PDavidHornik

The booms hitting Iran in November are big, effective, nonaccidental ones

Read all about it. And here too. Note that this latter, NYT report on the blast last November 12 says "It was impossible to determine from the images whether the explosion had been a simple accident or an act of sabotage." But then came the Isfahan blast on Monday, greatly lowering the probability that the first one--that either of them--was an accident.

Angelo Codevilla blasts bipartisan U.S. foreign, domestic, and "homeland" policy

Blasts its course, that is, for the decade since 9/11, which he calls "The Lost Decade" in this eye-opening article. Both Repubs. and Dems., he says, have pursued chimeras in foreign policy that weaken America (not least the foolish and futile "nation-building" efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan). Both Repubs. and Dems. are profligate spenders at home (quite true, but surely, Obama has been much worse). Both Repubs. and Dems. relate to ordinary American citizens as terrorists with ridiculous airport security rituals (I've visited the U.S. three times during that decade, the last time quite recently, and couldn't agree more!).

Codevilla's article is brimming with assertions, an exasperation so fierce that it sometimes, for this reader, boils over into laughter. Sometimes contestable; unique, brilliant, bracingly iconoclastic.

Middle Eastern booms

Rockets fall on Galilee, speculations are that Iran-Syria were behind it, a "message," "warning" to Israel. Iran and Hizballah have also experienced unwelcome booms lately. Iran's bluster conveys that the regime is under real pressure. I discuss these issues today on Frontpage.

Yoram Ettinger: "New Middle East" fantasies have to stop

Before these hallucinations in the heads of Westerners do even more damage. Another must-read op-ed from Ettinger includes a remarkable quote from Shimon Peres, then-New Middle East apostle, on the eve of the genocidal onslaught known as the Second Intifada.

Tunisia's new constitution looking to blast Israel

Yet another fruit of that noble efflorescence, the Arab spring. Israel is damn worried about this development, thinking that if it takes root in Tunisia it will spread to other Arab countries and further poison the atmosphere. But you have to expect some fumes to arise in the springtide. Israel Hayom reports.

If Obama wins a second term--watch out, Israel

Richard Baehr, a very sharp analyst, makes the case for that view here. Baehr:

For the next twelve months, the president will be constrained by the need to win Jewish votes and collect Jewish campaign cash. But if he wins again, in a second term, Obama can be Obama, rather than the panderer in chief of his re-election effort. The president who argued for more distance between the U.S. and Israel in a meeting with top officials of Jewish organizations will really get to create some space.

If we're lucky that will turn into an academic question.

Do not listen to (predominantly leftist) domestic-Israeli Israel-bashing

It's a pack of lies and distortions. Shaul Rosenfeld sets you straight.

David Landau: Netanyahu, and Israel, are serious on Iran

Landau is a problematic journalist, but what he says here on the Iran issue is something Western leaders and publics should attend to: regarding Iran's nuke program Netanyahu (along with Barak) is voicing concerns that resonate profoundly throughout the Israeli population, and it is not bluff.

Top Israeli thinkers talk sense on the Middle East

They did so at a conference of the BESA Center at Bar-Ilan University on Wednesday. Some of their observations are summarized here.

In particular, Danny Yatom, a former head of Mossad, made headlines in the Israeli MSM when he said Israel should attack Iran if no one else prevents them from going nuclear (and that no one else will do so appears all but certain). This is particularly noteworthy because another former Mossad chief--the previous one, Meir Dagan--made huge headlines and got international attention by coming out harshly against an Israeli military move on Iran.

As for Yatom, he

    acknowledged that rocket attacks would likely ensue from Lebanon and Gaza following a Western or     Israeli strike against Iran, but added that Israel's response would be "so painful and crushing that     rockets will come to an end. Civilian facilities and infrastructure in Lebanon and Gaza will have to be     hit. Innocent civilians could be hurt. But we will have to deliver a crushing blow so that the barrage of     rockets against us will not continue."

Others at the conference spoke truth about what some befuddled souls might still be calling the "Arab spring"--how it's basically a violent convulsion that is dragging the Arab world back to the harsh and cruel tenets of Islam much more than forward to a chimerical "democracy." The whole report is very worthwhile.

Egypt: Blind populists and sober Islamists vs. tottering regime

As I discuss today on Frontpage. It doesn't look good. For those able to look beneath the surface of the (sometimes seemingly changing) Arab Middle East, it never has.