By not moving decisively to quash U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's call for an "international" inquiry into the Gaza flotilla fiasco, Obama's inaction is understood as implicitly consenting to this flagrant abuse of the U.N. Charter.

The Obama administration could abstain from a Security Council resolution affirming a Palestinian state, and we will soon see how hostile to Israel President Obama is prepared to be.

Iraqi Kurdistan will always be weaker than Turkey and, to officials in Washington, it will always be less important than Turkey so long as Turkey remains in NATO. Still, the Kurdistan Regional Government can seize diplomatic initiative and perhaps protect its own people and force Turkey to moderate its actions, if only Kurdish leaders would play their hand more skillfully.

Unfortunately, the rising threat of an Iranian Winter--nuclear or otherwise--is likely to outlast and overshadow any Arab Spring.

Recent advances in Iran’s nuclear weapons program show that events are moving extraordinarily swiftly, as Tehran nears the end of its decades-long quest to possess a lethal WMD capability.

Last week, the United Nations Security Council adopted a British resolution calling for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, but, unusually, the United States abstained on the vote.

It is no accident that arrest warrants never seem to be issued for the likes of Kim Jong Il or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, since the real targets of universal jurisdiction these days are Western nations.

Gaza would be returned to Egyptian control and the West Bank would revert to Jordanian sovereignty.