by Paul Mutter
The “Sheldon Primary” is how casino mogul Sheldon Adelson showcases his political clout in the United States. As Jim Lobe reports, Israel was the main issue on the table for the line of Republican hopefuls who came to Las Vegas this weekend to curry favor with the pro-Israel billionaire [...]
via Lobe Log
President Barack Obama will nominate former Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel for Defense Secretary to replace Leon Panetta, according to Democratic officials.
Politico predicts that “is likely to ignite a raucous confirmation battle.”
The AP meanwhile reports that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will be taking a wait and see [...]
via Lobe Log
Politico has the scoop on an expensive advertisement funded by a mideast-focused hawkish advocacy group featuring an aggressive speech that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made on Sept. 11. The ad is scheduled to air in several cities in Florida tomorrow, where the Jewish vote [...]
More than thirty years of enmity and deteriorating relations between the U.S. and Iran aren’t going to go away overnight — or over two meetings, maybe four, five, ten. It will take time.
So one thing to be heartened by is just the fact that Iran and the P5+1 countries, including the U.S., are sitting [...]
I was struck by an article by Nathan Guttman in the legendary Jewish Daily Forward about Dennis Ross and George Mitchell jockeying for the position of Obama Administration’s point-person in the Middle East peace process. The whole thing is a fascinating read, but this line really jumped out at me:
Others have [...]
There’s been a little bit of a sideshow setting up this year’s CPAC confab.
Arch-Islamophobe Frank Gaffney was booted from the Conservative Political Action Conference agenda. At Religion Dispatches, Sarah Posner spoke with Suhail Khan, a Muslim conservative and board member of the group that hosts the annual CPAC, who said:
“Frank has been [...]
Does the selection of Iran’s nuclear czar as its new (interim) foreign minister say anything about nuclear negotiations between Iran and the West? We don’t really know, and given that the next round of talks is only a month away, we might not know until news breaks from Istanbul.
Let’s get caught up with [...]
Two days of talks between Iran and the P5+1 — the permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany — came to a close on Tuesday in Geneva. It’s no surprise that there was no agreement, given how far apart the sides started off. Incoming report indicate there was progress as both sides made [...]
Columbia professor and Iran expert Gary Sick offers a simple reason why U.S. President Barack Obama’s engagement plan with Iran has thus far failed: “It has yet to be tried.”
In our IPS piece, Jim Lobe and I quoted much of this portion of Sick’s blogged reactions to the lastest WikiLeaks document dump:
[...]
En Español
The Latest
From IPS News
- Revival of Hope: How a Remote Indian Village Overcame Water Scarcity
- Ahead of UN Summit of the Future, Mobilizing Youth for Change
- The Kids of the Islamic State: A Childhood Stolen
- The Gambia Must Not Repeal FGM Ban
- Global Governance: Time for Reform
- Abandoned Children Growing Problem in Northern Syria
- IMF Urges Non-alignment in Second Cold War
- Child Malnutrition in Peru Driven Up by Poverty and Food Insecurity
- Governments Worldwide Prioritize School Feeding for Its Multiple Benefits
- Parents Harness Pedal and Wind Power To Demand Climate Action
- Online fundraising for IPS Inter Press Service at Razoo
ECI blasts Dem Sens and AIPAC for Supporting START
Where does the Emergency Committee for Israel get off complaining that AIPAC shouldn’t support New START because it’s outside of the “pro-Israel” purview? Who knows. But that’s exactly what they did.
ECI, the partisan “pro-Israel” group set up by Bill Kristol, Gary Bauer and Rachel Abrams (wife of Elliott), [...]