In-Depth Coverage

Original Commentaries

11/20/08: Pakistan: Learning the Right Lessons from Iraq —Senator Robert P. Casey, Jr. (D-PA), Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Original Commentary for Middle East Bulletin.
11/13/08: The View from Gaza —Taghreed El-Khodary, New York Times journalist in Gaza and Harvard University Nieman Fellow (2005-2006). Interviewed by Middle East Bulletin.
11/04/08: Getting on the Right Track —Dalia Rabin, chairperson, Rabin Center, and daughter of the late Yitzhak Rabin. Interview with Middle East Bulletin.

Setting the Record Straight

Keeping Focus on Long-Term Objectives

“[W]hile we do need to have a cooperative approach that involves many of our friends and allies in meeting with the Pakistanis, … as we work out with them a rough division of labor, the U.S., I believe, ought to be taking the lead in addressing the issues in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. And given the difficulty of doing so, I suspect that we will not have a great deal of difficulty in convincing them to allow us to take the lead there. But as we all know, there is a real tension between our short-term tactical aims in trying to capture or kill terrorists across the border and militants in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and our longer- term counterinsurgency pacification goals. We very much need to be focusing on the end state. What is it that we want this area to look like? ... In that context we need to have a common agenda with the Pakistani government and very much to include the military on counterinsurgency in that area. There needs to be, therefore, a focus on combining military efforts with economic, development and political development in those areas.”
—Robert L. Grenier, managing director and chairman for Global Security Consulting, Kroll, event, “Partnership for Progress: Advancing a New Strategy for Prosperity and Stability in Pakistan and the Region,” Center for American Progress, November 17, 2008

Middle East Analysis

Partnership for Progress —Caroline Wadhams, Brian Katulis, Lawrence J. Korb & Colin Cookman, Center for American Progress
Dealing With Pakistan Is Risky Business —Lee H. Hamilton, president, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, former chairman, House Foreign Affairs Committee
How Not to Lose Afghanistan (and Pakistan) —Peter Bergen, senior fellow, New America Foundation

The Legacy of My Father

November 5, 2007

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Syrian President Bashar Assad (AP)

This should be the outcry of all honest Israelis: Israelis that love the state and worry about its character and its future. Israelis who believe that the state of Israel needs to be Jewish, democratic and also civilized. If we wish for life, if democracy is more than a dictionary definition to us, and if we don’t want the blood of the next one who’s murdered on our hands – now is the time to do something. To break the silence, and cry out, ask questions, and seek answers. …

The legacy of my father is not a collection of empty sayings about exalted ideas. His legacy sought out the day to day, the simplicity that makes up our lives. He wanted to prevent the fine moment of Israeli sacrifice and pain, the moment between the ringing of the doorbell, and the appearance of those bearing bad news at the door. He wanted to wipe the salty tears from a mother’s face with laughter of children, to allocate enormous budges from another fighter jet to another computer for a child. To replace the order for reserve duty with a family vacation. He wanted to provide us all with the ability to live simply, to live peacefully, with no more wars. …

The time has come for courageous decisions. So let us send from here a call of support and encouragement to the government to lead the peace process, without taking cover in the protective shadow of indecisiveness and inaction. Access the full article>>