December 17, 2012 | 2:28 am

December 17, 2012

Posted by Shmuel Rosner

Israelis calling for the release of Jonathan Pollard outside the American embassy in Tel Aviv. (Photo: Reuters)

In-depth

Don’t Mess Up U.S.-Iran Sanctions

Writing in Bloomberg, Lee Hamilton, Thomas Pickering and Anthony Zinni argue the case for caution in imposing even greater sanctions on Iran.

Our leaders must weigh the easy and appealing course of ever-greater sanctions as a way to force a ready-to-deal Iran to the table against testing the possibility that the existing sanctions have already done that work. The president should work with Congress to achieve the right mix of pressure and engagement to get Iran to negotiate on increasingly urgent and threatening differences.

Obama’s year of reckoning awaits on Iran

The president's new team must quickly formulate a coherent policy on Iran, warns Edward Luce in the Financial Times.  

On Iran, in particular, there is little to waste. Among Washington’s foreign policy luminaries, it is hard to find one who claims to know the Obama administration’s strategy. Some speculate that the White House may have already established a back channel dialogue with Tehran led by someone like Thomas Pickering, the veteran state department envoy. If so, it would be reassuring. But this is a hope rather than an estimate. Others worry that Mr Obama lacks a real strategy to communicate.

Daily Digest

• Times of Israel: Turkey investigating local Jews it claims aided IDF in Mavi Marmara affair
• Haaretz: Fearing wrath of regime, thousands stream over Syrian border into Jordan
• Jerusalem Post: CIA: Pollard got life sentence due to ‘Post’ interview
• Ynet: Is John Kerry good for Israel?
• New York Times: A Syrian Airstrike Kills Palestinian Refugees and Costs Assad Support
• Washington Post: U.S. plans for possibility that Assad could lose control of chemical arms cache
• Wall Street Journal: Egypt Islamists Expect Constitution Victory

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