President Obama's efforts to appease Sudanese president Omar Hassan al-Bashir's government have increased Bashir's perception of U.S. weakness and reinforced his inclination and willingness to use military force to suppress Sudanese opposition in the South, Darfur, and elsewhere.

Contrary to conventional wisdom in Washington, Turkey's prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is not interested in preserving his country's relationship with Israel, but is determined to bolster Turkey's standing in the Arab and Muslim world's at Israel's expense.

Prime Minister Erdoğan has implemented a deliberate plan to send Turkey on a fundamentally different trajectory, and while Turkey's residual military assistance is still helpful to the United States, policymakers should no longer assume Turkish goodwill.

Though critics continue to unfairly condemn Israel for the Gaza blockade, which forms a necessary barrier between Israel’s enemies and those who would help arm them, now is a terrible time to consider abandoning the blockade.

The Obama administration's treatment of the Gaza blockade issue has reflected an unwillingness to defend hard-pressed U.S. interests around the world and the harm caused by this weakness will reach far beyond the Middle East.

While it is indisputable that the "flotilla fiasco" was a public-relations disaster for Israel, the presumption in the global media has always been that Israel is the villain regardless of the facts.

While Israel's handling of the fake freedom-fighting flotilla was a disaster, Israel has the legal right to ensure that shipments to Gaza do not contain arms, and the obligation to do so to protect its citizens.

National survival depends on the willingness and ability of the targets of terrorism to assert and defend a national identity.