If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
The Blog
An absence of imaginative, strategic diplomacy as the year-long crisis in Syria unfolded has caught the U.S. with dwindling options as the oxymoronic UN ceasefire collapses. Consequences abound as a result for U.S. interests across the region.
While it is important for both Washington and its anti-Assad allies to ready a contingency "Plan B" in case the peace effort does fail -- just having one in reserve can deter the Damascus authorities from aborting the peace initiative -- the "Friends" should not be in unseemly haste to bury it alive.
Any Israeli attack on Iran would violate established principles of international law because Israel has not suffered an Iranian armed attack and is unable to prove that such an Iranian attack is imminent.
For all intents and purposes, Syria has turned into the battleground between the forces of moderation and the forces of extremism in the Middle East.
When a nation's rule of law has broken down completely, the international community needs to know exactly how and when to step in to prevent human rights violations from occurring. The ongoing conflict in Syria has pointed out just how far we are from truly fulfilling our Responsibility to Protect.
Official Washington has been rife with condemnation at the decision by the governments of Russia and China to veto an otherwise unanimous UN Security ...
"How many more dead and maimed will it take to finally force this Council into action?"
Today, Russia finds itself in a state of calculated siege, emerging through the new semi-alliance between the Americans -- and the West in general -- and the Islamists. The Barack Obama administration seems to be at the forefront of this new alliance.
Diplomacy is a shadowy and unpredictable business, but one thing is certain. If Russia uses its veto this week to block a second UN Security Council resolution on Syria, innocent people will die.
It's high time to toss aside diplomatic niceties and place Russia in the diplomatic stockade for its sheltering of the illegitimate Bashar al-Assad from global wrath.
Civilian harm should never be ignored, but neither should it be politicized in a way that diverts attention from real recognition.
Perhaps Syrians may be asking for the impossible from the West, but they deserve what is realistically possible and that is considerably more than what they are getting now.
Since spring, a wind of change has been blowing through the Arab world. Last week it again reached the shores of Turtle Bay. But this time it turned into a sudden chill.
The speeches from Mahmoud Abbas and Benjamin Netanyahu illustrated the gulf between Israelis and Palestinians -- a fear their existence is at stake and widely disparate accounts of a painful shared history.
The question is whether the onus would be put on the U.S. to cast a veto and why the Palestinians would want to put Washington on the spot when there is nothing to gain and much to lose.
Like Friedman, I feel terrible about all this. And I'm not alone. Most people who care about Israel understand that it can only survive if it ends the occupation and supports establishment of a Palestinian state.
