It’s often noted that the most hawkish elements in squabbling countries unwittingly enable and support each other. The stand-off between the United States and Iran illustrates this perfectly.
Tensions between the countries date back decades, of course, beginning with the U.S.-instigated overthrow of Mohammed Mossadegh and his democratically elected government in 1953 Read More
It was billed as a United Nations conference on racism, but few thoughtful people were fooled by the packaging. What’s going on in Geneva this week is nothing less than a forum for Israel’s enemies, who soil the noble efforts of legitimate anti-racists with their hated-filled screeds.
It goes without saying that the United States Read More
Earlier this year, at the Arab League Summit in Damascus, when Muammar Qaddafi’s turn came at the lectern, he launched into a spirited and fiery criticism, a rant, really, directed at his fellow Arabs, specifically on the issue of Palestine and Israel. “Whatever happened to the cause (Palestinian) we had before 1967?” he asked his Read More
Beneath the bluster—Iranian patrol boats reportedly playing chicken with U.S. warships; President Bush’s statements about “containing” Iran—there’s a significant shift under way in the relationship between Iran and the United States. And nearly everyone is missing it.
In the first week of January 2008, as most Americans were focused on the presidential campaign and Read More
"Under Governor Spitzer's plan, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad could have skipped out on his visa and gotten a New York license."
That's what Republican congressional candidate Richard Wager of upstate New York said in a public statement just now. His goal is to get the freshman Democrat in the area, Kirsten Gillibrand, to Read More
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran is America’s most recent favorite person to hate, even more so this week because of what many Americans (including the president, presidential candidates, and even Scott Pelley of 60 Minutes) consider the audaciousness of his request to visit Ground Zero while on his now yearly trip to New York.
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The loud, angry and sterile debate over the Iranian president’s visit to Columbia University raises a more serious problem that has long confounded American policymakers: How to cope with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s real masters, the corrupt regime of mullahs who determine both foreign and domestic policy in Iran. Their rule has meant awful suffering for the Read More
In an interview just now with Brian Lehrer, Barack Obama was asked once again to square his position that he would not have invited Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak at Columbia, with his oft-stated assertion that he would meet with him if elected president.
Obama answered by saying that his job as Read More
It all came out alright in the end. After days of tabloid fury and protests on-and-off campus about the visit of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Columbia University, the event itself was an unexpected success.
That outcome had much less to do with the remarks of the Iranian leader than with the contribution of Columbia Read More
The atmosphere was somewhere between that of a political protest and a carnival on the Columbia campus as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s speech drew closer.
Opponents and supporters of Mr. Ahmadinejad’s right to speak stood check by jowl on the steps of Columbia’s library as they waited for his scheduled 1:30 address, as a crowd of Read More
