Monthly Archives: June 2012
What Should We Make of Iranian Anti-Semitism?
On Wednesday the New York Times ran a fascinating piece authored by Thomas Erdbrink, dateline Tehran, under the title “Iran’s Vice President Makes Anti-Semitic Speech at Forum.” The twelve-paragraph article describes the remarks of Iranian Vice President Mohammad-Reza Rahimi at … Continue reading
Turkey Mulls Response to Syria
All the newspapers reported the Syrian downing of a Turkish military jet yesterday off the Syrian coast. And all the papers as well as the electronic media have reported the joint Syrian–Turkish effort to locate the pilots, and the various … Continue reading
In Syria, Annan Has Only One Bullet—and It’s a Blank
Jim Hoagland’s commentary on Kofi Annan and his Syria peace mission is worth a brief remark. Hoagland defends Annan’s tactics, which he associates with the “Yemeni variant” method of getting rid of Bashir al-Assad. The key, Hoagland contends, is not … Continue reading
The Real Problem with Security Leaks
In my last post, I mentioned finding relatively few nits to pick with the Times and Post coverage of Egypt last weekend. That wasn’t the case, however, with one of yesterday’s op-eds, the one by David Ignatius discussing the nature … Continue reading
NYT, WaPo Get It Mostly Right on Egypt, Libya
I had planned to spend most of yesterday, Sunday, working in the garden, particularly harvesting and culling our plums. I have three trees: two standard purple, and one golden blush Japanese hybrid. But it got hot, I got most of … Continue reading
Three Cheers for Serviceable Hypocrisy
In response to my most recent post, one of my loyal readers (my only loyal reader, for all I know) asked me to expound on the U.S. policy implications of what is going on in Egypt. I was going to … Continue reading
In Egypt, the Stage Is Set for Some Real Drama
One of the commenters in my last post criticized me for misunderstanding the situation in Egypt. I stood accused of exaggerating the revolutionary reality of the post-Mubarak period. Apparently, this commentator is unaware of what I have written about Egypt … Continue reading
Still More of the Same—and Something New
Yesterday’s events in Egypt are more of the same, but in this case really something new. The dissolution of the parliament confirms beyond all doubt the contention made here in February 2010 that the Egyptian military would not cede power … Continue reading
The Muddled East [Updated]
The news from the region over the past few days constitutes, as always, more of the same and yet something new. Let me take you on a selective tour, ending with the most attention-arresting story of our time—Syria. Of all … Continue reading
More Fish?
By far the biggest political story of the weekend, and one likely to be with us in one form or another for a while, concerns Administration leaks of sensitive national security matters (mainly) to the New York Times. The basics … Continue reading
