June 17, 2012 | 1:55 am

June 17, 2012

Posted by Shmuel Rosner

An Egyptian woman votes in the country's parliamentary elections, January 2012. (Photo: Reuters)

Noteworthy

No Iranian Nukes

Writing in the Weekly Standard, Jamie Fly and William Kristol call on the U.S. to ‎present military measures as a way to halt Iran’s nuclear program. ‎

But Iran’s nuclear progress marches on. That fact trumps all the administration’s hopes ‎and wishes and theories. Facts are stubborn things, and so is the Iranian nuclear ‎program. No one seriously believes the talks set to resume shortly in Moscow will stop ‎Iranian nuclear progress. Indeed, the talks look increasingly like the farcical diplomatic ‎process pursued by the Bush and Obama administrations with respect to Iran’s friend, ‎North Korea, a “process” that has resulted in a growing nuclear stockpile in that country ‎and a series of unanswered North Korean provocations.‎

Is Egypt’s Old Regime Preparing a ‎Comeback Crackdown?‎

With the apparent backing of the military, for Mubarak prime minister Ahmed ‎Shafik seems confident of a win in the presidential elections, writes Abigail Hauslohner in Time. ‎

Shafik’s supporters are extra confident, perhaps, because it would seem that the ‎ruling military is on their side. On Thursday, the country’s Supreme ‎Constitutional Court dissolved the uprising’s only tangible accomplishment thus ‎far: its democratically elected parliament, which the Muslim Brotherhood had ‎dominated. The move swiftly eliminated the Islamists’ only center of power in a ‎system that has yet to see a new constitution drafted or even the next president’s ‎powers defined. And while many liberals said the military may have manipulated ‎the verdict, they also said the Brotherhood had gotten greedy — seeking too ‎much power, too soon, and they deserved what they got.

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Israeli Settlements‏,‏‎ American Pressure, and Peace

The Obama administration’s insistence on a settlement freeze by Israel has put the ‎peace process back, not moved it forward, writes Steven J. Rosen for the Jerusalem ‎Center for Public Affairs.‎

Obama’s strategy of confrontation over settlements, in other words, has backfired. ‎The Palestinian issue has now regressed to the pre-Madrid situation before 1991: ‎Palestinians once again refuse to meet with Israelis, and speak of abandoning the ‎two-state solution and returning to armed struggle.

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