Ops & Blogs | The Times of Israel » Noah Beck

Obama-gate and World War III

Noah Beck — Mon, 20 May 2013 18:21:39 +0000

Americans are the biggest losers from the slew of scandals now rocking the White House, but who are the biggest winners? Iran, North Korea, Syria, China, and Russia. If US foreign policy seemed spineless and muddled in confronting bad actors before the Benghazi-IRS-AP scandals surfaced, the US just became that much more irrelevant to its [...]

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Obama’s “Red Lines” on Syria Resemble Zebra Stripes

Noah Beck — Tue, 07 May 2013 04:47:59 +0000

If zebras had pink stripes, they would resemble President Obama’s “red lines” on Syria. Obama’s policy has communicated the following incoherent and spineless message: “In Libya we intervened to support liberty and prevent a bloodbath: Muammar Gaddafi threatened to hunt down his enemies, ‘house by house, alley by alley.’ Oh, is that what Basher Assad has [...]

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Hezbollah, Syria, and EU Appeasement

Noah Beck — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 20:13:47 +0000

The Syrian civil war may undo the European Union’s attempts to appease Hezbollah, and has revealed how the Iran-backed terrorist organization undermines — rather than promotes — Lebanon’s interests. Following the July 2006 war that Hezbollah provoked with Israel (in which Hezbollah displayed its anti-ship, anti-tank, and UAV capabilities), UN Security Council Resolution 1701 required [...]

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Beware Turkish Hypocrisy

Noah Beck — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 17:18:37 +0000

Recent Turkish pressure on France and Germany regarding accession to the European Union heighten the need to question Turkey’s strategic intentions and political identity. Is Turkey a moderate, pro-Western democracy? Or is it run by Islamists embracing policies and regimes hostile to the West? Turkey wants to be treated as a member of the West, [...]

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Two Years on, the Arab Spring Could Use Some Talmud

Noah Beck — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 13:11:22 +0000

The Talmud is a pillar of Jewish law, containing dialectical opinions from thousands of rabbis debating law, philosophy, history, theology, and myriad other topics. By displaying argumentation by many minds, a page of Talmud enshrines dissent. Unfortunately, the Talmudic spirit has been almost entirely absent from the Middle East. Except for Israel, the region has [...]

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The True Face of Hamas and the Five Myths That Obscure It

Noah Beck — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 19:17:42 +0000

Hamas leader Khaled Meshal used his recent, first ever visit to Gaza to tell a mass rally that he would never recognize Israel and pledged to “free the land of Palestine inch by inch.” His words revealed (again) the true face of Hamas: “Palestine is ours from the river to the sea and from the [...]

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