By Kevin Baker 9/18/12 7:40pm

opinion

Photoillo by Ed Johnson

The Romney Camp’s Reckless Middle East Foreign Policy

“A Fool lies here who tried to hustle the East.”
—Rudyard Kipling

At last, Mitt Romney has told us one specific thing he intends to do as president: get weapons to al-Qaeda.

Trying to salvage a week of self-evisceration on foreign policy from the Republican presidential nominee, his leading foreign policy advisors, Eliot Cohen and Richard Williamson, told The New York Times last Friday just what a President Romney would do differently in the Middle East. Their critique included the insistence that President Obama “engage” the rebels in Syria. According to the Times, they did “[stop] short of saying that the United States should provide lethal arms” but favored “facilitating” the provision of lethal arms from other Arab states.” Read More

By The Editors 3/07/12 11:21am

opinion

Mr. Obama and Israel

Not for the first time, Barack Obama said all the right things at the AIPAC dinner over the weekend. All of the expected words and sentiments were out in force—tributes to the enduring friendship between the two nations, reassurances of shared goals and acknowledgments of common strategic interests. Read More

By The Editors 5/31/11 11:44pm

Editorial

No Better Friend Than Israel

“Israel has no better friend than America, and America has no better friend than Israel,” the prime minister said. “We stand together to defend democracy. We stand together to advance peace. We stand together to fight terrorism.”

These are indisputable facts, but they bear repeating from time to time. Mr. Netanyahu reminded Americans that as Read More

By The Editors 5/24/11 10:28pm

Editorial

Barack Obama: No Friend of Israel

In demanding that Israel retreat to its pre-1967 borders as a starting point for negotiations with the Palestinians, President Obama confirmed what many have suspected for some time: he is not a friend of Israel.

No friend, no true ally, would ask another state to put its very existence in jeopardy. But that is precisely Read More

By Jason Horowitz 6/09/09 9:55pm

Obama Redefines the Debate for New York’s Israel Boosters

Barack Obama is changing what it means to be a pro-Israel politician in America.

That much is obvious from the unusually thoughtful, nuanced and varied reactions by officials in New York—the world capital of Israel-boosterism—to his criticisms of the Netanyahu government’s settlement policies.

“I think Obama feels that this type of shock Read More