The United States will be boycotting the “Durban III” conference:

The US on Wednesday announced it will not attend the 10-year commemoration of a global UN conference on combating racism because past meetings have included “ugly displays of intolerance and anti-Semitism.”

The Obama administration made the announcement in a letter from Acting Assistant...

We have set the bar so low for how the international community deals with the bloodshed in Syria, that even Bashar Assad probably can meet it:

The United States said Wednesday that Syria’s release of political prisoners “does not go far enough,” adding that all such inmates should be freed and the...

In a draft statement the G-8 nations were set to echo Obama’s call for negotiations based on the 1967 borders, the same framework which caused outrage in the U.S. Congress:

 Group of Eight leaders will give “str...

Charles Krauthammer (h/t @fuzislippers) has a column today about Obama’s Middle East policy, and ends with this question:

The only remaining question is whether this perverse and ultimately self-defeating policy is born of genuine antipathy toward Israel or of the arrogance of a blundering amateur who refuses to see that he is...

by Matthew Knee

In a closed door meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz asked Netanyahu to demand a pledge from the Republican Jewish Coalition not to make Israel a campaign issue in 2012. He did not.

To the uninitiated, Wasserman Schultz’s bizarre request seems...

Jeffrey Goldberg at The Atlantic has been leading the charge, echoed by many, not only that Bibi Netanyahu was disrespectful to “my President,” but also that Obama’s statement regarding Israel’s borders in his Middle East speech last Thursday did not represent any meaningful change in U.S. policy.

In the speech Obama stated that a...

Is there any doubt that Obama will put the screws on Israel to come close to doing what people like Jeffrey Goldberg insist “my President” will not do, which is force Israel to make dangerous concessions? 

When there is no reelection on the horizon, when Jewish...

Why are the pre-1967 borders of Israel, which amount to the 1949 armistice lines, so sacrosanct?

Once you buy into the narrative of exclusive Palestinian victimization, once you take the Helen Thomas view which is widely accepted in many circles that Israel is an alien European implant, once you view the desire...

The disloyalty card is being played by Jeffrey Goldberg (who took great offense to Benjamin Netanyahu’s perceived disrespect towards “my President”), Glenn Greenwald (the evil and disloyal Israel Lobby, again) and Andrew Sullivan (the Israeli-influenced media and the crazy Christians, again).

Yet these critics who are so quick to run for the disloyalty card ignore the reality...

If you needed proof that Obama’s Middle East speech was a mistake and simply would embolden Palestinians to pocket the territorial victory, you didn’t need to wait long:

Palestinian Authority chief negotiator Saeb Erekat on Sunday said that he agreed with US President Barack Obama’s assertion that the 1967 borders should be the...

The formula for a territorial compromise floated by Obama on Thursday — the pre-1967 borders with some minor negotiated land swaps — has generated a fair amount of controversy.  As I pointed out, while such a deal may not be far off from where the parties end up, placing that marker...

Some people are referring to this as a smackdown, but I don’t think so.  Netanyahu made the case which needs to be made, and has been made before (via Uncoverage):

The key thing is, Netanyahu did not use the word “expect” because that would...

Jeffrey Goldberg writes a ridiculous article expressing indignation that Bibi Netanyahu used the word “expect” in connection with U.S. policy towards Israel, Dear Mr. Netanyahu, Please Don’t Speak to My President That Way:

For whatever reason,...

Why yesterday for Obama to unload the demand that Israel withdraw to the pre-1967 borders, with some negotiated land swaps? 

Contrary to what some are claiming, this is a new formulation.  Under the Obama formulation, Israel has a land mass fixed by the 1949 armistice lines, lines which the Arabs never recognized...

That’s pretty much the upshot of Obama coming down firmly on the side of the pre-1967 borders being the end result of a peace agreement, plus some land swapping.

While some have contended this merely states prior policy, there is an important shift.  Prior policy emphasized the 1967 borders as the starting point,...

Israel’s pre-1967 borders had no geographical or military logic.  Those borders simply were the armistice lines after the Arabs failed to drive the Jews into the sea.

The border is not defensible, as it leaves the middle of Israel only about 10 miles wide.  One of the reasons the 1967 war took place is...

Didn’t the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt tell us it was not going to try to take over the country, and had no interest in the presidency? 

Indeed, Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, a prominent Muslim Brotherhood leader, assured the West that there was nothing to worry about (emphasis mine):

We are mindful, however, as a...