Israel's Secret Staging Ground

BY MARK PERRY, FOREIGN POLICY— In 2009, the deputy chief of mission of the U.S. embassy in Baku, Donald Lu, sent a cable to the State Department’s headquarters in Foggy Bottom titled “Azerbaijan’s discreet symbiosis with Israel.” The memo, later released by WikiLeaks, quotes Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev as describing his country’s relationship with the…

State Dept. Spokesman Refuses to Say Whether Jerusalem Is the Capital of Israel

BY DANIEL HALPER, WEEKLY STANDARD— There was an amazing exchange today at the State Department press briefing when the press secretary refused to say that Jerusalem is the capital of the state of Israel. “We are not going to prejudge the outcome of those negotiations, including the final status of Jerusalem,” State Department spokesman Victoria…