Shoshana Bryen is senior director of the Jewish Policy Center in Washington D.C.
Her books, available on Amazon, include:
By Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. — If you’re looking for American ingenuity and technological prowess to help resolve the climate issues that face the world, the Paris Climate Pact is not for you. The pact is a voluntary agreement among countries including the world’s worst polluters (this is axiomatic, since only Nicaragua and Syria are […]
Op-Ed: U.S. withdrawal from Paris pact makes sense Read More »
Shoshana Bryen, The World We Share, USABy Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. — In the movie, the Allied commandos sneak through Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia to the bridge they were assigned to blow up. After the requisite setbacks, our heroes enter the internal machinery of a dam upstream of the bridge and detonate their explosives. Then… nothing. Unperturbed, the explosives expert says, “Wait. It is
Drip by drip world rejects P.A. violence Read More »
Middle East, Shoshana BryenBy Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. — The goal of American foreign policy should be to make our friends more secure and our adversaries less secure. The balance of countries then have to decide how they want to position themselves. A successful policy will have tactical goals that fit into a larger strategic picture. The American
Punishment as a foreign policy tool Read More »
International, Middle East, Shoshana Bryen, USABy Shoshana Bryen and Stephen Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. — It is hard to explain why Bashar Assad used nerve gas — probably Sarin — in the town of Khan Sheikhoun in Syria’s northern Idlib province. On the surface, at least, it would seem to be a totally counterproductive and reckless move likely to anger the
Op-Ed: Syria’s use of chemical weapons defied Russia Read More »
International, Middle East, Shoshana BryenBy Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. — For all the hyperbole in Washington about Russian hacking, Russian disinformation, Russian influence, and Russian espionage, the really remarkable events in Russia over the weekend appear barely to have registered. One hundred years after the assassination of the last Czar, and two-and-a-half decades after the fall of the communist
U.S. should take note of tumult in Russia Read More »
International, Shoshana Bryen, USABy Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. — The so-called “two-state solution,” to subdivide the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea between independent Israel and independent Palestine, fails the tests of logic and history. And it ignores the Kingdom of Jordan – whose participation is required for any stable, long-term arrangement. There are presently three
Two states? One state? How about a federation? Read More »
Middle East, Shoshana BryenBy Shoshana Bryen and Stephen Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. — The president is being asked by the Pentagon to provide U.S. ground troops to fight ISIS in Syria. If the president is wise, he will run as fast as he can the other way. There are four potential traps here: • The cost in American lives;
U.S. ground troops in Syria a bad idea Read More »
International, Middle East, Shoshana Bryen, Stephen D. Bryen, USABy Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. — The optics, certainly, were fine. It was good to see an American president and an Israeli prime minister standing together on the podium with what appeared to be genuine good will. Most important, and promising for the future, perhaps, was how they dealt with the “two state solution” mantra. There
Arab – Israeli relations due for a reset Read More »
Middle East, Shoshana Bryen, USABy Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. -The Trump White House continues to receive advice – solicited and unsolicited, in letters to the editor, op-eds, essays, and policy papers – as to what its foreign policy priorities should be. It is tempting to presume that problems called “priorities” can be resolved with just a little more savvy
Some policy suggestions for President Trump Read More »
International, Middle East, Shoshana Bryen, USAThe Manus Island regional processing facility, where Australia sends illegal immigrants. (Photo: Australia Department of Immigration and Citizenship) By Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. — It is hard to complain about Australia — democratic, sunny, cheerful, and oh, those koalas and kangaroos. On a more serious note, Australia is a welcome ally, participating in military operations around
Who are the refugees Australia doesn’t want? Read More »
International, Middle East, Shoshana Bryen, USABy Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. — President-elect Trump’s choice of David Friedman as Ambassador to Israel appears to be an excellent decision. It has already brought howls of protest from people invested heavily in the Oslo and subsequent accords, the “peace process” and the concept of the United States as an “evenhanded” broker between Israelis
What Trump, Friedman may auger for Israel, Palestine Read More »
Middle East, Shoshana Bryen, USABy Shoshana Bryen and Stephen Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. — Sometimes when decisions do not work out exactly as intended, they work out just fine. In the midst of Operation Protective Edge — Israel’s response to 182 Hamas rockets and mortars fired at Israeli towns and villages in the first week of July 2014 — the
Bad decisions sometimes have silver linings Read More »
Middle East, Shoshana Bryen, Stephen D. Bryen, USABy Shoshana Bryen and Stephen Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. _- On April 24, 2004 the USS Firebolt, a Cyclone-class coastal patrol boat in the Persian Gulf, launched a rigid-hulled inflatable boat (RIB) when its crew observed a dhow — a traditional boat, in this case likely owned by Iran — fast approaching the Al Amaya oil
Time to turn around the naval situation with Iran Read More »
Middle East, Shoshana Bryen, USA
By Shoshana Bryen and Stephen Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. — Last week, two Syrian government Su-24 airplanes bombed the Kurdish-held areas of the city of Hasakah. The attack was unexpected. The Kurds have operated semi-autonomously in Syria because their pressure on ISIS has been helpful to Damascus, and because the Kurdish agenda has been primarily regional