In-Depth Coverage

Original Commentaries

11/20/08: Pakistan: Learning the Right Lessons from Iraq —Senator Robert P. Casey, Jr. (D-PA), Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Original Commentary for Middle East Bulletin.
11/13/08: The View from Gaza —Taghreed El-Khodary, New York Times journalist in Gaza and Harvard University Nieman Fellow (2005-2006). Interviewed by Middle East Bulletin.
11/04/08: Getting on the Right Track —Dalia Rabin, chairperson, Rabin Center, and daughter of the late Yitzhak Rabin. Interview with Middle East Bulletin.

Setting the Record Straight

Keeping Focus on Long-Term Objectives

“[W]hile we do need to have a cooperative approach that involves many of our friends and allies in meeting with the Pakistanis, … as we work out with them a rough division of labor, the U.S., I believe, ought to be taking the lead in addressing the issues in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. And given the difficulty of doing so, I suspect that we will not have a great deal of difficulty in convincing them to allow us to take the lead there. But as we all know, there is a real tension between our short-term tactical aims in trying to capture or kill terrorists across the border and militants in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and our longer- term counterinsurgency pacification goals. We very much need to be focusing on the end state. What is it that we want this area to look like? ... In that context we need to have a common agenda with the Pakistani government and very much to include the military on counterinsurgency in that area. There needs to be, therefore, a focus on combining military efforts with economic, development and political development in those areas.”
—Robert L. Grenier, managing director and chairman for Global Security Consulting, Kroll, event, “Partnership for Progress: Advancing a New Strategy for Prosperity and Stability in Pakistan and the Region,” Center for American Progress, November 17, 2008

Middle East Analysis

Partnership for Progress —Caroline Wadhams, Brian Katulis, Lawrence J. Korb & Colin Cookman, Center for American Progress
Dealing With Pakistan Is Risky Business —Lee H. Hamilton, president, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, former chairman, House Foreign Affairs Committee
How Not to Lose Afghanistan (and Pakistan) —Peter Bergen, senior fellow, New America Foundation

Escalation Misses Mark

March 3, 2008

"[W]hen senior Israeli military and political leaders speak about obliterating neighborhoods in the Gaza Strip ... they must understand the price tag these kinds of retaliatory operations bear for the peace process."

It does not matter how you define what the Israel Defense Forces is waging in the Gaza Strip: a war, a battle or a retaliatory operation. It is extremely important, however - and that was one of the lessons of the Second Lebanon War - to define the goals and the chances of achieving them. Does Israel intend to stop the firing of Qassams, or merely to punish those who fire them, past and present? Is the operation aimed at calming Israeli public opinion, or at creating a new military situation on the ground? …

The suspension of the talks, even if temporary and even if they have achieved nothing so far, hands veto power - and in effect the monopoly over the peace agenda - to Hamas. This does not serve either the Palestinians or the Israelis. The slogan coined in Yitzhak Rabin’s time - Israel will fight terror as if there is no peace process, and pursue the peace process as if there is no terror - was meant to keep the veto power from the terror organizations. Access the full article>>