Clifford D. May
Columns by Clifford D. May
Israel’s daunting decision on drawing permanent borders
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his new coalition government now face a daunting decision. The Trump administration has indicated that it would not object if Israelis were to extend sovereignty to parts of the West Bank. Published May 19, 2020
An American-led ‘economic prosperity network’ could be a good start to not relying on China
The current global health and economic crisis reveals -- to those with eyes that see -- the startling extent to which the weeds and wild critters have overrun the fruits and flowers. Published May 12, 2020
Terrorist organization Hezbollah permits Lebanon to be rescued by the IMF
The United States, Germany and other major contributors to the IMF ought to demand that before any checks are written, Hezbollah disarms -- that, from now on, it seeks power based on the ballots it can garner rather than the bullets it can fire. Published May 5, 2020
China, Iran and North Korea stay focused on hostile agendas during COVID-19 pandemic
Communists, revolutionary Islamists and other proponents of despotic ideologies consider life and death no big deal. After all, they kill people all the time -- civilians and their own subjects very much included. Published April 28, 2020
China’s Communist rulers made the world sick, with help from, you know, WHO
It now seems unlikely that the virus destroying lives and livelihoods around the world began in a wildlife-for-supper market in Wuhan. More plausible: That it began in a laboratory in that same Chinese city. Published April 21, 2020
Obama holdovers run U.S. global media, and they’re not giving it up
The White House website, www.whitehouse.gov, featured an odd article last Friday. Its headline: "Amid a Pandemic, Voice of America Spends Your Money to Promote Foreign Propaganda." Published April 14, 2020
Xi Jinping’s Wuhan virus has the power to change the course of history
Microbes are changing our lives, our economy, our culture. You should know -- though it will provide no consolation -- that it has ever been thus. Published April 7, 2020
Lifting U.S. sanctions against Iran’s regime won’t stop the terrorism or oppression
If Iran's rulers want support from the "international community," they ought to become members in good standing of that community -- or at least stop their most destructive activities. Published March 31, 2020
International Criminal Court prosecutor Fatou Bensouda puts American soldiers in her crosshairs
In 2017, Fatou Bensouda announced her intention to investigate alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by U.S. military personnel in Afghanistan. This month, after drawn-out deliberations, the ICC announced that the investigation would go forward. Published March 24, 2020
Iran’s Hezbollah virus infects Lebanon while attacking the world
Terrorists, criminals, and their neo-imperialist patrons in Tehran have been bringing death and destruction to Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Gaza -- whomever and whatever they touch Published March 17, 2020
How the United States and our allies should deal with enemies
David Kilcullen devotes much of his book to exploring how the dragons (Moscow and Beijing) and the snakes (Tehran, Pyongyang and non-state jihadi groups) have learned from each other, and become more dangerous in the process. Published March 10, 2020
U.S. must demand that China release freedom fighter Jimmy Lai
Jimmy Lai was arrested last week. Conviction could mean five years in prison. Or more: "We have every reason to believe that the trial of traitors like Lai has only just begun," threatened an editorial in China's official Xinhua News Agency. Published March 3, 2020
The Trump plan for Afghanistan is an investment in America’s national security
The goal is to reach a "political settlement to end the war in Afghanistan, reduce United States and Allied Forces presence, and ensure that no terrorist group ever uses Afghan soil to threaten the United States or our allies." Published February 25, 2020
United Nations Human Rights Council’s blacklist delegitimizes Israel
Last week, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, published a blacklist of 112 companies operating in the West Bank, 94 of them Israeli, six American and 12 from other countries. Published February 18, 2020
President Trump finds bipartisan support for a pro-U.S. Venezuelan leader Juan Guaido
The day after the State of the Union, President Trump met with Juan Guaido to discuss how "to expedite a democratic transition in Venezuela that will end the ongoing crisis," according to a White House press statement. Published February 11, 2020
Two Palestinian dreams: Exterminate Israel and a real nation-state
Some Palestinians have long dreamed of creating, for the first time in history, their own nation-state. Others have long dreamed of exterminating Israel, the re-created nation-state of the Jewish people. The second dream has prevented realization of the first. Published February 4, 2020
Making sure foreign enemies fear the United States military
Americans are smart enough to figure out how to make fighting the United States militarily -- conventionally, asymmetrically or in other ways -- stupid. Published January 28, 2020
Iranian regime’s ‘gray-zone’ war tactics are the new norm
You heard it last week from smart people on both the left and right. President Trump's droning of Gen. Qassem Soleimani put America "on the brink of another war," wrote Martin Indyk, a distinguished fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. Echoed Fox News' Tucker Carlson: "It looked like we were on the brink there!" Published January 21, 2020
Iran’s Ali Khamenei misjudges President Trump and loses his leading terrorist
At 80 years of age, Ali Khamenei is an old man in a hurry. The ruler of the Islamic Republic of Iran regards himself as the leader of a global revolution, one that began years before the advent of al Qaeda, that jihadi-come-lately. Published January 7, 2020
Nikki Haley, all-American neo-Trumpian
From 2017 to 2019, Nikki Haley served as United States ambassador to the United Nations. She was a breath of fresh air -- proud of American achievements, unashamed of American power. Published December 31, 2019
