Analysis & Commentary


25th July 2012 - Tablet

Cause for Celebration in Syria

After last week’s bomb blast in Damascus, which killed four top Syrian security and military officials, including President Bashar al-Assad’s brother-in-law, the momentum finally seems to be turning in favor of the rebels.

24th July 2012 - The Weekly Standard

Blowback in Syria

Thomas Joscelyn

On Wednesday, July 18, a bomb killed at least three top officials from Bashar al Assad’s crumbling regime. Among them was Assef Shawkat, the deputy defense minister and former head of Syrian military intelligence.

19th July 2012 - National Review Online

Iranian Terror and Obama’s Misguided Terror Forum

Benjamin Weinthal

Iran and its terror subsidiary, the Lebanon-based Hezbollah, appear to be responsible for a suicide bombing of a bus full of Israeli tourists in Bulgaria, which killed seven people and wounded 33 on Wednesday.

19th July 2012 - National Post

How Obama’s Hands-Off Policy Paved the Way for the Assads’ (and Hezbollah’s) Downfall

Jonathan Kay

The good news is that Bashar Assad’s Syrian regime is on its last legs — the other legs having been blown out from under it by a Wednesday bomb attack in Damascus, which killed at least three top regime security officials.

2nd July 2012 - Longitude - The Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The Syrian Conundrum

Emanuele Ottolenghi

As the Syrian uprising enters its 17thmonth and the casualty toll mounts dramatically,Western inability to address the crisis, beyond strong rhetoric and sanctions, risks further harming Western interests in the region.

2nd July 2012 - The Weekly Standard

The Obama Retreat

In Moscow last week for the third round of talks with Iran over its nuclear weapons program this year, the Obama administration came up empty​—​again. So the White House, with nothing to show for investing in talks with Tehran, now has nothing left to say.

29th June 2012 - Haaretz

Paper Trail Leads to Damascus

In December 2010, the New York Times' Robert F. Worth wrote an article about the newspaper Al-Akhbar, "the most dynamic and daring in Lebanon, and perhaps anywhere in the Arab world."

26th June 2012 - National Review Online

Hezbollah Joins the White House in Congratulating Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood President-elect

The Shiite jihadist organization that serves as Iran’s forward militia, issued a statement congratulating the Egyptian people and their new Islamic supremacist president, Mohammed Morsi, on their “historical achievement,”...

18th May 2012 - House Committee on Homeland Security

Terrorist Financing Since 9/11: Assessing an Evolving al Qaeda and State Sponsors of Terrorism

Jonathan Schanzer

Chairman Meehan, Ranking Member Higgins, and members of the subcommittee, on behalf of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, thank you for the opportunity to testify.

16th May 2012 - Tablet

Hezbollah’s Newest Threat

Lebanon’s Party of God is feeling heat from certain Shiites, who aren’t eager to serve as human shields again.

14th May 2012 - The Weekly Standard

Obama’s Way of War

Reuel Marc Gerecht

Is Barack Obama a warrior president? Not in the British tradition, of course, which gave us Winston Churchill, with his crazy cavalry charge against Sudanese spears, or the more cerebral Harold Macmillan, shot to pieces in World War I.

10th May 2012 - The Weekly Standard

A Talk with Samir Geagea, Head of the Lebanese Forces

Samir Geagea is reluctant to speak much of the attempt on his life last month. It was here, at his home in Maarab, a fortified villa high in the mountains, where one or more snipers allegedly took aim at the head of the Lebanese Forces, a Christian majority party.

10th May 2012 - NOW Lebanon

Israel’s Unity Deal and Lebanon

Tony Badran

The surprise unity deal struck between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Kadima chairman Shaul Mofaz has spurred a flurry of speculation, including in the Arab media, about its ultimate significance.

3rd May 2012 - Scripps Howard News Service

The Foggiest War

Clifford D. May

The “fog of war” is a concept derived from the writings of Carl von Clausewitz, the great 19th century Prussian military theorist who recognized that those leading troops into battle often lack data, perspective and situational awareness.

12th April 2012 - The Weekly Standard

Seymour Hersh’s ‘Justice’

Thomas Joscelyn

Writing at BuzzFeed, my colleague James Kirchick informs readers that famed New Yorker journalist Seymour Hersh once opined that the assassination of President John F. Kennedy “might have been some justice.”

12th April 2012 - Quoted by Joel Brinkley, Politico

Iran’s Trail of Terror

Reuel Marc Gerecht

Not since the fall of the Soviet Union has any nation so aggressively pursued alliances with bad actors in so many places worldwide, acknowledged Reuel Marc Gerecht, a former CIA officer who focused primarily on Iran.

4th April 2012 - The New Zealand Herald

Iran Regime Change Only Hope

Emanuele Ottolenghi

As the drumbeat of war mounts in the Middle East, people wonder if an Iran-Israel war is inevitable. Iran's rhetoric about wiping Israel off the map continues unabated - as does its quest for nuclear weapons.

22nd March 2012 - Fox Business

Lou Dobbs Tonight

Sebastian Gorka

Hezbollah Preparing for Attacks Within the U.S.? Fox News Middle East analyst Walid Phares, Foundation for Defense of Democracies' Sebastian Gorka and Fox News contributor Judy Miller on the risks of terrorist attacks by Hezbollah within America.

13th March 2012 - Foreign Policy

Iran’s War in Gaza

Jonathan Schanzer

Israeli jets pounded the Gaza Strip on March 12 in the latest volley of fire since violence broke out late last week. But they were not fighting Hamas, Israel's traditional bête noire in Gaza.

7th March 2012 - The Wall Street Journal

Closing Tehran’s Sanctions Loopholes

Jonathan Schanzer, Mark Dubowitz

In his speech before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington on Sunday, President Barack Obama once again promised that the United States would not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon.

Experts

Khairi Abaza

Senior Fellow

Tony Badran

Research Fellow, Levant

Mark Dubowitz

Executive Director

Daveed Gartenstein-Ross

Director, Center for the Study of Terrorist Radicalization

al-qaeda, energy

Reuel Marc Gerecht

Senior Fellow

cia, iran, iraq

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