Iran State TV station FARS announced Saturday morning that four American dual-nationality prisoners were released from Iranian custody in a “prisoner swap” with the United States.
China’s drive in international markets to replace the dollar and become the reserve currency globally has a lot to do with their strategic plans. It’s not just about pure economics. There is a fascinating piece in Germany’s Der Spiegel which
Hundreds of thousands of people crammed into Tahrir Square in Cairo Tuesday demanding the ouster of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Estimates of the crowd ranged from 200,000 to the organizers’ goal of 1 million people – news reports described the
The best analysis I’ve see so far of what the future holds in Egypt comes from Benny Morris at the National Interest. He rightfully points out that Hosni Mubarak is done and in the short-term the political center of gravity
Israel’s Antagonists Never Give Up First came WikiLeak’s revelations that Arab leaders were way more worried about an Iranian H-bomb than they were about the “Palestinians.” Indeed, they implored the USA and/or Israel to attack Iran and blow the mullah’s
Report: President Obama’s special envoy delivered a message to embattled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Tuesday about the need to prepare for an “orderly transition” of power in the country, a U.S. official said. Word of the meeting between retired
We want to believe that the FBI is made up of the good guys. And often they are. But a new report shows why we should be concerned about the concentration of government power, even when collected in the name
“Israel is waking up to a new reality in the Middle East; one that’s becoming less stable, more dangerous – a reality that isn’t encouraging at all,” former Israeli defense minister Shaul Mofaz said Sunday of the violence sweeping Egypt
A writer in Israel gets it right. It might be easier for the radicals to take over in Egypt now than it was for Khomeini in Iran back in 1979. Be sure to read the whole thing. “It would be
The Egyptian multitudes on the streets of Cairo are a stunning sight. With their banners calling for freedom and an end to the reign of President Hosni Mubarak the story these images tell is a simple one as old as
“Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;” Growing up among sleepy citrus groves near Clearwater, Florida in the 60’s and 70’s, I spent many hours immersed in stories and images of the
The protests against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak show little sign of relenting. The dismissal of the previous government, and swearing in of new ministers Monday did little to assuage those demanding Mubarak’s ouster. There are calls for 1 million people
Apartheid. If there is an 800 lb. gorilla looming over the legacy of colonialism, apartheid is a prime candidate for it. That it qualifies as morally evil is debatable only by invoking cultural relativism, which out of ideological prejudice hypocritically
Recent events in China suggest that the country’s leaders are being duplicitous, but that’s really nothing new. When U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates arrived in China a couple of weeks ago, he was surprised to see China’s latest alleged
This is the place where you can cut through all the hype and chatter on the current unrest in Egypt. Barry Rubin is the guy who literally wrote the book, The Muslim Brotherhood. Today on Frank Gaffney’s Secure Freedom Radio,
Citing–wait for it–actual data, I explained this AM (Monday 1/31/11) on America’s Morning News radio Show with John McCaslin and Amy Holmes why the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood’s traditional Islam resonates with the Muslim mainstream in Egypt. A cogent rebuttal of
AP photo: Supporters of Pakistani religious party Jamat-e-Islami chant slogans behind a banner reading, “Hang the American killer of innocents” in Islamabad, Pakistan. — In 2007, Pakistan possessed between 30 to 60 nukes. Now, according to reports, it has doubled
Consolidation of power, under one banner… CAIRO (AP) – Police and garbage collectors are appearing on the streets of Cairo and subway stations are reopening after soldiers and neighborhood watch groups armed with clubs and machetes kept the peace in
The “authoritatively” Jew-hating late Muslim Pope, Sheikh Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi, with the witless Karen Hughes Female genital mutilation–sanctioned by Shafiite Islamic Law–remains rampant (97% of women thus mutilated) in Egypt In follow-up to my earlier posting about widespread Egyptian Muslim
Elbaradei, the presumptive Egyptian president-in-waiting and former head of the IAEA nuclear inspection agency at the U.N., has made his position on nuclear proliferation absolutely clear in a joint press conference in Tehran in October 2009 with Iranian Atomic Energy
Some of the Western press is treating the riots in Egypt as a blessed event. “A new Egypt is likely to emerge from Revolution that seeks not Islam but Freedom,” gleefully proclaims the New York Sun. At the other extreme,
Maybe it will be sports that finally brings peace to the Middle East. Here’s a heart-warming story about two teams in the Israeli Football League. We’re not talking European “football” here. This is the American smash-mouth variety. (The league is
Recently I blogged elsewhere about a telling – and moving – experience I had during my daily hitchhiking commute to and from work between Jerusalem and the community of Efrat where I live, south of Bethlehem. In it I mused
We know that the Muslim Brotherhood supports the uprising in Egypt. The Obama administration does as well. Based on the release of a secret document, it’s been learned that the United States government supported the April 6 Youth Movement –
Ahmadinejad imagines a “world without America.” Nearly a decade after the attacks of 9/11, Americans remain terribly confused as to the nature of the terror threats we face. A jarring collection of disparate daily events appears to make little overall
