Word: israels
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...Nobel is Obama's for effort only, at best. The Arab-Israeli peace process is in disarray: after eight months of concerted effort by the U.S., talks have yet to begin, as both sides are stuck on whether Israel will freeze its expansion settlements in occupied Palestinian territory (so far, it has said it won't). Relations with the Muslim world have improved, at least by the measure of international poll numbers, but they have not advanced peace (or American interests) yet: Arab states are still resisting recognizing Israel, contributing to the problems besetting peace talks there. (See pictures...
...hasn't earned the Nobel Prize yet. If he does one day live up to the citation in the award, it will be because he was the opposite of humble: because he braved the enmity of some of his supporters by dedicating himself to peace between Israel and Palestine; because he backed his words against nuclear-weapons proliferation with action to stop it; because he reminded Americans, with John Donne, that no man is an island and that poverty, despair and hunger anywhere diminish and indeed threaten those who are not poor, not hopeless and not hungry. Humility is fine...
...analysts believe there will be a tipping point. With its vast stake in the region, China inevitably will have to pronounce clearer positions on a whole sticky set of conflicts - from the massacres in Sudan that Beijing has so far studiously ignored to the Israel-Palestine conflict to tensions between Iran and its neighbors. Missteps could fan popular anger and play into the hands of groups like al-Qaeda, ever eager to channel the discontent of the street. And with what many perceive as the steady decline of U.S. power and influence, China will only cast a longer shadow...
Still, in the short term, Abdullah's visit is at least a sign that the leaders of the Arab Middle East have backed away from a regional confrontation. However, with Israel threatening to shut down Iran's nuclear program the old-fashioned way - by military strikes - if an alliance of Western nations can't do so through negotiations, it's unlikely that peace will hold for long...
...recent intelligence report put out by the government of Israel, which considers Iran's nuclear program a direct threat to its security, said Venezuela was already supplying Iran with uranium. But experts say it's hardly certain Venezuela even has much, if any, uranium to provide Iran or anyone else. Officials there have long estimated the country is sitting on 50,000 tons of the radioactive ore, concentrated mostly in western Venezuela and in the Roraima Basin along the country's southeastern border with Brazil and Guyana. (The U.S. has uranium reserves of about 340,000 tons...