In critical ways, Obama has reversed not just Bush policy but every president’s approach to the world since the Second World War, save for that of his soulmate Jimmy Carter. – Elliott Abrams
Times change. Cable news and the Internet alone have transformed the way outreach to the American people can be accomplished. – Elliott Abrams
Reformist kings can save their dynasties now by helping their countries move smoothly into democracy, or they will end their years in exile like the Russian aristocrats of a century earlier. – Elliott Abrams
I well remember a leading Egyptian liberal saying to me in 2003 that she did not favor free elections right then in Egypt; she favored them in a decade’s time if she and others had those 10 years to organize freely. – Elliott Abrams
The courage of the Syrian protesters is remarkable, for they face prison, torture, or death every time they lift a banner. – Elliott Abrams
When you work in the White House you talk to the White House staff all day, so you’re talking to the guy who handles the congressional liaison and the guy who’s handling domestic politics and the guy who’s handling the American economy and so forth. – Elliott Abrams
The United States needs to be far clearer: we cannot and will not support any government where Hamas has a real influence and the security forces stop fighting terror. – Elliott Abrams
If you are trying to raise a child to be a Jew, then you have to create a sense of Jewish identity. You really weaken that sense of identity if you celebrate two religions. – Elliott Abrams
Barack Obama’s military triumphs will come neither in long wars nor even short ones, but in a series of raids. – Elliott Abrams
Now in its third year in office, the Obama Administration has never championed the cause of human rights. Its slow reaction in June 2009 to the stealing of the election in Iran and the birth of the ‘Green Movement’ there, and its delay in backing the rebellions in Egypt, Libya, and Syria, are evidence of this problem. – Elliott Abrams
History may someday record that the Arab awakening that began with the Arab revolt of 1916 against the Ottomans ended about a century later with a whimper. – Elliott Abrams
In most cases, cables are marked secret not because the U.S. requires it but because those speaking to us – the foreign leaders across the table – do. They are not keeping secrets from us, but from two other groups: their enemies and their subjects. – Elliott Abrams
From its earliest days in the nineteenth century, and until the Holocaust, the Orthodox rabbinate in eastern Europe was not enthusiastic about the Zionist movement, which at the time was led by irreligious Jews. – Elliott Abrams
Israel will not and should not leave until it is clear that the West Bank can be policed by Palestinians and that the region will not be a source of terrorism against Israel, as Gaza and South Lebanon became when Israel left there. – Elliott Abrams
The conflict between secular Zionism and the settler movement did not appear overnight following Israel’s conquests in the 1967 war, for there was an argument that bridged the gap: security. – Elliott Abrams
Every Israeli government since 1967, of left or right, has asserted that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital and has allowed Israeli Jews to build there. – Elliott Abrams
The question was never whether the United States, E.U., NATO, Arab League, U.N. Security Council, and African Union could together using economic sanctions, diplomatic pressure, and military attacks to bring Qaddafi down. The question was always how much time, how much blood, and what damage to NATO. – Elliott Abrams
On the human rights side, administration policy has been marked by indifference. When the people of Iran flooded the streets to protest the theft of their presidential election in June 2009, President Obama was silent for 11 days. – Elliott Abrams
There’s been an Israeli position, which is ‘We love Mubarak,’ that permeates their whole society, the political class. That certainly differs from many of us in the pro-Israel camp in the United States. – Elliott Abrams
In Iran, there is no freedom of the press, no freedom of speech, no independent judiciary, no free elections. There is no freedom of religion – not even for Shiites, who are forced by Iran’s theocracy to adhere to one narrow set of official rules. – Elliott Abrams
In the Philippines, Gloria Arroyo is the daughter of Diosdado Macapagal – but his term ended in 1965, and she was elected in 2001. Hardly a hand-off. – Elliott Abrams
Like all forms of collective security, multilateral sanctions require a unanimity rarely achieved in international politics. – Elliott Abrams
American power remains today what it was in the Second World War and the Cold War: the greatest force for freedom in the world. – Elliott Abrams
The United States should help strengthen nongovernmental humanitarian agencies working in Sudan so that they can handle an increased flow of aid. – Elliott Abrams
The Arab monarchies, especially Jordan and Morocco, are more legitimate than the false republics, with their stolen elections, regime-dominated courts and rubber-stamp parliaments. – Elliott Abrams
