Hamas commits war crime, Obama responds with Hamas talking point

 

Hamas terrorists prepare a mortar launcher. (File image via Al Arabiya)

New post up at Liberty Unyielding.  Enjoy!

Strange but True in the Far East

Now and then, it’s good to check in with the other side of the world.  U.S. cabinet secretaries John Kerry and Chuck Hagel have been doing that this past week – and you might think it would be hard to top the strange-but-true message their respective diplomatic displays have sent.

But you’d be underestimating the Far East if you did.  To set the stage, we note that U.S. and foreign analysts believe North Korea has restarted the plutonium reactor at Yongbyon in the last few weeks.  This is, of course, a move against which Pyongyang has been warned.  It comes on the heels of

Kenya taking charge in Horn of Africa – Thumbs up or down?

In news you may not have heard anything about, Kenyan troops are pressing an advance on the Somali coastal city of Kismayo, and the Kenyan navy is sinking ships associated with the Somali Islamist terror group Al-Shabaab offshore.

An ill-governed, splintered Somalia has been a thorn in the side of the region for 20 years, and international efforts to impose peace on the troubled nation have struggled just to remain credible, much less achieve their objectives.  Responding last fall to an increase in Al-Shabaab-sponsored terror attacks on her soil, Kenya has put together a campaign of military force to suppress Al-Shabaab action.  The latest effort in the campaign is rather more than that, however:

Finally, the Obama Doctrine: “Atrocities Prevention”

Numerous news outlets have reported on the new Atrocities Prevention Board unveiled by President Obama as part of commemorating Holocaust Remembrance Day, and quite a few have expressed skepticism.  It’s one thing to create a board; another entirely to take action using the tools of national power.

Defining “atrocity” will be a stiff challenge.  If something seems awful but the US administration doesn’t really want to intervene in it, will it be defined as an “atrocity”?  If it’s defined as an atrocity but we don’t do anything other than blather about it, what exactly will be the point of the Atrocities Prevention policy?

Presumably, a due-out from the Atrocities Prevention Board (APB) will be

The danger of not vetoing the Palestinian statehood bid

Amid the circus atmosphere and all the sound and fury, a trademark Obama administration solution for the Palestinian statehood bid is emerging: kicking the can down the road.

For several days, the Security Council option of referring the statehood bid for study and consultation, rather than holding a vote and having the US veto it outright, has been a quiet buzz.  The decibel level increased yesterday, and Politico and Haaretz, among other outlets, have reported that the postponement option is gathering steam.  Ynet even reports a US plan for the statehood bid to be deferred for one year (which would put the next eruption in the fall of 2012, seemingly bad timing for an Obama reelection quest).

This makes perfect sense given the administration’s record of postponements on the US debt issue.