February 18, 2011

Egypt Gets Its Khomeini

Friday, February 18 may be a turning point in Egyptian history. On that day Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the best-known Muslim Brotherhood cleric in the world and one of the most famous Islamist thinkers, will address a mass rally in Cairo.Up until now, the Eg...

February 17, 2011

American Pundits and Policymakers Don't Understand that Democracy Isn't Necessarily More Moderate

What must be written in order to promote one's career in Washington or popularity in the Western world, and what must be written in order to understand the Middle East are two very different things.Consider the following theme, as expressed by a pres...

February 14, 2011

Fantasy and the Egyptian Future

Let's remember something that nobody wants to hear right now. The revolution in Egypt succeeded because the army didn't want President Husni Mubarak any more. When people say things like: The army wouldn't shoot down its own people. Why? It has done ...

February 12, 2011

How Much in Egypt Has Really Changed? Less Than It Seems

The story of Egypt is in a very real sense totally different from the narrative being portrayed today. The same regime is still in place. Only one man has left. The regime that has ruled Egypt for sixty years sacrificed one man, who it didn't want an...

February 10, 2011

Tariq's Tricks: How the West's Favorite Islamist Spins His Web

The recent op-ed in the New York Times international edition by Tariq Ramadan is full of lies. Yet virtually no Western reader, no matter how suspicious of the Muslim Brotherhood, will notice any of them. Ramadan is supposedly the most sophistic...

February 8, 2011

Egypt After Mubarak

Amr Moussa, Arab League secretary-general, went to Tahrir Square to support the protests. The crowd cheered him. This is a symbol that the current government is sinking but also a sign of what the next regime may become. It appears to be sinking, ind...

February 6, 2011

The Obama Administration and the Middle East: A Half-Time Assessment

There are people -- many in the media and academia -- who figuratively go bananas if anyone criticizes President Barack Obama. They maintain that he is doing just a great job as if this is beyond any of rational discussion. And yet what has happened ...

February 4, 2011

America and the Middle East Dictators

"What are we going to do -- support dictators for the rest of eternity because we don't want Islamists taking their share of some political system in the Middle East?" Thus spake Robert Kagan in advocating regime change in Egypt.But that ra...

October 4, 2008

Detecting Real Heroes

In Raymond Chandler's essay, "The Simple Act of Murder," he describes the character of the detective as he was to appear in the great stories that lent themselves to "film noir." Implicitly he was also defining the American hero -...

May 13, 2008

Scary Signals: Obama's Ideology Hints At Dangerous Policy

One of many scary things about Senator Barrack Obama is how mistaken his ideology makes him, even when he thinks he's getting it right. If Obama shows disastrous positions even when still trying to make voters think him supportive of Israel or t...