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Tag: commentaries

  • Opinion | About Trump’s Foreign Investment Funds

    President Trump moves so fast and announces so much that it’s hard to sort the real from the hype. Cases in point are the invest-in-America promises that foreign governments have made as part of Mr. Trump’s trade deals. They’re so large they’re unlikely to happen, and they raise serious questions about American governance and the power of the purse.

    Mr. Trump heads to South Korea later this month for the annual APEC meetings, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says the Administration is “about to finish up” negotiations over Seoul’s promise to invest some $350 billion in the U.S. In return Mr. Trump cut his tariff on South Korea to 15% from 25%. Japan has also agreed to cut the U.S. a $550 billion check in return for a tariff reduction.

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  • Opinion | China’s Big London Spy Platform

    Did Britain’s Labour government torpedo a spying case to appease Beijing? Prime Minister Keir Starmer finds himself on the defensive as the opposition claims his government prioritized economic ties with China over national security. One test will be whether his government approves a proposed Chinese mega-embassy in London despite the espionage risks.

    The political brawl erupted last month after a much-publicized espionage case collapsed on a legal technicality. Prosecutors claimed British teacher and consultant Christopher Berry and parliamentary researcher Christopher Cash passed sensitive details to Beijing in violation of the 1911 Official Secrets Act.

    A 2024 High Court ruling expanded the definition of “enemy” to include any country that poses a national-security threat to the U.K. But the Crown Prosecution Service says the Labour government failed to provide such an assessment about China despite repeated requests, and as a result “the case could not proceed.” Messrs. Cash and Berry denied wrongdoing and the charges were dropped.

    Mr. Starmer has blamed the previous government for failing to issue such a designation against China. Under political pressure, he released statements by deputy national security adviser Matthew Collins outlining the evidence in the espionage case, including that British MPs critical of Beijing were among the targets.

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  • Opinion | A Mamdani Mayoralty Threatens New York’s Jews

    By propagating lies about ‘occupation,’ ‘apartheid’ and ‘genocide,’ he helps promote antisemitism.

    Elisha Wiesel

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  • Opinion | An English City Bars Israeli Soccer Fans

    Is Britain safe for Jews? On Thursday authorities in Birmingham, the country’s second-largest city, prohibited the fans of an Israeli soccer team from attending a match next month, even though the threats to cause trouble are coming from locals. What an alarming message from police, and it comes barely two weeks after an Islamist terror attack on a synagogue in Manchester.

    The match, scheduled for Nov. 6, is part of a larger tournament and will pit Birmingham’s Aston Villa team against Maccabi Tel Aviv. The Safety Advisory Group, an arm of the city government, last week barred Tel Aviv fans from attending, ruling that the event is “high risk.” West Midlands Police, which advises the committee, said the decision “is based on current intelligence and previous incidents.”

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  • Opinion | The U.N. Blinks on Its Carbon Tax

    Leaders delay a vote on its taxation-without-representation scheme.

    The Editorial Board

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  • Opinion | Give Ukraine the Tomahawks, Mr. President

    President Trump demurred Friday on whether he’ll send Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, and he clearly hasn’t made up his mind. But the missile threat seems to have captured Vladimir Putin’s attention, and the U.S. interest in driving a durable peace in Ukraine far outweighs the risks of handing over the missiles.

    “Hopefully we’ll be able to get the war over without thinking about Tomahawks,” Mr. Trump said during a meeting at the White House with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky. Ukraine’s supporters had hoped for Mr. Trump’s approval to obtain the missiles, which have a range of more than 1,000 miles. But another call with Mr. Putin this week appears to have stayed that decision.

    Mr. Trump’s reluctance seems to involve two concerns, and the first is escalation with a nuclear power. But Mr. Putin has been lobbing cruise and ballistic missiles at Ukraine for years, and there’s nothing escalatory about return fire. Tomahawks could be a force for peace by altering Mr. Putin’s capacity to carry on his grinding war.

    The long-range missiles would let Ukraine do better than simply swatting down hundreds of incoming drones. Instead it could take out Russia’s Shahed drone factory. Mr. Putin has tried to use nuclear blackmail for three years to talk the U.S. out of donating this or that weapon. The empirical record is that it’s bluster.

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  • Opinion | Allies United Against China on Rare Earths

    Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Wednesday he plans to coordinate with allies to counter China’s weaponization of rare-earth minerals. It’s the right move, though he might find it easier to rally the world if President Trump weren’t also hitting our allies with unprovoked unilateral tariffs.

    Mr. Bessent earlier in the week accused Beijing of pointing “a bazooka at the supply chains and the industrial base of the entire free world,” by threatening global export controls on products that contain even minuscule amounts of Chinese rare earths. He’s right. China has a stranglehold on these minerals, and it’s a serious problem.

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  • Opinion | The Hamas Rule of Terror in Gaza

    Hamas has returned only nine of the 28 dead Israeli hostages it promised President Trump. Perhaps the terrorists are busy dealing with the corpses of the Palestinians they have been executing since the cease-fire. Where are the protests now from those in the West who claimed to speak for Gazans?

    “Death to Zionism. Death to all collaborators,” the National Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) wrote in an online post Sunday, echoing Hamas’s usual excuse for killing its rivals and dissenters. SJP led the 2024 campus protests in the U.S. and received fawning press coverage for its humanitarian concern.

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  • Opinion | The Crisis in Paris Is That No One Recognizes the Real Crisis

    France’s welfare state is in desperate need of reform, but Macron is obsessing over Marine Le Pen.

