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By Martin Jacques
$19.77
By Tony Platt
$22.95
$22
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U.S. Embassy Tel Aviv / Matty Stern
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U.S.-Israel relations have taken another frosty turn since the announcement of 1,600 new Israeli housing units in East Jerusalem. The special American envoy to the region, George Mitchell, has indefinitely delayed a visit and the beginning of new negotiations while the U.S. waits for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to demonstrate a commitment to the peace process. But Hillary Clinton ... (continued)
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AP / Nasser Shiyoukhi
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A new round of “proximity talks” between Israel and the Palestinians may be announced as early as Monday, with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden expected to arrive in Israel on a mission to get indirect negotiations going between the two sides.
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U.S. Air Force / Staff Sgt. Angelita Lawrence
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By William Pfaff — U.N. officials and American military commanders suggest that diplomacy might be coming alive on the Afghan front, but neither the Pentagon nor the White House seems to have clearly identified what the United States wants in Afghanistan.
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White House / Pete Souza
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By William Pfaff — China and India stopped being part of what was called the “third world” when the “second world,” the communist world, disappeared in a shattering of global illusions in 1989.
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Flickr / UK in Afghanistan
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According to NATO’s newly appointed chief civilian representative, 2010 in Afghanistan will see more violence and casualties, but will also mark a turning point in the fight against the Taliban.
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News coming out of Afghanistan claims that a United Nations envoy has held secret talks in Dubai with Taliban leaders to discuss peace terms. If confirmed, the meeting would be the first ever between the U.N. and senior Taliban members.
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Flickr / mrfink
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More than a week after a row between China and Google over censorship practices, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton publicly called on Beijing to lift restrictions on Internet use, to which China responded by denouncing the criticism as “groundless.”
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China will soon become “the most powerful and influential country in the world,” says celebrated journalist Martin Jacques. But to what end?
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Flickr / Eustaquio Santimano
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Vietnam is spending billions on Russian submarines and fighter jets. Calm down, Dick Cheney. Vietnam cares more about the prawn market than World War III. The real superpower fretting over this is China. ... (continued)
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The Guardian: “An Israeli cabinet minister has turned down an invitation to visit Britain next month after he was warned he might face arrest on suspicion of war crimes.”
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Flickr / america.gov
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By Amy Goodman — “Politicians talk, leaders act” read the sign outside the Bella Center in Copenhagen on the opening day of the United Nations climate summit.
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payvand.com
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Iran seems to enjoy its nuclear swagger. Tehran has now approved construction of 10 uranium enrichment plants, a remarkable development given that a U.N. watchdog agency demanded last week that Iran cease construction of a previously secret enrichment facility.
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By William Pfaff — I have never understood the widely touted idea or assumption of China-U.S. equality or partnership or joint rule of the world or superpower partnership that has dominated the press coverage of Barack Obama’s trip to Asia.
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White House / Pete Souza
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By William Pfaff — Who would have thought a year ago that most of the issues of conflict in America’s foreign relations would be made worse during the first year following Barack Obama’s election as U.S. president?
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By William Pfaff — The international conversation since the Second World War tended to be something of an American monologue, but that’s changing now that the United States is widely perceived as a large part of the current world problem.
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Flickr / Addictive Picasso
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China and India, which together represent well over a third of the world’s population, will be negotiating in concert at the upcoming climate summit in Copenhagen. The two booming economies produce most of the developing world’s CO2, but they’ve also made big commitments—China especially—to ... (continued)
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payvand.com
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Prodded by the U.S., Russia and France at talks in Vienna, Iranian negotiators have agreed to carry back to Tehran a proposed deal that would see Iran ship out most of its enriched uranium—the stuff of nuclear weapons—to Russia.
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By William Pfaff — Other than the United States, Turkey has probably been the most important of Israel’s allies, but now it is getting the “freedom fries” treatment.
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trt.net.tr
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A Turkish television series, “Separation,” caused a diplomatic clash between Turkey and Israel after an episode this week portrayed an Israeli soldier shooting and killing a Palestinian baby. The fictional scene was shown on Israeli television Wednesday and drew criticism from Israel’s foreign minister Thursday.
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Still image: AP via YouTube
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All but one of the five judges who picked President Barack Obama as the recipient of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize sounded off on Tuesday about their decision, noting Obama’s less-than-jubilant initial reaction to the announcement and shedding more light on the reasons behind their choice, which one judge reported was unanimous.
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pvld.mobi
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Despite a last-minute hitch, Turkey and Armenia signed an agreement normalizing relations. The accord comes almost a century after the killing of hundreds of thousands of Armenians in 1915, an action for which Turkey denies responsibility. Under the agreement, a panel of independent historians will study the genocide issue.
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Perhaps Geir Lundestad, head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, knew that there would be questions about President Barack Obama’s Peace Prize win, but regardless, he’s ready for the biggest one—why Obama?—in this interview conducted and posted by his Nobel colleagues on Friday.
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White House / Pete Souza
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The Nobel Committee has interrupted the president’s meditations on whether to escalate the war in Afghanistan by awarding him the Peace Prize. The committee cited Obama’s “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples” and especially his “vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.”
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Flickr / ilkerender
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The New York Philharmonic was all set to fly into Cuba and jam, until the Treasury Department decided the patrons footing the bill couldn’t go. That’s pretty insulting to Cuba, considering that the same posse of musicians and rich people was cleared for a trip to North Korea.
