty of cash, even job security – whether kings, sheiks or presidents,...

I never said I had no idea about most of the things you said I said I had no idea about.

The Fayyad cabinet may well be the best the Palestinians ever get. But whatever its good qualities, there is no democracy.

Gadhafi has established no national institutions, not even allowing a fake parliament of the Mubarak or Ben Ali variety that could perhaps be turned into something real.

What does ‘politicizing intelligence’ mean? Using intel, or more often, partial intel, to produce an effect in line with White House policies rather than giving a full picture of a particular situation.

Thousands of members of Congress have come and gone over the years, their individual achievements hidden in committee reports, private compromises, amendments pushed through or blocked, and innumerable, unnoticed meetings.

The U.A.E. is a firm ally of the United States and deserves better treatment than it received in the Dubai Ports World fiasco in 2006.

The ultimate goal is to change Syria’s behaviour on a variety of issues – on its interference in Lebanese internal affairs, on its support for Palestinian terrorist groups that oppose the Palestinian Authority, on, most...

There’s always Tunisia. Amid the smoking ruins of the Middle East, there is that one encouraging success story.

Times change. Cable news and the Internet alone have transformed the way outreach to the American people can be accomplished.

Israel bombed the Syrian nuclear reactor in 2007. What the Syrians did in response, nothing. Israel has killed a number of terrorist leaders in Syria. Response? Nothing.

Al Qaeda’s message that violence, terrorism and extremism are the only answer for Arabs seeking dignity and hope is being rejected each day in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Bahrain and throughout the Arab lands.

Honduras was the original ‘banana republic,’ and its poverty remains extreme.

The Egyptian military and the government of Israel have long had a common interest in maintaining order and fighting terrorism in Sinai.

It was simply impossible to support Carter for reelection in 1980 and easy for me to support Reagan. The Reagan campaign was happy to have Democratic support, and the Reagan administration was happy to have...

Huge numbers of embassy cables are labeled ‘unclassified’ or ‘limited official use’ and deal with mundane matters.

People are entitled to believe the government is constantly lying to them, but it isn’t.

The Obama administration appears to regard intelligence leaks and briefings more or less like briefings by the Democratic National Committee or White House flack Jay Carney. You use any information at hand, classified or not,...

The Assad regime has lost the consent of the governed, and it is difficult to see how a replacement Alawite regime would be able to regain this consent.

At Guantanamo Bay, we could create a West Berlin, a free small city within the Communist nation that could trade freely with the U.S. and elect its own officials.

Obama is like the kid brother whose only standard for judging his own achievements is the records his big brother set.

From its earliest days in the nineteenth century, and until the Holocaust, the Orthodox rabbinate in eastern Europe was not enthusiastic about the Zionist movement, which at the time was led by irreligious Jews.

The debate over same sex ‘marriage’ has engaged the heartfelt feelings and convictions of millions of Americans.

The Pope is not a political figure.

George McGovern and his supporters committed what, in a two-party system, are capital crimes: they did not compromise, they took hard ideological positions, they alienated a large portion of their party’s traditional supporters, and they...

While Argentina, Brazil, and Chile – what in textbooks used to be called the ABC countries – seem settled into democratic politics and free market economics, the Andean countries are in disarray.

Denmark has long been regarded as one of the world’s most attractive nations, for citizens and tourists alike. My own visits there, years ago as a student, were delightful.

There is no softer target in GOP primaries than the United Nations and foreign-aid spending.

The United States and its Gulf allies, some of who are actively funding rebel groups in Syria, should undertake a serious joint review of Jordan’s needs and then act together to meet them.

You can easily see why the experience of Jews would be helpful if you’re looking to get action on religious persecution.

Tunisia is small – just ten million, no great natural resources.

It is a keen measure of the fall of American influence in the region when a Palestinian leader responds to intense American pressure to go to the negotiating table by waiting to see if Arab...