Lion's Den :: Daniel Pipes Blog  

Reflections on Current Hamas-Israel Hostilities

November 15, 2012

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Two observations about the hostilities that began on Nov. 10:

An Israeli soldier works on the IDF's Facebook page.

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Why I Am Voting Republican

November 4, 2012

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Note the title is not "Why I am voting for Mitt Romney." That's because the two major American parties, Democratic and Republican, represent contrasting outlooks and you vote for the one or other of them, not for a personality. The presidential candidate is captain of the team but its many other players act autonomously. The past half-century has seen a sharpening of the divide between the parties' philosophical consistency which I (unlike most observers) see as a positive development; who needs Rockefeller Republicans, wets, or RINOs? And ticket-splitting increases gridlock.

The president as captain of his team: Nancy Pelosi, John Boehner, Barack Obama, Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell in the White House, July 14, 2011.

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Superficiality Reigns Before the Election

November 3, 2012

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It happens every four years, as U.S. presidential elections roll around: I feel like a stranger.

The real issue in the 2012 U.S. presidential election?

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Updates on the Israeli Arab Paradox

October 29, 2012

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Building on my analysis at "Israel's Arabs, Living a Paradox," here are occasional, noteworthy developments concerning that population:

A report from Tira, Israel, by Edmund Sanders in the Los Angeles Times about "Arab citizens in Israel bemoan lack of policing" captures the paradox of Israeli Arab life:

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Bibliography - My Favorite Writings

October 28, 2012

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Asked for a list of my most original, best, or favorite articles, here is the list, arranged by date, to be added to occasionally:

Short

"Both Sides of Their Mouths." Jerusalem Post, August 4, 1993.

"A Millennium of Paranoia." Wall Street Journal, April 26, 1995.

"Just Kidding: Syria's Peace Bluff." New Republic, January 8 & 15, 1996.

"Nothing succeeds like failure." Jerusalem Post, February 28, 2001.

"What is Jihad?" New York Post, December 31, 2002.

"[Finding Moderate Muslims:] Do you believe in modernity?" Jerusalem Post, November 26, 2003.

"Muslim Europe." New York Sun, May 11, 2004.

"Female Desire and Islamic Trauma." New York Sun, May 25, 2004.

"The Future of Judaism." New York Sun, January 25, 2005.

"A Neo-Conservative's Caution." New York Sun, March 8, 2005.

"Democrats, Republicans, and Israel." New York Sun, May 23, 2006.

"Countries Threatened with Extinction." New York Sun, August 7, 2007.

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The Nation of Islam Discovers Scientology

October 25, 2012

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The Nation of Islam's historic role as a bridge between American blacks and Islam ended in 1975 when W. Deen Mohammed followed his father, Elijah Muhammad as leader of the Nation and immediately disavowed his father's folk religion, bringing his followers to normative Islam, the world religion. From then on, despite the theatrics of Louis Farrakhan, the Nation has been in a long downward trajectory. Now comes evidence, thanks to Tony Ortega in the Village Voice and Eliza Gray in The New Republic, of a jaw-dropping turn by Farrakhan, 79, to Scientology; as Gray's subtitle puts it, "America's two weirdest sects join forces."

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Romney Stumbles on Foreign Policy

October 22, 2012

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The final presidential debate focused disproportionately on the Middle East. Four of the six segments were on the Middle East, just two on other topics (one about the U.S. role in the world, the other about China). Egypt was mentioned 11 times, Libya 12 times, Iraq 22 times, Pakistan 25 times, Syria 28 times, Afghanistan 30 times, Israel 34 times, and Iran 47 times. In contrast, the European crisis got no mention, nor did India, Germany, Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, Brazil, or Australia.

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Reflections on the Second Presidential Candidates' Debate

October 16, 2012

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This evening's presidential debate, the second between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, featured some very sharp disagreements over facts that almost no viewers can judge (such as the licenses issued for drilling in federal lands) and agreement on the topics where viewers have strong opinions (such as capitalism). Perhaps this debate will move those few undecided voters in Ohio, Virginia, and Florida, but it leaves the rest of us judging the debate according to which candidate we'd rather have as a dinner companion. Put differently, Romney missed an opportunity by not discussing larger issues but letting himself get mired in details.

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Netanyahu Again Offers the Golan Heights to Syria?

October 14, 2012

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Shimon Shiffer reports in Yedioth Ahronoth that in secret talks in 2010 via U.S. government mediator Frederic C. Hof, Israel's Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu agreed in principle to a full withdrawal from the Golan Heights to the June 4, 1967, lines in return for the "expectation" of Bashar al-Assad cutting ties with Iran, and that the nearly-completed negotiations ended because of the anti-Assad uprising that began in January 2011.

How plausible is this claim?

Here is a summary of the report published by Yedioth Ahronoth:

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Impressions of the Veep Debate

October 12, 2012

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Three reactions to the Joe Biden-Paul Ryan debate last night:

Middle East dominance: The foreign policy aspects of the debate focused almost exclusively on Libya, Israel, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan. Binyamin Netanyahu's name was invoked eight times, far more often than any other person other than Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. The Euro crisis, the recent reelection of Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, and the country of India all went unmentioned, while relations with Russia and China came up only glancingly. So chaotic, volatile, and murderous has the Middle East become that American politicians are quasi-experts on it to the point of naming the rival Afghan valleys they'd visited. The region has also become an integral part of a voter's decision on whom to vote for for president. That Tunisia, Turkey, Jordan, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain never came up, while Egypt and energy were mentioned only once, points the depth of the Middle East issues bench.

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