December 5, 2007
“Secretary Rice says nice things about Lebanese democracy, but the fact is that nothing matters to her half as much as the peace process. This myopia is what led Rice to make room for Syria in her three-ring circus on the Chesapeake Bay. Since Israeli- Palestinian comity warrants all of the time and prestige of the Secretary of State, and since Damascus's friends in Hamas can make things very tough for peace processing, they must be rewarded for their blackmail and invited to Annapolis. Consciously or not, Rice signaled where America's real priorities lie--not with protecting a fledgling democracy in Beirut from the terrorist state next door, but in trying to reward a society that breeds terrorism within its own state.”
--Lee Smith, visiting fellow at the Hudson Institute, “The Price of Annapolis - Lebanese Democracy,” The Daily Standard, November 30, 2007 
"There's been a very clear link in the past two weeks between the Lebanon crisis and Annapolis… It's part of a process that focuses again on the Arab-Israeli struggle. Definitely, it will have a positive impact on Lebanon."
--Ibrahim Hamidi, Al-Hayat’s bureau chief in Damascus, Lebanese Broadcasting Company’s correspondent and a frequent contributor to The Daily Star, November 27, 2007
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Original Commentaries
Setting the Record Straight
U.S. and Israel Have Shared Interests
“I think it's a big deal. This is a fight that the White House has picked. … I think it surprised Netanyahu. Netanyahu apologized to Vice President Biden … And he expressed regret. … And they thought the thing had been put to bed … And then for some reason … the White House at the highest levels—the president decided let's make a big fuss about this … I do not know, honestly, why the president chose to pick a big public fight just when it was all dying down with Israel.”
—William Kristol, editor, Weekly Standard, Fox News Sunday, March 14, 2010
“[T]he president, the vice president, secretary of State did exactly the right thing for American interests and for Israel ... [F]irst of all, they were speaking for many secretaries of State, many presidents in the past who have had Israeli settlements shoved in their face before, during, and after a visit by Israel. ... So there's a lot of backstory here, this isn't just about that trip.“Then let's look at the moment we're in. We have an Israeli prime minister from the right who actually could deliver the right. He's done actually a lot of good things on the ground in the West Bank. You have to give him credit for that. We have the best Palestinian leadership we've had in a long time. And we have a Sunni Arab world obsessed with Iran, ready to work with Israel more than ever. You'd think in that context Israel could say to the United States, you know, ‘You're doing all this for us, we're just going to stop settlements in Jerusalem, in the West Bank, not temporarily, not moratorium. We're going to give you a chance to actually test the other side whether they're for real. ... Barack Obama, this Bud's for you. We're going to do this for the American people.’ Is that anti-Semitism, is that anti-Israelism, to ask that of an Israeli government, to ask, act first in its own interest and then in America's interest? I don't think so.”
—Tom Friedman, columnist, The New York Times, Meet the Press, March 14, 2010
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