Word: lightly
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...analysts are jittery this week following comments on Sunday by Vice President Joe Biden that were widely interpreted as a green light to Israel to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities. Many in the industry have long viewed such an attack as a prelude to a nightmare in global energy markets: Iran retaliating by sinking oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, blocking the route by which most Persian Gulf oil travels to world markets. "We will be in deep, deep trouble," says Leo Drollas, deputy director and chief economist of the Center for Global Energy Studies in London. "The market...
...Biden's comments caused a stir precisely because U.S. officials have scrupulously avoided making comments that Iran might interpret as a green light from Washington for an Israeli strike. "That leads me to infer that [Biden's] was a planned statement," says Cliff Kupchan, director of Europe and Eurasia at the Eurasia Group, a risk consultancy in Washington. "It is very rare for any U.S. official, [much] less the Vice President, to make concrete comments on the possibility of an Israeli military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities." Kupchan warned in a note on Tuesday that Iran could interpret Biden...
With Judt’s piece in mind—and in light of Obama’s recent call for all settlement activity to freeze—the Israeli government’s June 29 announcement to build yet another 50 homes in a West Bank settlement north of Jerusalem (which, according to Ha’aretz, could likely grow into as many as 1,450) only serves to highlight just how contentious “the settlement issue” has become between Israel and its closest ally-cum-benefactor...
...legs stick to any surface—the piano bench, wooden chairs, leather couch—and, when lifted, make this noise between a smack and whoosh. The locals don’t experience this, as they wear light cotton pants and no one seems to wear jeans or shorts around here...
...heading there in the run-up to the Afghan presidential election on August 20, bringing the total number to 4,200 - still below the limit of 4,500 set by Germany's strict parliamentary mandate. But on Thursday, the lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, gave the green light under a separate mandate to deploy up to 300 more soldiers to support NATO's AWACS surveillance aircraft in Afghanistan. (Read "Afghanistan and NATO: Is Europe Up to the Fight...