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In the run-up to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress yesterday, one important question was being asked that is worthwhile to revisit in the aftermath of the Israeli premier’s address: Will Netanyahu’s speech help prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons? This, of course, was Netanyahu’s stated reason for taking the podium before Congress at the invitation of House Speaker John Boehner. On one side, many argue that, by bringing his case to Congress, Netanyahu...

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In the upcoming Israeli elections on March 17, no one party is expected to win a majority of seats in the 120-seat Knesset; hence, as usual, the party that wins is not the party that leads in the vote but the party that can put together a coalition with a majority of seats, or 61. The two leading parties, Likud (led by Benjamin Netanyahu) and the Zionist Union (led jointly by Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni) are neck and neck in the polls, each hovering around 24 seats.. But the question is:...

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Yesterday, Vice President Joseph Biden kicked off the much anticipated White House Summit on Countering Violent Extremism (CVE). He noted the need to, “engage our communities and engage those who might be susceptible to being radicalized because they are marginalized….societies have to provide an affirmative alternative for immigrant communities, a sense of opportunity, a sense of belonging that discredits the terrorist’s appeal to fear, isolation, hatred, resentment.”  This seems like a...

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Last week’s ceasefire negotiations in Minsk by Ukraine, Russia, Germany, and France have dominated headlines, but a different piece of news will be more significant for Ukraine in the long term. On February 12, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced a new financial support program for Ukraine. In addition to ensuring that Ukraine avoids bankruptcy, the deal also commits Ukraine to an array of economic reform measures that will stress its political system in the short run, but will...

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US Secretary of State John Kerry has repeatedly pledged that the prospective nuclear agreement being hammered out between the P5+1 world powers and Iran will extend the Islamic Republic’s “breakout time” – how quickly it can produce sufficient fissile material for an atomic bomb should it make a rush to build one – from “about two months” to “a minimum of a year.”[1]  While U.S. officials have been tight-lipped about details of the...

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