Dhaka, Bangladesh, March 6, 2012, 1 a.m.—A Saudi diplomat, returning from a jog, is shot dead by an unknown assailant. Karachi, Pakistan, May 2011—Two armed men kill a Saudi official. Pakistani police suggest a radical Shiite group is responsible. In October 2011, American officials uncovered a plot they say was organized by Iran and aimed […]

TAI print editor Adam Garfinkle has analyzed the Syrian puzzle and come up with a proposal: let the Turks enter Syria on a humanitarian mission, aimed at provoking a coup in Damascus that would send the Assads packing, followed by an international convention to organize a constitution for a new Syria.Otherwise, says Garfinkle, we are […]

Over at The New Republic, former Mossad chief Efraim Halevy echoes Via Meadia‘s contention that the messy intervention in Libya hasn’t made the task of U.S. foreign policy makers any easier: As Barack Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu meet today, the bitter lessons of the Libyan campaign will hover in the background. In light of the […]

Speaking before an AIPAC audience this week, President Obama cautioned against “loose talk of war.” It looks like Hamas didn’t get the memo; it has just added its voice to the hum of speculation about a strike against the Iranian nuclear program. According to The Guardian, the group says it will not support Iran militarily […]

The door on Haiti’s Villa d’Accueil (seat of the prime minister) revolves; the most recent temporary occupant was Prime Minister Garry Conille, who resigned on Feb. 23 after just four months in office. His resignation came as a result of a number of issues, as the New York Times reports: Months of tension had been building between […]

Will there ever be a TV show that portrays Christians as normal, decent, struggling and complicated human beings? Certainly not in ABC’s new line-up. Reviewing the premiere of “GCB” for the Washington Post, Elizabeth Tenety describes what passes today for serious, empathetic programming about people of faith: After mom Amanda Vaughn loses her Ponzi-scheming husband […]

The ice-cold relationship between Iraq and Saudi Arabia is showing some signs of thawing, according to this report by the Washington Post, which cited a series of developments: Saudi Arabia will restore diplomatic relations to Baghdad for the first time since 2003; Saudi officials last week welcomed a delegation of Iraqi lawmakers to its capital; Iraqi […]

Add Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick to the growing list of blue state, democratic governors taking on core elements of the blue social model. With state businesses straining under a mountain of red tape and “nuisance” regulations, Governor Patrick is preparing to announce a new set of guidelines for lawmakers to ensure that the state develops […]

I had a friend some years ago, an Israeli (since deceased) of large appetites and an expansive sense of humor, who used to joke that Shakespeare was really an Arab: Sheikh Zubar. I remember one day at a hilltop park near his home in Haifa he acted out a very tall tale of Hamlet with […]

Known as the “two cannons,” Bo Xilai and Wang Yang have very different ideas about the future of China. Bo is the Communist Party Chief of Chongqing, and Wang holds the same position in Guangdong. Bo advocates a Maoist revival for China, a new cultural revolution; Wang promotes political reform. Both are candidates for positions […]