EMET Blog Feed
- Taxpayer Funded Public Relations for the Palestinians September 1, 2010 Sarah Stern
- Here We Go ’Round the Cactus Bush August 29, 2010 Sarah Stern
Israel
Taxpayer Funded Public Relations for the Palestinians
By: Sarah Stern and Kyle Shideler Last week, Israeli newspaper Yedioth Aharonoth reported that American Taxpayer dollars, a quarter of a million dollars through USAID, were being used to fund a series of advertisements in Israel, featuring leaders of the Palestinian Authority assuring Israeli citizens that they are reliable partners for peace and asking Israelis to be the same. Newswire UPI... »
Here We Go ’Round the Cactus Bush
“When the pursuit of peace becomes the entire objective of foreign policy, it becomes a weapon in the hands of the most ruthless. It produces moral disarmament.” —Henry Kissinger Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s recent announcement that peace talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians, which are set to resume on Thursday, “should resolve all final-status issues within one year” indicates such... »
There Are Some Things That Money Simply Can’t Buy
By Sarah N. Stern and Kyle Shideler After Lebanon’s August 3rd cross-border sniper attack that killed Israel Defense Forces Colonel Dov Harari and injured a second officer, the U.S. Congress, led by Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA) and Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY) ordered a hold placed on $100 million in military aid for the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF). The United States previous... »
Israel’s Elusive Qualitative Military Edge
By: Kyle Shideler, Senior Research Fellow The recent announcement of a proposed $30 billion arms deal to Saudi Arabia, which includes 84 F-15E fighter jets, has once again raised questions on whether the United States is honoring its oft-stated commitment to help maintain Israel’s qualitative military edge (QME). It has long been an unwritten staple of U.S. foreign policy, beginning with President... »
Rewarding Misbehavior
The Obama administration has recently decided to upgrade the diplomatic status of the Palestinian Authority. The PA mission in Washington has been seeking this since President Obama assumed office eighteen months ago, although they have not done very much to earn it. In fact, for the last eighteen years, the Palestinians had met with the Israelis in direct, face-to face... »
All the Troubles of the Middle East, In One Little Country
By: Sarah Stern and Kyle Shideler There is a country in the Middle East accused of a brutal decades-long occupation. A country where a blockade causes starvation among a civilian refugee population. A country which violently cracks down on those who oppose it, shooting into crowds of protestors, while it receives substantial aid money from the United States as an ally... »
Beware Turks Bearing Gifts
"The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers." -Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan After last week's unfortunate Gaza Flotilla crisis, orchestrated by members of a Turkish Islamist group, with reported ties to Hamas and Al Qaeda, on a Turkish vessel carrying a Turkish flag, and which has resulted in a... »
Iranian Sanctions and the Homogenization of Values
By Sarah Stern and Kyle Shideler Secretary of Defense Robert Gates recently said that the draft U.N sanctions against Iran are "stronger than he expected," according to the Voice of America, which sounds rather like a case of lowering expectations in order to preserve self-esteem. How strong are they? Gates tells us if other countries "take significantly more stringent actions on their... »
Lebanon Withdrawal- Looking Back Over Ten Years
As I write these words, exactly ten years have passed since the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) withdrew from Southern Lebanon on May 24, 2000. It is a sad, although some might argue, bittersweet anniversary. Israel first entered Southern Lebanon in 1978 after a wide series of PLO attacks onto Israel's northern border towns. The IDF created a security zone around Lebanon's... »
Jerusalem Day 2010
"Jerusalem is not a mere city. It holds the central spiritual and physical place in the history of the Jews as a people." ---Sir Martin Gilbert Today is supposed to be a joyous day on the Hebrew calendar. Today we commemorate the reunification of Jerusalem in 1967. Jerusalem is the city that my people have looked upon for over 3,000 years as... »