Friday, April 17, 2015

Heading For The Weekend

++Bibi is still having problems forming his cabinet.

++The European Union wants labels on products made by Israeli settlers.

++Samantha Powers says the United States won't automatically veto pro-palestinian resolutions at the United Nations.

++Haaretz reports that Ted Cruz is doing niche campaigning to win the vote of Orthodox Jews.

++Michael Gerson buys into the new GOP line that President Obama is so desperate for "legacy" that he oversold the Iran deal and that there are major elements that weren't agreed to. Michael is worried that the sanctions regime is dissolving before our eyes as Russia and China as well as European companies are lining up to invest. 

++John McCain is inclined to believe the Supreme Leader in the interpretation of the deal. John Kerry points out that even Russia agrees with the US interpretation.

++Russia rescued the Americans in Yemen.

++Putin has a point. He is complaining that Washington told foreign leaders not to attend the celebrations in Moscow to commemorate the end of WWII. After all, the Soviet Union lost millions fighting in WWII.

++Fareed Zakaria is concerned that President Obama is neglecting the Asia Pivot because of concentrating on the Middle East. He says the US effort to urge our European allies not to join the Chinese Reconstruction Bank was a major setback for Americans. Dumb, I would say. Japan now is emerging as our largest creditor.

++John Boehner invited the Prime Minister of Japan to address a Joint Session of Congress.

++The United Nations is mounting a a full court press for Western countries to take in the hundreds of thousands of refugees from Syria and up the ante on refugee aid. Amen!

++The Iraqi Prime Minister was in town to urge for several hundred millions in aid and discuss the strategy against ISIS. He blasted the Saudi efforts in Yemen and called for a negotiated settlement . He warned that Yemen could break out into a larger regional war. I thought there already was one.

++The Pentagon has been cagey about the strategy against ISIS. They claim ISIS has lost 15% of the land they had seized. Now they dismiss ISIS' offensive in Anbar Province, which the Iraqi PM claims is vital. The Pentagon is aiming to secure the oil producing towns to deprive ISIS of income. There is strange talk about dealing ISIS a mortal death blow.

++Concerns from human rights groups and others have been raised by our dependence on the Shi'ite militias in Iraq since they are brutally killing Sunni civilians during their offensives.

++President Obama is supposed to be meeting with the Gulf States soon to outline his ISIS strategy at Camp David. 

++Congress still hasn't debated an Authorization of Military Force yet.


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