No second place

As reported at the Washington Independent and NYTimes, an American Army officer in Baghdad has written a memo that recommends the US declare victory in Iraq and come home. The author paints a bleak picture of Iraqi security forces. I just got off the phone with retired US Army Gen. Jack Keane, an influential advisor to the military and a key advocate for the “surge” in Iraq. Keane thinks the memo is overly harsh. I asked him how comfortable he is with the timetable for the US pull-out of Iraq. And here’s his answer.  //2:31

One more thing. I told Keane – who’s from Brooklyn – that I wished the Yankees best of luck this season in their quest to secure second place in the American League. “They’re certainly not comin’ in second,” he said.

American Influence Pocast #24

The American Influence podcast has a new home, sort of, at The World’s main website. That’s where I’ll be posting as each new episode comes to life. Thanks for listening!

BTW… www.theworld.org/politics will get you there too.

Bring back W.

Great way to spark conversation. But (to quote The Onion) holy fucking shit! Bring in George W. Bush as special US envoy in the Middle East? Gregory Levey is apparently not kidding.

Inbox rage

Jeffrey Goldberg will be posting some of the angry emails at his blog today that he’s getting for criticizing Israel’s failure to reign in the settlers. The thing is, hasn’t Israel refrained from enforcing its own laws on settlements for years?

Talk to Israel already!

Israelis are uneasy with Barack Obama’s approach on the Middle East. Why? Partly because he hasn’t yet turned on the charm for the Israeli public through a focused PR effort. This is what Aluf Benn argues in today’s NYTimes. He’s not the only one urging Obama to get to work now persuading Israelis that he’s got their best interests in mind as the president goes about trying to resurrect the long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian and Israeli-Arab conflicts. I asked David Makovsky about this yesterday. And while he’s skeptical about the wisdom of the Obama administration picking a very public fight with Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, Makovsky said now probably isn’t the time for Obama to start trying to win over Israeli hearts and minds. That’s because the message would be lost or at least muddled by the fact that the US and Israel are still at loggerheads over the issue of freezing settlement growth. The idea here, wait until that rift is mended. Then the president can start working his rhetorical magic.

There’s a game of chicken going on. And the question is, does this make Obama nervous. Benn writes:

Mr. Netanyahu enjoys a virtual domestic consensus over his rejection of the settlement freeze. Moreover, he has succeeded in portraying Mr. Obama as a shaky ally. In Mr. Netanyahu’s narrative, the president has fallen under the influence of top aides — in this case Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod — whom the prime minister has called “self-hating Jews.” Meanwhile, Mr. Netanyahu is the defender of national glory in face of unfair pressure, someone who sticks to the first commandment of Israeli culture: thou shalt never be the freier (that is, the dupe).

UPDATE: Jeffrey Goldberg has some White House reaction to Benn’s op-ed.

Saying no to Israel

Celestine Bohlen at the New York Times applauds Barack Obama’s decision to say no to Israel regarding settlement expansion.

“The stalemate in the Middle East needs a new approach.”

Obama’s Middle East agenda

Robert Gates, James Jones, Dennis Ross and George Mitchell are all descending on the Middle East in the span of a few days to talk about Iran and the Israeli-Palestinian-Arab conflict. The Obama administration seemed intent to keep the Israelis on board with the Obama timeline for dealing with Iran’s nuclear program: get talks started in the next couple of months and show some progress by the end of the year. And there’s no sign yet of a breakthrough on settlements.What’s at stake for Obama and the Israeli prime minister?

Ultra-Orthodox Settlers in the West Bank – Video Library – The New York Times

Great video here from an ultra-Orthodox Jewish settlement in the West Bank that doesn’t fit the stereotypical image of settlers.

more about "Ultra-Orthodox Settlers in the West B…", posted with vodpod

Spinning the settlements

Great story on the NYTimes front page today about the West Bank settlements and how ultra-Orthodox Jews fit into this sticky issue the Obama administration and the Isareli government of Benjamin Netanyahu. President Obama seems to have rattled the Israelis by calling for a total freeze on settlement growth. As a result, the new American president is not very popular in Israel.  Several experts I’ve talked with think the president went too far in calling for a freeze that includes both the Israeli capital of Jerusalem and those settlements that sit close to the old green line that divided Israel from the West Bank before 1967. But not everyone is buying the Israeli government’s line that says Obama is being unfair – and even racist – by demanding a freeze. Self-described friend of neocons, Jeffrey Goldberg says he ain’t fooled.

And if you missed it, here’s my story that aired on Friday about “selling” the settlements.

Settlements rhetoric

Finally getting my radio piece on today about how the Israeli have framed (or spun) the issue of expanding West Bank settlements.

This link will go live after about 5 PM today; the story follows interview about US-Syrian relations with Joshua Landis of the Univ. of Oklahoma.

In the meantime, check out Laura Rozen’s latest post on this stuff.