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Rick Perry aligned himself with some of the most hawkish pro-Israel voices on the question of Israel and Palestine today, but offered a more moderate vision than some of his supporters'. And the Texas governor laid out a far more articulated and current stand on the issues of Israel and a Palestinian state in a short speech to largely Orthodox Jewish supporters of Israel in a ballroom at the W Hotel on New York's Union Square. Perry spoke surrounded by Jewish leaders, many of whom -- like Likud figure and settler tribune Danny Danon and National Council of Young Israel...

For many, photographs from the World War II have only been seen in grainy black and white. But now, new colour images have emerged that show the full horror of the destruction inflicted by Nazi bombings across London. The powerful images were released to mark the 70th anniversary of the launch of Winston Churchill's 'V for Victory' campaign on July 19, 1941.

In honour of President Obama’s state visit to Britain this week, here’s an updated and revised list, as a reminder to readers of the president’s less than stellar track record when it comes to US-British relations. 1. Siding with Argentina over the Falklands 2. Calling France America’s strongest ally 3. Downgrading the Special Relationship 4. Supporting a federal Europe and undercutting British sovereignty 5. Betraying Britain to appease Moscow over the New START Treaty 6. Placing a “boot on the throat” of BP 7. Throwing Churchill out of the Oval Office 8. DVDs for the Prime Minister 9. Insulting words...

BENGHAZI, Libya – French fighter jets fired the first shots at Moammar Gadhafi's troops on Saturday, launching the broadest international military effort since the Iraq war in support of an uprising that had seemed on the verge of defeat. In the hours before the no-fly zone over Libya went into effect, Gadhafi sent warplanes, tanks and troops into Benghazi, the rebel capital and first city to fall to the rebellion that began Feb. 15. Then the government attacks appeared to go silent.

The early weeks of 2011 have been marked by a surge of protests in the Middle East and North Africa have now overturned two longstanding autocratic regimes, in Tunisia and Egypt. However, the wave of democratic protests have not been contained to the Maghreb, even if the entrenched regimes of the Gulf and Levant do not appear under immediate threat. One country being watched very closely by Washington is Jordan, which ranks as one of America’s staunchest allies in the region. Jordan looked an unlikely target for the kind of social unrest found elsewhere in the region, with a more...

SAS Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith is Australia’s 98th Victoria Cross holder after the bronze cross with crimson ribbon was pinned to his chest by Governor General Quentin Bryce in Perth today. During a formal investiture ceremony at the picturesque beachside headquarters of the SAS at Campbell Barracks, Swanbourne, Corporal Roberts-Smith became only the second Australian soldier to wear the Victoria Cross of Australia after Corporal Mark Donaldson who received the honour in 2009. Before 1991 it was an Imperial Honour that was won by 96 Australians from the Boer War to Vietnam. He is only the second Western Australian born holder...

Obama's insular White House worries his alliesThe president famously relies on a tight circle of advisors. But with Republicans running the House next year, many say Obama will need some new faces to convey a new message. By Peter Nicholas, Washington Bureau 7:06 p.m. CST, December 24, 2010 Reporting from Washington — In the West Wing it had become a pretty common sight: two national security aides with close ties to the president, Thomas Donilon and Denis McDonough, hurrying into the Oval Office to show him the latest piece of hot intelligence. Some administration officials who watched the scene unfold...

Defining 'New Labour,' defending the Iraq war, getting to know George W. Bush. It is now painfully obvious that Tony Blair—the man who led Britain for a decade, who transformed the country's dully orthodox Labour Party into dashing, moderate "New Labour," who faced down parliamentary opponents with brio and eloquently defended the invasion of Iraq—is no longer much of a hero in his own country. Indeed, he is intensely disliked, not least for his loyalty to the "freedom agenda"—the idea that, after 9/11, Western democracies had a duty to face down tyrants like Saddam Hussein and end the threat they...

Democratic Socialists of America, is despite its deceptive name is the U.S.'s largest and probably most influential Marxist based organization. Many of its several thousand members operate through the Democratic Party, New York's influential Working Families Party and the organization also counts thousands of of labor unionists, religious activists, journalists and college professors in its ranks. D.S.A. helped establish and continues to support the more than 80 strong Congressional Progressive Caucus and is particularly close to "single payer" healthcare champions Rep. John Conyers of Michigan and Caucus founder Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. [caption id="attachment_653" align="aligncenter" width="439" caption="Quentin Young, Barack...

For many wartime veterans, the navy's 100th anniversary this year comes with mixed emotions. They recall the pride and fondness Canadians once held for the navy in the decades after the Second World War, but are deeply saddened by the state of the navy today -- not only its declining capability and its neglect by Ottawa, but its irrelevance for so many Canadians at a time when the army, and its mission in Afghanistan, dominate the headlines. "I don't think half of Canada knows anything about the navy's history," says veteran Ted Paxton, "and while the modern navy hasn't been...

