Obama at Ramallah

By SHOSHANA BRYEN, inSIGHT— President Obama’s plans in the Middle East include three and a half hours in Ramallah to meet with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. The president’s hope is to find a mechanism for advancing Israeli-Palestinian “peace.” The appearance of the President of the United States in “Palestine” is calculated to provide Abbas with…

State of the Union Address on Foreign Policy: Careful Phrasing Conceals Disasters

By BARRY RUBIN, PJ MEDIA— While the State of the Union message was overwhelmingly domestically oriented, the foreign policy sections were most interesting. I’ll review them here. The president began in the same neo-patriotic mode  used in the second inaugural address, with a special emphasis on thanking U.S. troops. He used the imagery of the…

Why elections in Israel may not warm relationship with Obama

By HOWARD LAFRANCHI, JWREVIEW— Elections can sometimes lead to new beginnings and bold initiatives, but few Middle East experts expect a rosy hue to suddenly color US-Israel relations after Tuesday’s national elections in Israel. Two key reasons explain why recent tensions in relations are likely to continue, analysts say: differences over the approach required to…