By decisive numbers, Americans remain more sympathetic to Israel than to the Palestinians when thinking about the conflict in the Middle East.
A majority of Americans remain skeptical about the prospects for peace between the Israelis and Palestinians.
Americans continue to believe that Israel is very serious about wanting to reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians.They are divided about Palestinian leaders’ seriousness about wanting to reach a peace agreement.
Americans believe that the Israelis and the Palestinians must directly negotiate their own solutions.
American support for U.S. involvement in the peace process has decreased since 2009. They also reject the preconditions for resuming negotiations that the Palestinians have been demanding.
Some 63% of poll respondents characterized Israel as a "crucial ally" and said that the Jewish state's relationship with the US does not undermine America's image in the world.
Iran Nuke Site As to Iran's development of nuclear weapons, the poll showed that 57% of Americans support Israeli military action to prevent such scenario while only 31% opposed such move. Some 50% of respondents supported US military action against Iran, while 44% expressed their objection to such strike.
Meanwhile, nearly half of all Americans said they sympathize with the State of Israel, while only 18% said they sympathize with the Palestinians. Some 63% of respondents said they believe Israel is serious about peace, while only 37% thought otherwise.
Overall, 73% of Americans said that the US can count on Israel as a strong ally.
A forthcoming U.N. report, obtained by Foreign Policy in advance of its publication later this week, condemns the Iranian regime for wide-ranging human right abuses, including the secret killings of hundreds of prisoners under mysterious circumstances.
Read the rest here.
The report, compiled by Ahmed Shaheed, the new U.N. "Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran," makes for dismal reading: a compendium of violations of basic rights ranging from lack of free expression and assembly to summary executions and torture of detainees.
Iran's authoritarian rulers have abused their people for centuries; thousands died during and in the immediate aftermath of the 1979 revolution. The picture improved somewhat under the 1997-2005 presidency of Mohammad Khatami but has darkened again in recent years.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad categorically denied that his country was behind a plot to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador to Washington, in an interview with Al Jazeera Monday.
"If the US administration is under the impression that by doing this that it can create conflict between us and Saudi Arabia, it is sadly mistaken," he said.
WASHINGTON — President Obama is pressing United Nations nuclear inspectors to release classified intelligence information showing that Iran is designing and experimenting with nuclear weapons technology. The president’s push is part of a larger American effort to further isolate and increase pressure on Iran after accusing it of a plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States.
If the United Nations’ watchdog group agrees to publicize the evidence, including new data from recent months, it would almost certainly revive a debate that has been dormant during the Arab Spring about how aggressively the United States and its allies, including Israel, should move to halt Iran’s suspected weapons program.
Over the longer term, several senior Obama administration officials said in interviews, they are mulling a ban on financial transactions with Iran’s central bank — a move that has been opposed by China and other Asian nations. Also being considered is an expansion of the ban on the purchase of petroleum products sold by companies controlled by the country’s elite military force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
The Revolutionary Guards are also believed to oversee the military side of the nuclear program, and they are the parent of the Quds Force, which Washington has accused of directing the assassination plot.
The Israel Awareness Commission has helped push for tougher sanctions against Iran, and while current sanctions do indeed exist, they are not implemented to the fullest extent. It seem as though this is changing rapidly.The proposed sanctions come as administration officials confront skepticism around the world about their allegations that Iran was behind the plot and limited options about what they can do — as well as growing pressure from Republicans and some Democrats in Congress to take tougher action against Iran, with the central bank and the oil industry high on lawmakers’ lists.
Washington (CNN) -- U.S. agents disrupted an Iranian assassination-for-hire scheme targeting Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, U.S. officials said Tuesday.
Elements of the Iranian government directed the alleged plan, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said.
A naturalized U.S. citizen holding Iranian and U.S. passports and a member of Iran's Revolutionary Guard face conspiracy charges connected with the plot.
"In addition to holding these individual conspirators accountable for their alleged role in this plot, the United States is committed to holding Iran accountable for its actions," Holder said.
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The Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington thanked U.S. authorities for stepping in.
"The attempted plot is a despicable violation of international norms, standards and conventions and is not in accord with the principles of humanity," the embassy said in a written statement.
We're just going to let this fly? Or will the Obama administration do something about this?
The Saudi ambassador was not the only intended target, U.S. officials said. The suspects also discussed attacking Israeli and Saudi embassies in Washington and possibly Buenos Aires, Argentina, a senior U.S. official said.
