Bookworm Room

Was it a surprise to you that Egypt went Islamist?  It wasn’t to me. Was it a surprise to you that Libya went Islamist?  It wasn’t to me. Was it a surprise to you that Tunisia went Islamist?  It wasn’t to me. Has it been a surprise to you over the last decade that Iraq [...]

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I’ve never doubted Obama’s fundamental anti-Israel beliefs, nor have I ever thought he’s on a right, or even a sane, track in the Middle East. As much as anything, though, my feelings regarding Obama’s Israel/Middle East attitudes were predicated on a gut attitude resulting from his pre-presidency friendships and his execrable Cairo speech. Now, though, [...]

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Bruce Kesler spoke with Jonathan Spyer, who wrote Transforming Fire: The Rise of the Israel-Islamist Conflict.  Despite the current upheaval in the Middle East, and its attendant rise in antisemitism (which is impressive, considering its previous high level), Spyer is sanguine, and even optimistic.  Check out Bruce’s post and see what you think.

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Barry Rubin is talking about the Middle East, but he could just as well be talking about the world wide protests that our dear President is encouraging: There’s a saying that goes something like this: When things are bad, a Jew cries. When they get even worse, a Jew cries more. And when they even [...]

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Bill Whittle narrates this clear summation of 20th and 21st century relations between Arabs and Jews in the Middle East.  It does not reflect well on the Arabs:

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Bruce McQuain, of the always thought-provoking and very economically libertarian QandO blog, has an interesting post that provides a good overview of just how many large natural gas resources there are in the U.S. and the world. http://www.qando.net/?p=10647   Add to that our vaste coal and oil resources…   Folks, there is absolutely no excuse [...]

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Israel as the next Saudia Arabia?   According to this article in the Wall Street Journal, Israel’s unusually large and high-quality shale oil reserves may yield as much oil as all of Saudi Arabia’s proven oil reserves. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703806304576242420737584278.html   These discoveries are in addition to of Israel’s recently diclosed gas reserves, also anticipated to be [...]

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Poor Cassandra was cursed by the Gods with the gift of making accurate prophecies that no one would believe.  The disasters she foresaw always came true, but she was helpless to stop people (and nations) from racing towards their doom.  The endings were always so terrible — and Cassandra was herself swept up in them [...]

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From James Lewis’ must-read article today about the effect of Iran’s ICBM’s (which it has spread throughout the Middle East) and its future nuclear arsenal: Mahmoud Ahmadijenad is the aggressive chess player behind all these missiles surrounding Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Iranian strategy has been to move its missile assets closer and closer to its [...]

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There’s an emerging pattern in the administration, which is the willful refusal to acknowledge realities they don’t like, especially their mistakes.  This goes for the whole administration: the White House and both sets of Congressional leaders.  Examples of this are the refusal to acknowledge the tea parties, the refusal to acknowledge that the fall of [...]

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I haven’t seen the context in which Obama made the reported statement and, really, I don’t want to, because the AP report — which is a mere one sentence in length — seems to encapsulate everything we know about the man.  Here is the entire AP report: WASHINGTON (AP) – Obama to Israeli leader: capitalize [...]

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