Joe Biden is, hopefully, being reminded from every corner that the White House he will be going into in 2021 is a very different one than the one he left in 2017. While he seems unlikely to put too much energy into Israel-Palestine, certainly in his early days in office, he needs to understand that even with familiar players there, things have changed dramatically. Benjamin Netanyahu was able to directly…
A broad coalition of Church groups and denominations have sent a letter to President-elect Joe Biden urging him to pursue a “just and lasting peace” between Israel and the Palestinians. Echoing a sentiment heard frequently lately, the groups told Biden that “…walking back policy changes made by the Trump administration will not be enough. It has been nearly 30 years since the Oslo Accords were signed and changes on the…
While Donald Trump himself desperately tries to undermine what little democracy we have left in the United States, his foreign policy team is, with somewhat less fanfare, triggering one long term problem after another in foreign policy. The obvious effort to prevent any peaceful resolution to the tensions with Iran has gotten a lot of attention. The administration’s efforts to bribe and blackmail Arab states into agreeing to normalize relations…
In the latest episode of the ReThinking Foreign Policy Podcast, I spend some time discussing the murder of Iranian scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, and some of the responses to it. The main story is a look at Joe Biden’s initial picks for his cabinet and lead administrative staff. Some of my views on that may surprise some of my listeners. Finally, I look at Mike Pompeo’s efforts to eliminate any possibility…
While touting the economic benefits he expects to emerge from the “Abraham Accords” and similar agreements for normalization that Israel has signed with several Arab states, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, “Everybody who joined the Abraham Accords will see the benefits for their own people. I am highly confident that many, many more nations will choose to do the right thing and recognize Israel as the rightful homeland of…
