A day after I wrote Regime Change in Iran and consequences for the Middle East, Krauthammer makes the same point.

2009: The year of living fecklessly

By Jim Lobe, ASIA TIMES

WASHINGTON – With the United States Senate set to take up major sanctions legislation against Iran by mid-February, neo-conservative and other hawks are calling on the administration of President Barack Obama to pursue a more aggressive course of “regime change” in Tehran.

In recent days, their call was unexpectedly bolstered by a Newsweek column authored by the president of the influential Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), Richard Haass.
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Netanyahu backs Israel probe into Gaza war crimes claims, Barak says no.
By Barak Ravid, Haaretz

PM wants inquiry but defense ministry and IDF blocking investigation into deliberate targeting of civilians.

Defense officials have successfully resisted an attempt by the prime minister to launch an inquiry into the targeting of civilians by Israeli troops in Gaza – amid warnings from inside the government that skirting the issue will fail to satisfy the United Nations.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made concerted efforts to persuade Defense Minister Ehud Barak to accept an Israeli investigation into civilian deaths during Israel’s three-week Gaza offensive a year ago, senior aides on his staff said on Saturday.
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By Ted Belman

Yoram Ettinger believes that the Obama administration is doing an about face in its mid east policies. See Obama Excludes the Arab-Israel Conflict. According to him,

1. Obama now considers attempting to mediate a solution is a loser’s game. He can’t get agreement and he only creates bad will toward him and the US.

2. “Washington’s international agenda does not consider the Arab-Israeli conflict to be a top priority.” When Obama came into office he was saying the opposite and promising agreement within two years.

3. Obama’s world view and our mutual differences are not enough to overwhelm our relations, “which are based on a much more solid foundation of shared values, joint interests and mutual threats”. One of these differences he refers to is “the unbridgeable US-Israel gap over the Secretary of State Rogers’ 1970 peace plan”.

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If Ettinger’s reading is right, it is the best news ever. He is suggesting that Obama is now going to emphasize what binds us and not what divides us, that we are no longer a liability but have been restored to an asset, that the resolution of the Arab/Israel conflict is not the most important issue facing the US, that US mediation efforts can only hurt the Obama administration and so on.

By Yoram Ettinger, Executive Director “Second Thought”, YnetNews,

The exclusion of the Arab-Israeli conflict from President Obama’s 2010 State of the Union Address reflects a US order of priorities and, possibly, a concern that mediation in the Arab-Israeli conflict does not advance – but undermines – Obama’s domestic standing. In fact, Jerusalem should impress upon the US to reduce its mediation profile, minimize tension between Israel and the American broker, while enhancing strategic cooperation between Israel and its American ally.
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By Ted Belman

Sara Palin is hated by the left either for her policies or her “stupidity” or, more likely, both. I have been a supported of hers ever since she eviscerated Obama in her nomination acceptance speech. Yet I had strong reservations because she tuned me off when being interviewed. She was too verbose, superficial and repetitive. She was anything but intellectual. How many times have you heard her repeat common sense solutions, put the government back on the side of the people, get out of the way of private enterprise, lower taxes because the people know best how to spent their money and so on.

I now see this style as an asset.

Tell a lie often enough and people will believe it. So much more so for the truth. When you want to sell anything, you must brand it as “the best”. It is immaterial whether it is or not. And while you are at it, brand your competition as “the worst”. Selling is not appealing to the intellect but to the emotions.
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If you think Israel is on a slippery slope, what about the US? How can the US maintain a foothold in the ME especially if she forces Israel to weaken herself? You would think that the House of Saud is frightened by the handwriting on the wall. Will he House of Mubarak survive his passing? It seems to me that Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states would be begging the US to resist the creation of a Palestinian state. You would think that they would prefer that the US spearhead an alliance of all of them, Israel included, which would oppose Iranian expansion. You would think.

Is Iraq the “New Iran”?

by:Diana West

This week’s column presents an interview with Ayad Jamal Aldin, a Shiite cleric and member of Iraqi parliament, someone I first noticed in April 2003, before the new Iraqi constitution that enshrines sharia above all was even written. The occasion, in fact, was the first post-liberation meeting of Iraqis to discuss a new constitution. The column I wrote at the time begins like this:
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My biggest complaint with his position is his assumption that we only have security interests. This is in line with his embrace of the Saudi Plan. When he acknowledges our rights to Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem, then I’ll take notice.

