Kurtzer to Syria?
Laura Rozen at Foreign Policy.com reports on some possible choices for the new ambassador to Syria, and a former ambassasdor to Israel is one of them. She says Dan Kurtzer, who was an early surrogate for President Obama in the Jewish community during the campaign, is a possibility. The other name she mentions is Jake Walles, currently serving as the U.S. consul general in Jerusalem.
Rozen also has news on positions possible being filled at the State Department's Near East Affairs department, and some moves for some familiar names at the Brookings Institution:
Ronald Schlicher, a career Foreign Service officer who previously served as the consul general in Jerusalem, is expected to be named principal deputy assistant secretary of state, diplomatic and Washington Middle East hands say. The Brookings Institution's Tamara Cofman Wittes is a candidate to be the deputy assistant secretary who oversees Middle East democracy issues. The job, which was previously held by Liz Cheney and J. Scott Carpenter, has been fashioned to focus on "Arab reform." Wittes declined to comment, and Schlicher couldn't immediately be reached. ...
Brookings:
Because Brookings' director of Foreign Policy Studies, Carlos Pascual, has been nominated to be Obama's ambassador to Mexico, some shuffles are expected at the think tank. As previously reported, Martin Indyk, former U.S. ambassador to Israel and current director of Brookings' Saban Center for Middle East Policy, is expected to succeed Pascual. Kenneth Pollack, a former CIA analyst, is expected to be named director of the Saban Center. (He didn't respond to a query.)
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OU encouarges education tax credits
The Orthodox Union is commending the state of Indiana for enacting an education tax credit and urging other states to do the same.
In a press release, the organization says Indidana's new law, which provides a 50 percent tax credit for donations to scholarship programs that help lower income students attend private school, signals to "other states that tax credits are both politically feasible and good public policy."
Arizona, Iowa, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island are among the states that already have similar programs.
The OU's full release is after the jumpRead More >>>
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Chabad rabbi gives Senate invocation
A transcript of Harlig's prayer can be read here, and below is the video of his appearance in the Senate.
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Waxman hospitalized, ‘feeling better’
The Washington Post and other media outlets are reporting that Jewish Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman (Calif.) was taken to a California hospital after not feeling well Tuesday night, but he's doing better now:
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) was taken to a Los Angeles hospital last night for "routine testing" after he was not feeling well, according to his office.
Waxman, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, had just ushered a historic climate change legislation to a narrow victory Friday. His office told the Associated Press that he was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where he is "feeling much better now."
Waxman, who won the chairmanship of the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee last November, was key in steering climate change legislation through the House and will be a crucial part of the health care reform debate as well. He's also the dean of the Jewish caucus in the House.
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Settlements were on the agenda
The joint statement about the meeting between Ehud Barak and George Mitchell is out. Settlements appeared to be very much on the agenda, although Barak has insisted that they were not an obstacle:
Defense Minister Barak and Special Envoy Mitchell met for several hours in New York on June 30. They discussed the full range of issues related to Middle East peace and security and the contributions Israelis, Palestinians, their neighbors and the international community should make to this effort. Specifically, their discussions covered a wide range of measures needed to create a climate conducive to peace. These included measures on security and incitement by the Palestinians; steps by Arab states toward normalization with Israel; and, from Israel, actions including on access and movement in the West Bank and on settlement activity. The discussions were constructive and will continue soon.
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The New Republic’s Obama disappointments
The current print edition of The New Republic opens and closes with expressions of disappointment over President Obama's perceived dropping of the ball on civil rights/human rights.
Up front, the editors criticize Obama on several fronts regarding gay rights -- most notably, his failure to follow through on his pledge to repeal the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy:
... In all of this, nothing is more infuriating than Obama's refusal to act on Don't Ask, Don't Tell. It is true that the issue affects a relatively small number of gays and lesbians. But discrimination in our armed forces carries a potent symbolism: It tells an entire class of people that the country is not interested in their service. And it would be an easy problem to fix. As Nathaniel Frank argued at tnr Online last month, Obama may need Congress's approval to officially repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell, but he has the legal authority to tell the Pentagon to stop enforcing the policy via executive order. He could do it tomorrow. As for the political risks: Obama should look at some polls. Unlike same-sex marriage, the question of whether gays should serve openly in the military is no longer a particularly controversial issue. According to Gallup, 69 percent of Americans believe gays should be able to serve openly. To put that number in perspective, it is 25 points higher than the percentage of Americans who endorse Obama's handling of health care, 19 points higher than the percentage who currently support the war in Afghanistan, and 18 points higher than the percentage who approve of the administration's economic policies. Obama is not afraid to push health care reform, send more troops to Afghanistan, or stand by his stimulus program--nor should he be. But why, when it comes to the far less controversial cause of gays serving in the military, is he apparently willing to punt? ...
Then in the back Leon Wieseltier sides with those who say Obama should have come out stronger on the side of those taking to the streets in Iran:
... With their defense of Obama's dilatoriness about the revolt in Tehran, American liberals compromised themselves. They succumbed to the Council on Foreign Relations view of the world. So it is important to be clear that the strong articulation of American principles by the American president when those principles are being bravely upheld by a people in revolt against a dictator--this is not only a statement of emotion, it is also an element of strategy. It emboldens the right side. It allies the United States with peoples against regimes, which is almost always the surest foundation for the American position. (I am not an Iran expert, unlike almost everyone I meet, but I find it hard to imagine that the young men and women suffering the blows of the Basij would not welcome our support, that they are in the streets with angry thoughts of Mossadegh. If these events have shown anything, it is that their enemy and our enemy are the same.) There is nothing more sweepingly in the interest of the United States in the Middle East than the withering away of the theocracy in Iran. Every blow struck against the structure of state power in Iran is a blow struck against Hezbollah and Hamas; and a blow has at last been struck. This is one of those instances in which our planners may have some use for our principles. I understand the urgency of the nuclear issue, of course. I doubt that those centrifuges will be negotiated away; but if there is any hope for diplomacy, it lies in a political transformation in Tehran. ...
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