Israel plans to outlast the United States in the Middle East.
Tag: Barack Obama
U.S. strategy in the Middle East (unclassified)
Some say the U.S. doesn't have a strategy in the Middle East. But Martin Kramer manages to detect one.
Special Relationships
John Kerry always talks about the “special relationship”—between the United States and Britain. Between the United States and Israel? Never a mention. Even in the lip service department, the Obama administration has downgraded Israel.
Israel likes its U.S. presidents strong
Israel frets that Obama went to Congress over Syria. If that's a precedent for Iran, Israel might have no choice but to strike first.
The NIC of time
The National Intelligence Council looks in the crystal ball at the year 2030. But its vision of Israel and the Middle East is occluded.
If Iran Gets the Bomb
Michael J. Totten interviews Martin Kramer on the implications of Iran's nuclear plans for the United States, the Middle East, Israel, and Jerusalem.
A Zero-Sum Game
Despite Obama, the Middle East is a zero-sum game. Martin Kramer explains why.
Obama’s Mideast priorities
Is Obama too clever or just confused? Martin Kramer joins panel with Thomas Friedman, Bill Kristol, and David Makovsky.
Obama, Israel and American Jews
Can Obama's Jewish supporters change the administration's course? Martin Kramer joins a Commentary symposium.
How not to fix the Middle East
My Columbia lecture has been published in the Middle East Papers series of Middle East Strategy at Harvard. My core argument is that the Obama administration is thwarting itself, by seeming reluctant to uphold American primacy in the region. More troops in Afghanistan are unlikely to change the Middle Eastern perception that the United States …
Kissed to death by America
People in and around the Obama administration are taking the position that his low key on Iran is carefully calculated. It's not that he doesn't sympathize with the protesters, he just doesn't want their cause to be identified with the United States. That would be a kiss of death. I'm not persuaded, and as I've …
Obama’s Middle East map in shreds
There is nothing at all surprising about Barack Obama's reluctance to embrace the surge for freedom in Iran. As I've shown, he received his primer on the Middle East from Rashid Khalidi, who facilitated Obama's formation as a Palestine-centric Third Worldist. In this view of things, only the situation of the Palestinians deserves to be …
Sweeping Khalidi under Obama’s rug
The Washington Post runs an article today, exploring the origins of President Obama's heels-dug-in stance on Israeli settlements. White House officials described Obama's position to the Post as "years old and not the product of recent events or discussions." The Post then traces it way back to some of Obama's Jewish friends from Chicago days. …
Obama and the Muslims
My quick assessment of President Obama's Cairo speech of June 4 appears (with fifteen other expert assessments) at Middle East Strategy at Harvard (MESH), and is reproduced here at Sandbox. "Peoples of Egypt, you will be told that I have come to destroy your religion; do not believe it! Reply that I have come to …
Khalidi and Obama: kindred spirits
The Los Angeles Times has a tape of Barack Obama offering an encomium to Rashid Khalidi. Martin Kramer explains why he'd really like to see it.
The Middle East: Primer for a New President
Martin Kramer delivered this address to the Shalem Center’s Manhattan Seminar on October 28, 2008. Good evening. It's a pleasure to return to the Manhattan Seminar—this is my third appearance here, and it's always one of the highlights of my autumn stay in the United States. When the date of this meeting was set, back …
Continue reading The Middle East: Primer for a New President
Obama embraces linkage
In my earlier post on the myth of linkage, I brought a number of exemplary quotes from figures such as Jimmy Carter and Zbigniew Brzezinski to illustrate my point. Now another quote can be added to the collection—this one from Barack Obama, fresh from his quick tutorial in the Middle East: I think King, King …
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