Afghanistan
Iran
Six Reasons to Worry About the Iranian Nuclear Deal - Jeffrey Goldberg (Bloomberg) Including nothing was actually signed, the U.S. has already conceded that Iran is going to end up with the right to enrich, there is no promise by Iran in this interim deal to abstain from pursuing work on ballistic missiles or on weaponization...
‘US freed top Iranian scientist as part of secret talks ahead of Geneva deal - Mitch Ginsburg (Times of Israel)
Woe to U.S. Allies - Charles Krauthammer (Washington Post) The Israelis are now trapped by an agreement designed less to stop the Iranian nuclear program than to prevent the Israeli Air Force from stopping the Iranian nuclear program.
Syria
On Tuesday, I attended Syria in the Crosshairs a panel discussion at Fordham. Click here to read the full story. This was a great discussion. It got heated at times, but the audience and speakers remained dignified. For me, the most fascinating thing about the panel discussion was how Massad spouted unsubstantiated rumors and was strongly challenged with facts by Hanna. The most disturbing thing about the discussion was that Massad was presented as a distinguished intellectual instead of the hate monger he usually is. As this was a discussion of Syria and touched on Egypt, I was relieved and surprised that Israel and the Palestinians were barely mentioned. Kizenko added an interesting perspective from Russia. The bottom line for her is that Russia doesn't have much to offer except for rhetoric. While Putin would like to be portrayed as the protector of Christians in the Middle East, Russia has in fact denied asylum to those Christians that have requested it.
Palestinians Reject U.S. Security Ideas for Peace with Israel - David Brunnstrom (Reuters)
Kerry's Plan to Invest $4 Billion in Palestinian Economy is Nonsense - Khaled Abu Toameh (Gatestone Institite)
The U.S. Plan for Israel's Safety - Ron Ben-Yishai (Ynet News) Only thanks to Israeli control over the border crossings between the West Bank and Jordan has it been possible to prevent a massive spillover of al-Qaeda activists and explosive devices into the West Bank and Israel. Israel also notes that the attempt to place European inspectors at the border crossings between Gaza and Egypt failed miserably, and that following the Hamas coup in 2007 the supervisors ran for their lives.Palestinians Seek to Cancel Half of Debt Owed to Israel Electric Corp. - Avi Bar-Eli (Ha'aretz)
USA
