Elliott Abrams

Rahm Emanuel seems to think he knows Israel very well, and that the way to treat that country and its democratically-elected government is the way he treats all opponents in politics: by attacking and attacking. ”

The Egyptian military plays positive and negative roles in Egypt, but the most significant single thing it did under Mubarak was to guarantee an Islamist victory once he left the scene. ”

As the Palestinian leadership never seems to pay any penalty for its words, America's seriousness about the peace process is in doubt. ”

Peace in the Middle East has been on the Obama administration's mind from the beginning. Two days after his inauguration, the president traveled to the State Department to announce the appointment of George Mitchell as his Middle East peace negotiator. ”

The failure to set standards for Palestinian conduct hurts the cause of peace. ”

What Israel wants is peace with - and the acknowledgment of - all the Arab countries. ”

I don't think a Palestinian state is going to be created at a conference table; it will be created on the ground in the West Bank, and some day, a peace conference will ratify that which has been built on the ground. ”

The Middle East that Obama inherited in 2009 was largely at peace, for the surge in Iraq had beaten down the al Qaeda-linked groups. U.S. relations with traditional allies in the Gulf, Jordan, Israel and Egypt were very good. Iran was contained, its Revolutionary Guard forces at home. ”

America's relations with complex Middle Eastern states such as Egypt are often difficult. ”

Cheney's memoir is not about 9/11, or solely about Bush's administration, but about his entire life and political career. ”