If the tunes that followed each speech on Sunday at the AIPAC policy conference had been chosen along interpretive lines, President Barack Obama might have walked from the podium serenaded by the Rolling Stones’ chorus, “You …
Israelis Like What They Heard in Obama’s AIPAC Speech
Israeli television went live with President Obama’s speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee on Sunday night. It amounted to theater here, high drama framed by, rather than the proscenium, a kind of structural …
Must-Reads from Around the World: March 5th, 2012
President Putin — Unsurprisingly, Vladimir Putin won a third term as Russia’s president Sunday. In an op-ed following the election, Russian language opposition newspaper Kommersant urges those disappointed by the re-elction of …
7.5%
“We oppose anyone interfering in Syria’s internal affairs under the pretext of ‘humanitarian’ issues.”
China Announces 11.2% Increase in Military Spending
China announced it will increase its military spending by 11.2% this year, further establishing its position as a growing regional power. The figure, which was announced ahead of the start of this year’s National People’s …
Obama Offers Israel a Path to Avoid an Iran War, but Will Netanyahu Buy Its Terms?
Their poor chemistry and well-documented differences notwithstanding, President Barack Obama may yet emerge as the friend Benjamin Netanyahu most needs right now — by offering the Israeli Prime Minister a path that would avoid …
“What is certain is that Russian politics are forever changed; going forward, Putin can never return to the halcyon days of the mid-2000s, when his argument for “stability” trumped all others.”
Iranians Head to the Polls
Pictures from today’s parliamentary elections
Once Under Siege, a Chinese Village Takes to the Polls
This weekend China will see an exercise of democracy in an unlikely place — a village that just months ago had been in a tense standoff with police. Voters in Wukan, a coastal village of 12,000 in Guangdong province, will go to …
Iran’s Elections: Conservatives Battle Each Other, While the Ayatullah ‘Runs’ Against the U.S.
For those seeking to understand Iran’s parliamentary elections, an unlikely analogy might be the GOP presidential primary race: Iran’s poll is a fiercely competitive, bare-knuckled fight for power. Like the GOP primary, the slate …
Must-Reads from Around the World: March 2, 2012
Treaty Talk – A fiscal compact aimed at capping euro-zone debt was signed by 25 of the 27 European Union states on Friday. The Guardian reports that the new measures will be put to the test immediately, as Spain and the …
Putin’s Pitch: 5 Creepy Campaign Commercials
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin looks set to win his country’s March 4 presidential election. Drawing on his long-cultivated personality cult, Putin’s campaign conjured up a number of tawdry, creepy commercials.