Sommelier Piracy

Crossposted at The Seminal.

$900 million and zero sense

Crossposted at The Seminal.

This week the Madam Secretary pledged a vast sum for the Palestinians. But rather than reconstructing Gaza, Clinton's State Department seems more committed to reinvigorating stale policy. Her rallying behind Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will likely weaken his stature in the long run.

And Plan B for Israel and Palestine doesn't look so promising either.

Sadjadpour goes out on a Limb-augh, Malley verges on genius

Crossposted at The Seminal.

The Week in Quotes:

MR. SADJADPOUR:....And my point is that Iran is to the Middle East in a way what Rush Limbaugh is to the United States in the sense that they know they can be the champions of the alienated and the dispossessed, but they know they can't be the champions of the upwardly mobile. And I think the problem with our strategy and Israel's strategy in the Middle East the last several years, if you look at the last three wars which have been prosecuted in the Middle East -- the Iraq war, the 2006 Lebanon war and the recent war in Gaza -- is that we've created -- we've increased the ranks of the alienated and the dispossessed and we've created more fertile ground for Iran's ideology throughout the region.

SEN. CASEY: Thank you.

SEN. KERRY: Thank you, very much.
We're going to resist the temptation to talk about foreign policy and Rush Limbaugh. (Laughter.)

... Senate Foreign Relations Committee Hearing
3 March 09

***

"Bush did the wrong things poorly - it gives us the illusion that they can be done well."

...Robert Malley, Carnegie Endowment
5 March 09