Time and again, we fail to understand Russia and its rulers. Back in 1939, Churchill acknowledged that, famously describing Russia as "a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma."

Nevertheless, three years later, Roosevelt convinced himself that Stalin "likes me," and that he could therefore "handle that old buzzard." He told an advisor: "I have just a hunch that Stalin doesn't want anything but security for his country, and I think that if I give him everything I possibly can and ask nothing from him in return, noblesse oblige, he won't try to annex anything and will work for a world of democracy and peace."

Continue to the full article  |  More articles

Spies steal secrets. Sometimes, those secrets must be carefully studied and analyzed by experts to turn them into products useful to policymakers.

The spies I'll be talking about here worked for the Mossad. The expert who has painstakingly transformed the secrets they collected into actionable intelligence is David Albright. And the policymaker who should be revising his policies in response to a clearer picture of reality is President Joe Biden.

The story begins on a cold night in January of 2018 when Israeli agents stealthily broke into a warehouse in southern Tehran where Iran's rulers had stored an archive of their nuclear weapons program.

Continue to the full article  |  More articles

After Sept. 11, 2001, most Americans thought justice and prudence demanded sending troops to Afghanistan to oust the Taliban and extirpate its ally, al Qaeda, the organization that had carried out the most horrific terrorist attacks ever on U.S. soil.

That mission was swiftly accomplished. Or so it seemed. Leaders of the Taliban and al Qaeda fled to neighboring Pakistan – a most unreliable American ally – and to the Islamic Republic of Iran – a most reliable American enemy. With patience and determination, the Taliban and AQ began to plot their return to power.

In 2003, President George W. Bush's attention shifted from Afghanistan to Iraq where he toppled a tyrant without a plan for what would follow.

Continue to the full article  |  More articles

For the moment, Hamas and Islamic Jihad have stopped shooting rockets at Israelis and, in response, Israelis have stopped targeting weapons arsenals in Gaza. But the Long War on Israel isn't over. It's merely moving to other battlefields for a while.

For example, in Geneva on Thursday, the United Nations Human Rights Council voted to establish an "indefinite Commission of Inquiry" – jargon for a permanent inquisition whose purpose will be to brand Israelis as war criminals.

The UNHRC also called for an arms embargo against Israel, signaling that the commission has no intention of recognizing that Israelis have the same right to defend themselves as do other peoples.

Continue to the full article  |  More articles

In the 1930s, the Nazis declared: "The Jews do not deserve to live!" They acted on this conviction, and by the mid-1940s six million Jews had been murdered.

Today, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, and the Islamic Republic of Iran declare: "The Jewish state does not deserve to live!" They are attempting to act on this conviction – with rockets fired from Gaza last week, perhaps precision-guided missiles (PGMs) from Lebanon next year, and maybe nuclear warheads from Iran down the road.

Continue to the full article  |  More articles