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By William Pfaff — God’s specific instruction to the Jewish people to reoccupy Jerusalem and the Palestinian West Bank stands in the way of peace, but President Obama must get results—and fast—before the situation deteriorates.
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By Amy Goodman — Manuel Zelaya, the democratically elected president of Honduras, is back in his country after being deposed in a military coup June 28.
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White House / Pete Souza
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Dashing the president’s hopes to restart the peace process, Palestinian leaders said they would not talk to Israel until there is a “total settlement freeze.” Obama has been pushing for just that, but recently indicated a willingness to compromise. In the words of one Fatah leader: “I would say, Mr. Obama, we love you ... but I am sorry, this is not enough. ...”
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State Department / Michael Gross
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The Honduran Supreme Court just stuck its tongue out at the rest of the world, which has been waiting patiently for the country’s coup leaders to restore lawfully elected and promptly ousted Manuel Zalaya to the presidency. A carefully negotiated deal would have hit the reset button and called for early elections, but the court wasn’t interested. It doesn’t help that the U.S. has softened its position.
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AP / Yonhap
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Did Bill Clinton shake something loose during his recent visit to Pyongyang? No, Kim Jong Il’s overtures to his southern neighbors this week are the legacy of Kim Dae-jung, the former president and first modern South Korean leader to visit the North. Kim died Tuesday. He survived political persecution and attempted assassination to cross the neutral zone and step into history.
Posted on Aug 19, 2009
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State Department
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Hillary Clinton’s presidential run thrived on her appeal to women. Now the secretary of state wants to give something back to the finer sex—and not just in America. Women’s rights will top her agenda everywhere she goes, and, in order to elevate them, everywhere she goes she’ll meet with women who “may not even be known by their own leaders,” she explains to
The Washington Post.
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salon.com
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Sen. Jim Webb is the first senior U.S. official in more than 10 years to visit Burma, triggering speculation that the White House may be trying to nudge the authoritarian regime there into a “new era of engagement.” The trip follows the recent ludicrous sentencing of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi to 18 more months of house arrest.
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Flickr / hoyasmeg
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A leaked memo from Israel’s consul general in Boston, Nadav Tamir, has Israel’s extremist foreign minister calling for the diplomat’s resignation. Tamir wrote in an internal document that his government’s settlement policy has led to “the feeling in Washington that Obama has to deal with obstinacy from the governments of Iran, North Korea and Israel.”
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cubaheadlines.com
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After vexing Cuban officials (and citizens, no doubt) for three years, a U.S. government-sponsored electronic billboard that featured news and information blips tailored for a Cuban audience from an American-friendly angle has been switched off in the interest of changing the diplomatic tone between the two countries.
Posted on Jul 27, 2009
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USMC / Lance Cpl. James Purschwitz
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After eight years of getting nowhere in Afghanistan, U.S. and British forces have decided to open negotiations with “second-tier” Taliban leaders. Those would be local bigwigs, as opposed to Mullah Omar and friends.
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Flickr / Center for American Progress Action Fund
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Break one lousy elbow and those gossipy Washington types are ready to pronounce you politically dead. Hillary Clinton has been taking it easy for a month while she recovers, opening the door for scrutiny as to her importance in the Obama administration. There are just so many heavies chirping in the president’s ear, they say. (More after the jump)
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White House / Lawrence Jackson
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President Obama says he is concerned about violence directed at protesters, but does not want “to be seen as meddling in Iranian elections.” He also warns that the “difference between Ahmadinejad and Mousavi in terms of their actual policies may not be as great as has been advertised.”
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AP photo / Ben Curtis
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By Scott Ritter — The protests in Iran have captured the imagination of Western media, but the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad should come as no surprise. The world needs to move past the controversy of the Iranian elections and, like him or not, find a way to deal with President Ahmadinejad and his nuclear ambitions.
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The president called his landmark address to the Muslim world “A New Beginning,” and for good reason.
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DoD / SSGT. Lono Kollars
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After a three-decade ban, U.S. embassies will be allowed to invite Iranian officials to come celebrate America’s declaration of independence from Britain and its overpriced tea. Substantive conversations still aren’t allowed, but the BBC reports that “small talk” is a go.
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By William Pfaff — Next week President Barack Obama travels to Cairo to deliver what is expected to be a major statement on relations between the United States and the Islamic world, but informed skeptics predict his new approach to the region will resemble the late months of the Bush administration.
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Petar Pismestrovic, Kleine Zeitung, Austria —
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Flickr / Foreign and Commonwealth Office
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U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said both sides in Sri Lanka’s civil war “grossly disregarded the fundamental principle of the inviolability of civilians.” She has called for an “independent and credible international investigation,” although she’s up against the notoriously impotent U.N. Human Rights Council and a bristling Sri Lankan government.
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By William Pfaff — The basic question is whether the United States wishes to treat Russia as a permanent enemy, even if it is not. The result of treating states as enemies is that sooner or later they become them.
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Left: Flickr / realjameso16; right: World Economic Forum
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President Obama and newly elected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will have their first meeting in a few weeks, a test of the special relationship between two countries that are now led by men with very different ideas about how to pursue peace in the Middle East.
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By Marie Cocco — History demands an investigation into U.S. torture. We have a contemporary model for how to conduct a politically sensitive inquiry properly, without undue theatrics and with respect for classified information. It is the 9/11 commission.
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By William Pfaff — If Obama had wanted to give the NATO allies prudent advice about how to avoid terrorist attacks, he should have told them to have nothing to do with the American war on terror, even if it is now under Obama management.
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