I’m told there won’t be any daylight between the US and Israel in the aftermath of the incident on the flotilla yesterday, which resulted in the deaths of 10 activists. Regardless of the details of the flotilla incident, sources say President Obama is focused on what he sees as the longer term issue here: a successful Mideast peace process. “The president has always said that it will be much easier for Israel to make peace if it feels secure,” a senior administration official tells ABC News. The suggestion is that US condemnation of Israel would further isolate that country, and...

We are at war with radical Islam, and that war will go on for many years. For me, the question is this: will the secular Western civilization shared by America and Europe, which allows us to enjoy life and its creature comforts, still be standing at the end of that war? Or will radical Islam, with an aggressive culture that treasures martyrdom and death over life, prevail? The vast majority of Muslims, of course, are peace-loving. The fanaticism found among the Wahhabists of Saudi Arabia is not found in many of the countries where a billion, 400 million Muslims live....

Arab rips 0bama a new one in scathing editorial New York-The strategy of the twin tracks adopted by the US Administration to deal with the various issues, from Iran to Afghanistan and even with the Taliban, may be a clear policy in the mind of President Barack Obama and in the minds of the leaders of his administration, especially the academics among them. Yet this does not negate a noteworthy state of affairs, which is what this strategy has produced in terms of reducing trust in the United States, increasing the confusion regarding what this administration has in mind, and...

A British Army sharp shooter has told how he killed five Taliban soldiers in 28 seconds - in a desperate bid to protect a British patrol that the insurgents were preparing to ambush. The enemy targets were more than a mile away when the sniper, a corporal serving with 4 Rifles, got the all clear to take them out. The corporal - who has 37 confirmed kills in just four months in the war zone - said that he and his spotter were set up in an old fort in Haji Alem, in the Nad-e Ali district of Helmand province....

Since his early days in office, Barak Obama has sought to influence public thought by manipulating language. As matters of policy, acts of “terrorism” became known as “man-caused disasters,” and terrorists captured in the field were no longer considered “unlawful enemy combatants.” Now, he has purged the terms “Jihad” and “Islamic extremism” from a national security strategy document to show that the U.S. “does not view Muslim nations through the lens of terror.” Thus, Obama seeks to define out of existence the essential nature of today’s terrorist threat in order to placate those who justify or condone terrorism. He also...

All during the 2008 Presidential campaign, we told the liberal-Democrat Koch mentality what Obama was all about. They refused to listen. Now, they’re waking up to the nightmare they’ve helped to create…

Brilliant, Pres. Obama. Simply brilliant. Way to go to fortify relations with our reliable allies in the region, particularly with a key lynchpin like JAPAN.The upshot in the original Japanese was that Japan was snubbed in D.C. for an individual "summit meeting" with Obama, while Obama on the other hand kowtowed and gave the Red Chinese the red carpet (literally) treatment.Note, no "kowtow" to Prime Minister Hatoyama (Japan) that there was to Red Chinese President Hu Jin Tao. This I assure you was not lost on Tokyo (nor Beijing, Seoul, Pyongyang, Taipei, Moscow, Teheran, Damascus, Tel Aviv etc for that...

President Obama is holding one of the biggest global summits ever on U.S. soil starting Monday, but for all the hoopla, the event will be missing America’s strongest allies. As remarkable as it is, the fact that neither British Prime Minister Gordon Brown nor Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are attending President Obama’s nuclear security summit in Washington Monday and Tuesday is not altogether surprising. Relations with both countries — Israel in particular — have grown strained under Obama. Combined with Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s recent defiance of the administration, questions are growing about the president’s ability to maintain important...

Our allies hate him. Our enemies are laughing at him. Nearly two years after Obama’s World Tour in which he did his best to convince voters that he understood global challenges with a high profile tour of a lot of foreign countries (a approach that if it worked should convincingly make every internationally famous rock star a foreign policy expert), his biggest global accomplishment is still his ability to travel around the world to high profile destinations on the taxpayer’s shrinking dime. His attempts at diplomacy consisted of delivering vicious slaps across the faces of longtime allies, from England...

WARSAW, Poland — Polish President Lech Kaczynski, who died Saturday in a plane crash in Russia, was a one-time anti-communist activist who teamed up with his twin brother to take his country in a nationalist, conservative direction. His opponents, however, viewed him as narrow-minded, provincial and overzealous in his drive to cleanse the country of the influence of former communists. And he drew criticism from human rights groups for trying to stop a gay-rights parade through Poland's capital. Kaczynski was a firm friend of Poland's Jewish community, which has enjoyed a revival in recent years after it was nearly wiped...