    Joseph C. Sternberg

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  • Opinion | Russia’s Weakness Is Trump’s Opportunity

    Having just commemorated two years since Oct. 7, 2023, we’re now approaching another grim anniversary—Feb. 24, four years since Russia invaded Ukraine. For all of President Trump’s shortcomings, he deserves credit for recognizing that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was vulnerable after having overreached by bombing Qatar. The president leveraged Bibi’s weakness to force a cease-fire. Russia is in a similarly vulnerable position after the failure of its third offensive against Ukraine, yet Mr. Trump has failed to exploit this weakness. This raises the question: Why is Mr. Trump reluctant to take advantage of Vladimir Putin’s helplessness?

    In February, Mr. Trump berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky: “You don’t have the cards.” Yet from nearly every angle and measure, it’s Russia whose hand is weak. Mr. Putin is more vulnerable today than at any point in his three decades on the global stage. Either Mr. Trump’s sixth sense for using leverage is failing him, or some strange fondness for the Russian president’s strongman persona is preventing him from appreciating the strategic opportunity that lies before him.

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  • Opinion | Gaza Deal Is a Big Win for Trump—but Voters Are Fickle

    He has secured a place in history, but the midterm elections are another matter.

    Karl Rove

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  • Opinion | Trump’s Message to Maduro

    Mary Anastasia O’Grady wonders about President Trump’s motivations for sending military assets to the Caribbean (“Trump’s War Drums in Venezuela,” Americas, Oct. 13). Interception of drug smugglers? Unseating Nicolás Maduro from power? Perhaps another, simpler answer: The ships are there to dissuade the Venezuelan regime from invading oil-rich Guyana next door.

    Em. Prof. Bill Casey

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  • Opinion | Europe Joins the Steel Tariff Game

    A feature of the Trump era is that while foreign governments object to the American President’s protectionism, in practice they often jump at the opportunity to join him in imposing tariffs. Witness the new levies the European Union proposed on imported steel last week.

    Brussels plans to cut in half the volume of steel allowed to enter the EU tariff-free each year, to 18.3 million tons. For imports above that level, the tariff rate will rise to 50% from 25%. This is a gift to struggling European steel makers that have long begged for protection.

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  • Opinion | What I Saw in Gaza in the Final Days of War

    Your editorial gathers the right “ Lessons of Trump’s Gaza Peace Deal” (Oct. 10). President Trump did what not only President Biden couldn’t but what all the European leaders recently calling for “cease-fire” never tried. The 20-point plan achieves Israel’s goals of the war, protects Palestinian interests, offers hope for a future without Hamas and sets the conditions for lasting peace.

    As I boarded my plane out of Tel Aviv on Oct. 10, pure joy was in the air. It permeated every space, billboard sign and hotel. Israelis weren’t celebrating vengeance. They were relishing the prospect of peace, security and the end of a nightmare.

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  • Opinion | Argentina: Right Country, Wrong Rescue

    Javier Milei needs U.S. help, but his country really needs dollarization.

    The Editorial Board

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  • Opinion | A Nobel for Venezuela’s Iron Lady

    Allies of President Trump are grousing that he didn’t win this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. But it’s hard to fault the admirable choice, announced Friday, of Venezuelan freedom fighter María Corina Machado.

    The Nobel committee called her “one of the most extraordinary examples of civilian courage in Latin America in recent time,” and we’d drop the geographic caveat. In the personal risks and sacrifices she has made for democracy, she sets an example for the world.

    Educated as an industrial engineer, Ms. Machado has been a leader of the democracy movement in Venezuela for more than 20 years. In 2002 she watched Hugo Chávez destroy institutions and consolidate power. She resisted by co-founding the nonprofit Súmate—“Join” in English—to engage Venezuelans to become politically active.

    She was elected to the National Assembly in 2010. In 2013 she was beaten during a legislative session by pro-government members who broke her nose. In March 2014 during a visit to the border with Colombia, she was kidnapped for several hours by armed hoodlums. The following week the regime expelled her from the Assembly.

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  • Opinion | The Peace Deal Proves That Netanyahu’s Critics Were Wrong

    They kept insisting the prime minister was prolonging the war for political reasons.

    Elliot Kaufman

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  • Opinion | Ukraine is Starving Russia of Oil

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has labeled his military’s strikes on Russia’s oil infrastructure “the most effective sanctions.” Meanwhile, reports indicate that alongside urging Europe and India to halt purchases of Russian oil, Washington plans to share additional intelligence with Ukraine on Russian refineries, pipelines and other energy infrastructure.

    Most discussions about these “sanctions” have focused on their financial implications for Russia. Vladimir Putin relies heavily on corruption and patronage, with oil and gas serving as key revenue streams. Disrupting the flow could force Mr. Putin to choose between sustaining the war and maintaining the payouts to oligarchs and citizens that secure his political backing—though such an economic squeeze would take some time.

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    Michael Bohnert

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  • Opinion | Free Gaza’s Palestinians from Hamas

    Trump’s peace plan is a path to freedom and stability for the strip’s oppressed residents.

    Moumen Al-Natour

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  • Opinion | The Oct. 7 Warning for the U.S. on China

    Hamas’s shock troops poured across Israel’s border two years ago, kidnapping, raping and killing civilian men, women and children. Israel’s bitter experience offers lessons America should learn before our own moment of reckoning.

    The most important is that the hypothetical war can actually happen. Even if we’re intellectually prepared, there’s a risk that years of relative peace has lulled us into a false sense of security. The Israeli defense establishment never truly believed Hamas would launch a full-scale invasion. They viewed Gaza as a chronic but manageable problem—one for diplomats and intelligence officers, distant from the daily concerns of citizens. Israeli politicians and generals also spoke of open conflict with the Iran-led Islamist axis much like their American counterparts speak of China and a Taiwan crisis—the pacing threat and the most likely test, yes, but ultimately a question for tomorrow. Then tomorrow came.

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    Mike Gallagher

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