Word: iran
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...Israel's key congressional supporters on board with the White House push against settlements. U.S. officials were widely quoted as telling the Israelis that moving forward on a settlement freeze and peace with the Palestinians was a critical step toward mustering the Arab support Washington needed to pressure Iran. In his Cairo speech, Obama had made clear that America's commitment to Israel's security is absolute, but settlements do nothing to enhance Israel's security, and arguably impede it as long as they obstruct the path to peace with the Palestinians...
...Iran has now forced its way back to the top of the White House agenda, as a result of Tehran's violent crackdown on its own citizens protesting claims of election fraud. The domestic political pressure on the Administration to take a tougher stand against Iran's regime may actually help Netanyahu resist pressure for a settlement freeze. After all, the President may find it difficult, in Washington, to muster pressure on Israel over settlements at a moment when he's being berated for speaking too softly on Tehran's crackdown. Members of Congress are now proposing new sanctions legislation...
...bona fides as a peacemaker, but also of U.S. credibility. The President hasn't left himself much room for retreat; the question is whether Netanyahu plans to find a way to accommodate the President's demand, or to defy the White House and rely on the turmoil in Iran to keep the heat off Israel...
Obama, as he's done this past month with Iran, will have to take special care to convince the hemisphere, if not the world, that the reality is just the opposite. Sunday morning, he called on "all political and social actors in Honduras to respect democratic norms, the rule of law and the tenets of the Inter-American Democratic Charter," insisting that the crisis "must be resolved peacefully through dialogue free from any outside interference." It was a good start - as was the announcement by Obama's ambassador in Honduras later in the day that the U.S. will not recognize...
...more reason Obama has to play the Honduran crisis smartly. His call against "outside interference," to respect national sovereignty in ways Latin America felt the Bush Administration too often ignored, is particularly savvy. In fact, because Obama has been so measured in his response to Iran, Tehran's allies in Latin America, including Chávez, have had trouble gaining anti-Yanqui traction over that crisis. "Latin America's leftist governments have all been waiting for Obama to blow his cool, but it's not happening," says Michael Shifter, vice president of the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington. "It throws...