By Natasha Mozgovaya, Haaretz

U.S. President Barack Obama said on Thursday he would never waver from support for Israel’s security but that Washington must also pay attention to the plight of the Palestinian people.

“We are working to try to strengthen the ability of both parties to have to sit down across the table,” Obama said at a townhall-style meeting in Tampa. His administration’s efforts to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks have made little progress since he took office a year ago.
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By JONATHAN SPYER, JPOST

Any future strike at Hizbullah that does not take into account its status as a client of Syria, is unlikely to land a decisive blow.

In the last week, senior Israeli policymakers made statements of an uncharacteristically bellicose nature regarding Syria.

It is unlikely that these statements were made because of sudden random irritation toward Israel’s hostile northeastern neighbor. Rather, the statements probably constituted part of a message of deterrence to Damascus.

The need to project deterrence itself derives from a series of significant changes currently under way on the ground in Lebanon – reflecting Syria’s ever tighter alignment with Hizbullah and the pro-Iranian regional bloc of which it is a part.
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I missed this very important interview which took place during the election campaign in ’08. Note how the interviewers were out to slime Palin and thought they could get away with it because they were interviewing a US Democratic Senator from Alaska.

Wasilla, Alaska — People like to say bad things about Sarah Palin, but very few have paid attention to her many actual accomplishments. Former Democratic Alaska Senator Mike Gravel said the following in a Pacifica radio interview (September 9, 2008), “I have no particular negatives about her…McCain made a very good choice…she has had the courage to put the people and integrity above party…she has more executive experience than Obama, Biden and McCain combined.”

To put it in perspective here are a few of her accomplishments (Originally written by Dewie Whetsell, an Alaskan Fisherman.)

“The last 45 of my 66 years I’ve spent in a commercial fishing town in Alaska. I understand Alaska politics but never understood national politics well until this last year. Here’s the breaking point: Neither side of the Palin controversy gets it. It’s not about persona, style, rhetoric, it’s about doing things. Even Palin supporters never mention the things that I’m about to mention here.
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Terrorism Awareness Project

“Where Islam sets roots, freedom dies,” Geert Wilders told the students during his 30-minute address organized by a new student group called Temple University Purpose and funded by the California-based David Horowitz Freedom Center, a foundation that promotes conservative scholarship.

His remarks were met by a mixture of applause and boos, and occasionally gasps — particularly when he stated that “our Western culture is far better than the Islamic culture and we should defend it.”

He decried as a “disgrace” a resolution co-sponsored by the U.S. and Egypt, and backed by the U.N. Human Rights Council earlier this month, deploring attacks on religions while insisting that freedom of expression remains a basic right. Wilders also criticized President Barack Obama for his efforts to extend a hand to the Islamic world, saying that such appeasement marks “the beginning of the end.”
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[I am not encouraged. The US still wants Russia and China on board.]

SOTU

“As Iran’s leaders continue to ignore their obligations, there should be no doubt: they, too, will face growing consequences,”

Officials: U.S. Readies New Iran Sanctions at U.N. Jan 28/10
The Obama administration is preparing to circulate proposed tough new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program as early as this week at the United Nations, U.S. officials said Wednesday.

The proposed measures, which would target elements of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps under fresh penalties as well financial institutions under existing U.N. sanctions resolutions, are being finalized and prepared for debate in the U.N. Security Council, the officials said.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because discussions on the outline of the sanctions are still ongoing between the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council — the United States, Britain, China, Russia and France — as well as Germany and other countries.[..]

Senators pressure Obama on Iran sanctions Jan 27

Senior administration officials have said over and over that they are switching to the “pressure track” against the Iranian regime following an acknowledgment that the year-long “engagement track” effort has failed to produce measurable results. The Senate is getting ready to bring up Chris Dodd’s Iran sanctions bill, not waiting for the administration to be ready, causing some friction within the Democratic power structure.

