"Danny Russel, a former U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asia who’s now a vice president of the Asia Society in New York, shares his views on how the Chinese government is dealing with the coronavirus outbreak..." Watch the full interview here: Full Interview
"'People ask me if there is a collapse of bipartisan support for Israel. I don’t think so. But I do think there is a rise in partisan tension about what it means to support Israel. Those are not the same thing. I’ll be at AIPAC engaging in conversations with people from a range of backgrounds and with a variety of views, including some that differ from my own. I expect to find a lot of consensus around support for a close [...]
"'It would not be easy for [Senator Sanders] given the legislation,' said Dennis Ross, a former US diplomat who has worked on the Israeli-Palestinian file for decades. "'The waiver was provided to justify why the embassy had not been moved given the requirement to do so. In theory, he might try to say for national security reasons we needed to do so. But what would those reasons be? For peace? What would be the signs this would make a difference?...'" Read [...]
"The Trump administration cannot decide if its peace plan is an opening gambit to trigger a compromise or a fait accompli that precludes one. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in answering a question about Palestinian responses to the Plan said, 'I hope they will then present a counteroffer if what’s presented isn’t acceptable.' Fair enough, except that David Friedman, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, declared that Israel can unilaterally annex territories allotted in the plan once a bilateral U.S.-Israeli panel finishes [...]
"'World leaders have learned to shorten or scrap the historical tours, remove local delicacies from the menu and focus on one thing only: feeding his ego,' said Julianne Smith, the director of the Asia program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. 'That’s taken different forms in recent years, but the goal is always the same—make Trump feel like he’s getting something unique: a parade in Paris, a grand state dinner at Buckingham Palace or a sumo match with [...]
"'The whole purpose of this U.S.-Taliban agreement is to induce the Taliban to come to the negotiating table with the Afghan government and other representatives of Afghan society,' said Michèle Flournoy, who was a high-level Pentagon official in the Obama administration. "'It’s very, very important that the delegation that sits across from the Taliban be inclusive, not only members of the Ghani administration, but also the political opposition, civil society and especially women and younger Afghans,' Ms. Flournoy said this week [...]
"Speakers [Michele Flournoy and Carter Malkasian] discuss the seven-day reduction of violence deal in Afghanistan reached by the Trump administration and the Taliban and the prospects for peace..." Read the full transcript here: Full Transcript
"'[Kushner] understands that an immediate move by Israel to annex these territories will pretty much strangle those efforts to recruit Arab support in the crib,' says former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro. 'That left Netanyahu a little bit hung out to dry, but he had to make an adjustment to this now more definitive U.S. position...' "'Trump would not have rolled this plan out when he did if he didn't think it would provide some benefit to Netanyahu. But it [...]
"NPR's Ari Shapiro speaks with Vikram Singh, former deputy special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, and a former defense negotiator. They discuss the U.S. and Taliban's ceasefire deal..." Read the full transcript here: Full Transcript
"Chancellor Angela Merkel can’t seem to make up her mind. For months, her administration, the Germany Parliament, and outside experts have been debating whether to rely on high-risk vendors for the construction of the country’s 5G telecommunications networks. Unfortunately, this important debate keeps getting sidetracked. Because the Trump administration is using another one of its ill-conceived “maximum pressure” campaigns to persuade Germany to ban Huawei, this debate has morphed into a black and white choice between the United States and China. [...]