Shoshana Bryen

U.S.-Led Forces Killed Syrian Civilians, Rights Groups Say: Airstrikes on village controlled by Islamic State kills more than 60 civilians, say two human-rights groups (Wall Street Journal 5/1/15) Obama Apologizes After Drone Kills American and Italian Held by Al Qaeda (New York Times 4/23/15) By Shoshana Bryen   WASHINGTON, D.C. — This is not a

By Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. — Samantha Power, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, says the U.S. will no longer automatically exercise its veto in the UN Security Council to protect Israel. In testimony before the Foreign Operations Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee, Power specifically declined to rule out support for resolutions on Palestinian

By Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. — Portrayed mainly as a tiff between President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu, the U.S.-Israel divide over how to deal with Iran’s nuclear program is much more serious and dates to the 1980s. It reflects the difference in each country’s margin of error. President Obama has only widened an existing divide

By Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Jordanian, 21 Egyptians and 4 Americans – sounds like the start of a bad joke, but it is not. They, along with thousands of others, have been murdered by the Islamic State (IS, ISIS, ISIL, or Daesh) in the Middle East, and by Boko Haram in Nigeria. The victims

By Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. — Thomas Friedman of The New York Times does not want Israel mucking in American policy-making toward Iran, and so counsels Prime Minister Netanyahu to cancel his planned speech to the U.S. Congress. He seems to believe Iran’s determined march toward nuclear weapons and genocidal rhetoric about Israel, in fact,

By Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. — In his State of the Union address, President Obama forcefully announced he would not accept “a nuclear-armed Iran.” This reflects his view that the only objectionable element of Iran’s behavior would be acquisition and possible use of such weapons. This is conveniently narrow. While the ability to produce nuclear

By Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. — Last week, officials from the U.S. Consulate in East Jerusalem attended a Palestinian protest over Israel’s removal of olive trees illegally planted in the West Bank. Coordinated with the Palestinian Authority [PA] but not Israel, the Consulate personnel ended up clashing with Israelis living nearby. It was, perhaps, the

By Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. — The horrific attack on a school in Pakistan by Taliban gunmen that killed 132 people, mainly children, returned that unhappy country to the news headlines for a few days. But only a few – it’s gone again. It wasn’t supposed to be like that. In President Obama’s defining 2009