Startling progress has been achieved in the past few weeks concerning Iran's nuclear program. A tough stance by the international community, led by the United States, has apparently convinced Iran to open its previously secret second nuclear facility to United Nations inspectors later this month. Iran also has indicated a willingness to export much of its low-enriched uranium to Russia for conversion into nuclear fuel.

These are important steps that could ease tensions and signal a significant, positive shift in Iranian policy. But it remains to be seen whether the Iranian regime will keep its word and fully...]]> Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0500 President Barack Obama made his true international debut this week, with speeches and meetings at the United Nations, a summit with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, and the hosting of the G-20 conference in Pittsburgh. Obama's earlier international tours offered inspiring rhetoric and photo-ops, but they did not delve into the nitty-gritty realities of policy making and international diplomacy. This week was different. Eight months into his presidency, we are seeing Obama's approach to the world take shape. There is cause for both hope and for skepticism.

President Obama has just made an important breakthrough with Russia. Conservative critics vilified his recent decision to...]]> Fri, 31 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0500 In the last few weeks, as the debate over healthcare has raged across the country, I involuntarily became a full participant in the healthcare system. My personal experiences have given me a new appreciation for the importance of having health insurance--and for the complexity of the issues at the heart of any healthcare reform effort.

A few weeks ago, after suffering unusual shortness of breath and minor chest pains, I went to the emergency room at my local hospital. My EKG and blood pressure were normal, as were my cardiac enzymes. But because I had complained of chest pains, I was told that I would have to stay overnight for observation. I assumed that I would get a stress...]]> Tue, 02 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0500 The Republican Party is in trouble, and it's not Colin Powell's fault.

The Republican Party was once home to a broad swath of Americans who were united by their belief in limited government, personal responsibility, and a strong national defense. The Grand Old Party in the days of Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush proudly billed itself as an inclusive "Big Tent." The most enthusiastic spokesman for this welcoming party was the late Jack Kemp, who passed away earlier this month. The former Congressman, vice presidential nominee and HUD Secretary liked to call himself a "bleeding-heart conservative." He celebrated (not just tolerated) diversity. He had a genuine empathy for...]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0500 There are three aspects to the debate over torture, two empirical and one normative, or moral. Empirically, does torture work? Can accurate, worthwhile information be extracted through torture? This question is hotly debated, but many current and former military personnel-including America's most famous POW, John McCain-emphatically say no.

In 2005, Senator McCain sponsored an anti-torture amendment to the defense appropriations bill in the Senate. A victim of torture at the hands of the North Vietnamese, he put it this way: "subjecting prisoners to abuse leads to bad intelligence, because under torture a detainee will tell his interrogator anything to make the pain stop." Some...]]> Fri, 27 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0500 That was Olmert's plan, anyway. His ambitious goals came to a thundering crash with the Second Lebanon War (which erupted less than four months after the election), the Weinograd Commission reports on his poor wartime leadership, the increased Hamas militancy in Gaza, and Olmert's own bribery scandal, which ultimately brought down his government.

If the March 2006 elections reshuffled the political deck in Israel, the February 2009 elections reshuffled it again. One of the biggest shockers three years ago this week was the collapse of Likud. Winning only 12 seats that year, Likud dropped to a dismal fourth place. No one could have imagined then that, three years later,...]]> Mon, 12 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0600 Israel, a United Nations member-state with overwhelming military superiority, is held to the standards of international humanitarian law and the Law of War. Fair or not, Hamas, like other non-state actors, is not held to the same standards or expectations. Hamas uses unconventional and asymmetrical tactics - including hiding behind and fighting amongst its own civilian population. In this way, it behaves like an insurgency group.

States have never been able to defeat non-state guerrilla insurgencies by military force alone-- without committing mass murder against the civilian population. And no democracy, including Israel, is willing to go to such extremes. As the US has discovered...]]> Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0600 There were additional problems with Annapolis as well. The final status issues were deliberately left off the table, but, as I wrote for RealClearPolitics in October 2007, they needed to be front and center if the summit was to succeed.

Finally, the Annapolis process may have been doomed from the start due to weak and ineffective leadership. Significant achievements in Middle East peace have always been accompanied by a synchronicity of strong leadership--when leaders on all sides, simultaneously, have both the political will and the capacity to reach an accord. This was true from the Kissinger-brokered disengagement agreements in the mid-1970s through the Oslo accords of the...]]> Wed, 01 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500 The group ranged from freshmen to seniors in various majors, and included several passionate Obama supporters and some die-hard McCain fans. Several students were continuously texting on their cell phones during the debate. But they demonstrated their ability to multi-task, for it became clear in the discussions that they had also paid close attention to what the candidates were saying.

This was not a randomly selected focus group, so their opinions cannot be generalized to the Marian College student body. But the post-event discussion was lively and engaging, with the students offering sharp and thoughtful observations. One student said that Obama "has great ideas but he still...]]> Fri, 01 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500 It does a great disservice to both American foreign policy and to the Jewish community to portray American Jews as of one mind, marching in lockstep and demanding that all candidates read from a script when it comes to Israel. Contrary to popular belief, the majority of Jews are not single-issue voters. George W. Bush, arguably the most "pro-Israel" president in American history, was able to garner only 24% of the Jewish vote in 2004. Fully 76% voted for John Kerry according to exit polls. Jews have traditionally voted overwhelmingly for Democrats since the 1930s. That didn't change after the Second Intifada, 9/11 or the invasion of Iraq. Indeed, Bush was able to increase his...]]> Sat, 14 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0500 Sat, 10 May 2008 00:00:00 -0500