Bret Stephens
5/18/2010

The nuclear game Tehran is playing isn’t any more complicated than checkers. But the trouble is they’re whipping us at it. The agreement of Turkey and Brazil to enrich Iran’s uranium is a signal defeat for the Obama administration. Iran’s leaders have learned to habituate the international community to its nuclear advances. What was once considered intolerable Iranian behavior–calling for Israel to be wiped off the map, enriching uranium in defiance of UN resolutions, even becoming a nuclear power–is increasingly seen as unremarkable or understandable or inevitable. The US will now be hard-pressed to explain why a deal they never withdrew from the table–and which they insisted remain unaltered–no longer makes sense.

Stephens writes ‘Global View’ for the Journal.

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Roger Cohen
5/18/2010

Cohen looks at the struggles over the past 15 years of a microbrewery established in the West Bank. Today the company is on the rebound and business is good due to the political situation. Cohen says the business is a barometer of the stronger economy and the institutions of statehood being built by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. If the six percent economic growth is to continue, the West Bank must wean itself off international aid and become self-sustaining, and logistics and infrastructure must improve, along with peace. Cohen says, “Israel won’t do better than Fayyad.”

Cohen is a New York Times columnist.

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