June 5, 2012
Israel’s Deployment of Nuclear Missiles on Subs from Germany
Der Spiegel presents a history of Israel’s nuclear program from the 1950s to the present day – and Germany’s controversial role in it.
In December 1957, Strauss met with a small Israeli delegation for a discussion at his home near Rosenheim in Bavaria. The most prominent member of the Israeli group was the man who, in the following decades, would become the key figure in Israel’s arms deals with Germany, as well as the father of the Israeli atomic bomb: Shimon Peres, who would later become Israel’s prime minister and is the current Israeli president today, at the age of 88.
The fall in oil prices is not good news for Iran’s rulers, who are already dealing with a tough economic and political situation, writes Emanuele Ottolenghi for Commentary Magazine.
Iran’s budget is pegged to an $85 a barrel oil price. With prices below that benchmark and Iran having to offer further discounts or being dragged into barter agreements to avoid dollar payments that could trigger U.S. sanctions, it is very likely the regime will have less and less funds available to keep its power base happy.
The Real Reason to Intervene in Syria
Writing in Foreign Policy, James Rubin argues that positive impact of military intervention in Syria outweighs the negative.
In Lebanon, Hezbollah would be cut off from its Iranian sponsor, since Syria would no longer be a transit point for Iranian training, assistance, and missiles. All these strategic benefits combined with the moral purpose of saving tens of thousands of civilians from murder at the hands of the Assad regime—some 12,000 have already been killed, according to activists—make intervention in Syria a calculated risk, but still a risk worth taking.
Egypt’s travesty of justice with Hosni Mubarak
The fallen president’s trial highlights Egypt’s shaky transition to a so-called democratic state, says the Washington Post in its editorial.
His trial was less a serious judicial exercise than a smokescreen thrown up by the military council that removed him from office. The generals who once reported to Mr. Mubarak now desperately seek to preserve their power, despite a promised transition to democracy, and to avoid being held accountable for their own crimes. Mr. Mubarak’s prosecution was meant to defuse the popular demand that the old regime be held accountable while obstructing it in every meaningful sense.
Molly Ball of the Atlantic meets Brad Sherman and Howard Berman, the two Democratic Jewish Congressman who – thanks to California redistricting – are going head-to-head for their political futures.
Their race is likely to be one of the most expensive House contests in the country—multiple super PACs are involved, and the final tab is expected to come to at least $12 million. In the months leading up to California’s June primary, things have also been getting nasty. Sherman sent out mailers attempting to tie Berman to a gas-line explosion that caused eight deaths. Berman, for his part, said this of Sherman’s post-election career prospects: “Brad will make an excellent Hollywood stuntman.” But how is anyone outside Washington supposed to tell the two foes apart?