On Wednesday, seven senators wrote to Obama to say that they’ve had enough of waiting for the pressure-track activities to begin.

Not a word about Israel. I suppose that’s a good thing. A short sentence on Iran namely “As Iran’s leaders continue to ignore their obligations, there should be no doubt: they, too, will face growing consequences,” That’s not a good thing. I have absolutely no confidence in Obama protecting America. Even his words aren’t convincing.

[..]Throughout our history, no issue has united this country more than our security. Sadly, some of the unity we felt after 9/11 has dissipated. We can argue all we want about who’s to blame for this, but I am not interested in re-litigating the past. I know that all of us love this country. All of us are committed to its defense. So let’s put aside the schoolyard taunts about who is tough. Let’s reject the false choice between protecting our people and upholding our values. Let’s leave behind the fear and division, and do what it takes to defend our nation and forge a more hopeful future – for America and the world.
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By ALAN DERSHOWITZ, JPOST

A careful review of the report makes it crystal clear that its writers applied totally different standards, rules and criteria in evaluating the intent of the parties to the conflict.

The Goldstone Report is much more scurrilous than most of its detractors (and supporters) believe. According to the report, Israel used the more than 8,000 rocket attacks on its civilians merely as a pretext, an excuse, a cover for the real purpose of Operation Cast Lead, which was to target innocent Palestinian civilians – children, women, the elderly – for death. This criminal objective was explicitly decided upon by the highest levels of the Israeli government and military and constitutes a deliberate and willful war crime. The report found these serious charges “to be firmly based in fact” and had “no doubt” of their truth.
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Article cites widespread child rape by militant “Islamic” employers
Posted by Bill Levinson.

Lahore: 12-year-old Christian domestic worker killed by Muslim employer

A Protestant NGO, Sharing Life Ministry Life (SLMP), reported the case of Shazia Bashir, 12, who was employed for the past eight months as a domestic worker in the household of Chaudhry Muhammad Naeem, a lawyer and former president of the Lahore Bar Association.

Local Christians say that during that period the girl was the victim of constant harassment, and that she was raped and tortured before she was killed.

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Obama colludes with pharmaceutical companies to restrain trade at expense of U.S. consumers
by Bill Levinson

In November 2008, the United States played a sick practical joke on itself by electing a dishonest and incompetent Chicago machine politician with no qualifications whatsoever aside from an excellent voice with which to read his lines from a teleprompter. Tonight, said joke will deliver his first State of the Union Address, and perhaps he will explain the following. Then again, perhaps pigs will fly.

(1) Barack Obama promised that his health care reforms would ensure that people can choose insurance that meets their needs. Perhaps he will tell us why what his party, of which he is supposedly the leader, not only mandates that people buy health insurance but also tells them what kind of insurance they have to buy. Would Mr. Obama characterize a promise of one thing but delivery of its almost total opposite a lie, as most of us would? (Read more…)

I believe Rubin has done a good job of presenting the competing views, I believe he falls short of recommending the answer. He simply says these “controversial issues should be approached in the most balanced, rational, and calm way possible”. Perhaps there is no better answer.

Islam and Islamism: Are Hijackers Extremists, “Proper Muslims,” or Contenders in a Civil War?

By Barry Rubin*

One of the most controversial issues today is the relationship of the political doctrine of Islamism (including revolutionary activity and terrorism) and the religion of Islam.

Given the desire of too many people to distort this discussion with slogans, insults, and name-calling, it is a very dangerous one. Yet the importance of the issue requires it be analyzed.
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Palestinians shun Bibi because they view him as serious statesman

Sever Plocker

Palestinians:“The demographic clock is ticking and the option of a bi-national state is being realized.”

The Palestinian leadership has thus far refused to engage in talks with the Netanyahu-led Israeli government. This is not an insignificant matter: The Palestinians engaged in talks with all Israeli governments since the Oslo Accords.[..]

The difficulty to explain the current Palestinian position has reached all the way to the White House. Those who carefully read the full Obama interview with Time Magazine realize that he has lost patience with the Palestinians’ elusive conduct. Officials around Obama have spoken harshly: They charged that the Palestinians humiliated the president and screwed up his policy.
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