Elliott Abrams

The Fayyad cabinet may well be the best the Palestinians ever get. But whatever its good qualities, there is no democracy.

In public, an admission of technological inadequacy would be too embarrassing.

Reformist kings can save their dynasties now by helping their countries move smoothly into democracy, or they will end their years in exile like the Russian aristocrats of a century earlier.

The notion that public service requires men and women of good character now seems quaint.

Fatah is a political party and movement, whose chairman is Mahmoud Abbas.

The Sandinistas are dedicated Communists, and if they are going to make a compromise with democracy, it's going to be under pressure.

The Pope is not a political figure.

The Egyptian military and the government of Israel have long had a common interest in maintaining order and fighting terrorism in Sinai.

Harry Truman, who was a Bible-believing Christian Zionist, defied the secretary of state he so admired, George C. Marshall, and won a place in Israel's history by recognizing the new state 11 minutes after it declared its independence in 1948.

Pundits are used to analyzing the gap between what our ideals suggest and what our security interests require.

I don't see kids with Palm Pilots. They are not common on college campuses, except among professors. Gen Xers don't need them. They are a phenomenon of the 50-something who can't remember if his broker's number ends in 1137 or 3317.

Even today, when the Obama administration has liberalized travel to Cuba - and failed to reverse that liberalization when Alan Gross was imprisoned - there are limits.