My much-alluded-to essay in the National meditating on the flotilla raid, Netanyahu’s coalition, Israel’s illiberal bent, American evangelicals, and Dan Senor’s Start-Up Nation — a long essay that proved to be the scourge of my vacation — is now out. Special guest appearance from President Obama: A generation ago, Norman Podhoretz and Irving Kristol, two [...]

THE BEACH — So I’m going to break a promise to myself because of the enormity of the Gaza flotilla raid. This Andrew Exum post does a great job of framing several important currents in Israel and the U.S.-Israeli relationship. I want to try to connect them. First is a point about strategy. Since the collapse [...]

Can you really blame Benjamin Netanyahu from bailing on President Obama’s nuclear security summit? Look at it from his point of view: you govern one of the only undeclared nuclear powers, which for decades has declared itself disinterested in joining the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Meanwhile, here’s your one indispensable global ally places nuclear nonproliferation at [...]

Look, obviously we’re meddling in Afghan governance. We have invested tens of billions of dollars, 1000 lives and will soon have 100,000 troops in Afghanistan. We bolster subnational governance and ministerial performance; seek to influence agricultural production; and we’re building a security infrastructure. Call it appropriate or inappropriate. It exists. So just because Hamid Karzai [...]

I am very happy the Washington Independent let me run this headline for a post about the frigidity emerging from yesterday’s Obama-Netanyahu meeting. The question becomes: is Obama Gucci or is he Jeezy?

As I type, Chuck Schumer is talking to the AIPAC conference. He recounted a story about how in the 1980s, he and his wife hosted a dinner party featuring Benjamin Netanyahu, then the Israeli ambassador to Washington. For some strange reason, Netanyahu explained Israeli price controls by shaking up a bottle of soda and spraying [...]

For the first time since I’ve been in Washington, I’ve wanted to cover a speech made at the AIPAC annual conference. These are the first considered remarks made by the Obama administration and the Netanyahu government since the Biden Jerusalem Insult. What Secretary Clinton will say, and how Prime Minister Netanyahu will at-least-implicitly respond, will [...]

I’ll be at AIPAC’s conference on Monday to cover Secretary Clinton’s address, but I noticed something on the conference roster that reminded me of a point that may not have broken through the debate during this current U.S.-Israel discomfort. Here’s the lead-in for one of the panel sessions: Since becoming Israel’s prime minister last year, [...]

Secretary Clinton’s upcoming AIPAC speech is going to be a must-watch. Look at how she intensifies her rebuke to Prime Minister Netanyahu in this interview with Andrea Mitchell: QUESTION: …here you are with the Middle East just beginning to approach negotiations and Israel announces an expansion of settlements. It was really a slap in the [...]

I get invited to things, including this upcoming lecture hosted by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy: As proximity peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians begin this week, Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu has spoken of the need to preserve his state’s Jewish, democratic character. In doing so, he has sought Arab acknowledgment of [...]