Michael J. Totten's Blog, page 66

What's the Blockade For?

The Israeli government has decided to ease its blockade of the Gaza Strip, earning it kudos from the United Nations and contempt from Hamas, which dismisses it as a public-relations stunt. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri accuses Israel of manipulating public opinion by allowing more goods in, but there has been no shortage of misleading [...:]

Give Me a Break

This has to be one of the biggest wastes of time I've ever heard of.

The State Department's two leading Twitterati, Special Advisor on Innovation Alec J. Ross (@alecjross) and Policy Planning staffer Jared Cohen (@jaredcohen), are in Syria this week leading a delegation of tech companies hoping to, as the Wall Street Journal's Jay Solomon [...:]

Reading Paul Berman in Kurdistan

Last month when I interviewed Paul Berman about his outstanding new book The Flight of the Intellectuals, we briefly touched on how religion and politics in the Arab world differs so radically from religion and politics in some other parts of the Muslim world.

On that note, take a look at what Dr. Sabah A. [...:]

EU Chief Warns of Dictatorships in Europe?

Good grief. I very much doubt that Europe is going this badly to hell, but the fact that it's being discussed isn't encouraging:

Democracy could 'collapse' in Greece, Spain and Portugal unless urgent action is taken to tackle the debt crisis, the head of the European Commission has warned.

In an extraordinary briefing to trade union chiefs [...:]

War and History, Ancient and Modern

I recently spoke with military historian and former classics professor Victor Davis Hanson in his office at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace at Stanford University. He is the author of more than a dozen works of history, and his new book The Father of Us All: War and History, Ancient and Modern [...:]

No One Cares About Gaza

You might think that with all the wailing and gnashing of teeth over Gaza lately, the Palestinian suffering would move people like no other cause in the world, but if so, you would be wrong. Few activists, journalists, or diplomats genuinely seem to care what those people are going through.

Consider this: Hamas, not Israel, refuses [...:]

The Middle East is Now Even More Complicated

I'm still not exactly sure what's going on inside Turkey, but I'm pretty sure Tony Badran at NOW Lebanon is right about what its new foreign policy means for the Eastern Mediterranean.

Populism in the Arab world is second nature and despite its disastrous track record, it never seems to go out of fashion. Non-Arab regional [...:]

Ten Years Ago This Would Really Have Shocked Me

But it doesn't surprise me very much now.

A survey conducted by the Boston Review in its May/June issue shows that nearly 25% of American non-Jews blame "the Jews" a moderate amount or more for the financial crisis.

Furthermore, a total of 38.4% of the non-Jews in the U.S. attribute at least some level of blame [...:]

American Exceptionalism

While much of the world howls in passionate, cynical, and sinister indignation at Israel for the flotilla incident on the Mediterranean last week, only nineteen percent of Americans blame the Jewish state for what happened.

Only 26 percent of Democrats say it's Israel's fault, along with eleven percent of Republicans, making this a fringe position [...:]

An Aid Flotilla to Turkey?

Israeli activists are planning to send a humanitarian aid flotilla to Turkey with goods for the Kurdish and Armenian minorities.

I drove through Turkish Kurdistan years ago with my friend and traveling companion Sean LaFreniere and was absolutely appalled. When we crossed the border into Iraq, respect for human rights and the standard of living increased [...:]