October 25, 2012 | 2:46 am

October 25, 2012

Posted by Shmuel Rosner

An Iranian holds a poster of Ayatollah Khamenei as he walks on mock-ups of the U.S. and Israeli flags in Qom, February 2011. (Photo: Reuters)

In-depth

How Iran Plays the U.S.

The Islamic Republic has never been swayed from its policies by the decades-long conciliatory attitude of American administrations, writes Sohrab Ahmari in Commentary Magazine. 

The notion that U.S.-Iran tension is rooted in a failure of communication or lack of mutual respect is not the brainchild of the Obama administration. It is, rather, the longstanding and uninspired status-quo position of Washington’s foreign-policy elite. Both the realist and liberal schools of thought take it as axiomatic that frustrations between the two countries are less a matter of ideological conflict than an inability to settle on reasonable, mutually satisfactory aims.  

The Spymaster

Aaron David Miller of Foreign Policy grills former Mossad chief Efraim Halevy about Iran, the conflict in Syria, and U.S.-Israel ties. 

...if we had followed all the other avenues to try to persuade the Iranians from doing what obviously they're still trying to do, then I believe it is not only acceptable -- it's also logical that one should use military means in order to get this capability removed. I say removed because I don't believe that it will be destroyed. I mean it will be delayed. And I think that delay is important, because time is of the essence -- time sometimes gives you the breathing space to develop other possibilities, which would negate the capability now in front of you.

Daily Digest

• Times of Israel: After bombing, hundreds in Khartoum rally against Israel
• Haaretz: Heading toward an irreparable rift between U.S. Jews and Protestants
• Jerusalem Post: Gazans fire mortar shell at South despite informal truce
• Ynet: Report: Israel sells drones to Azerbaijan
• New York Times: E-Mails Offer Glimpse at What U.S. Knew in First Hours After Attack in Libya
• Washington Post: Syria’s war spills into Lebanon
• Wall Street Journal: Damascus Suburb Massacre Clouds Move Toward Truce

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