Новости за 28.12.2016

Josh Rogin, Washington Post
Congress is planning to escalate the clash over the U.N. Security Council's anti-Israel resolution into a full-on conflict between the United States and the United Nations.

Noah Feldman, Bloomberg View
The Bush and Obama administrations let China grow, but were wary of its military. Trump seems wary of the economy instead.

Mark Urban, BBC News

While at the end of 2015 I looked at the way nationalistic populism would make the job of diplomats harder in 2016, now there are signs that the West's ability even to set the rules of the international game is beginning to unravel.

Julian Ryall, Deutsche Welle
Abe's Pearl Harbor speech has been well received in Japan, where most people expressed the opinion that it struck the right balance of regret that the Pacific war occurred, but offered no apologies.

Brian Whitaker, Radio Free Europe
Over the past year, the Kremlin has taken the gloves off in its nonkinetic guerrilla war against the West. In 2016, Russia's long-standing latent support for the xenophobic and Euroskeptic far right became manifest, open, and increasingly brazen.

A. Osborn & O. Coskun, Reuters
Syria would be divided into informal zones of regional power influence and Bashar al-Assad would remain president for at least a few years under an outline deal between Russia, Turkey and Iran, sources say.

Brent Sasley, Monkey Cage
Sacred sites, collective memories, symbols of national identity: These are much harder to haggle over than real estate. Moving the U.S. Embassy will have to take into account these rival interpretations of the city if the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is to be resolved.

Liel Leibovitz, Tablet Magazine
A Colonialist state founded on the theft of Maori land blames Israel for its own crimes.

David Sanger, NY Times
Mr. Kerry usually speaks in the careful words of diplomacy, being careful not to publicly name names, or put choices in the harshest terms. He dropped most of those niceties on Wednesday, especially about Mr. Netanyahu's government.

Ben Shapiro, National Review
Barack Obama has done his best for nearly eight years to undermine the state of Israel.Â

Mark Leonard, Pro. Syn.
In Brexit pre-negotiations, both UK and EU officials have ignored the far-reaching implications of Donald Trump's election as US president – namely, the decline of the liberal world order. Unless they update their tactics to reflect today's new reality, the results will be devastating for both sides.

E. Joseph & S. Vukovic, For. Affairs
Montenegro, which has fewer residents than Nashville and an army of only 2,000 troops, is an unlikely strategic harbinger of U.S.-Russian relations.

Eli Lake, Bloomberg View
Friday's U.N. vote deepened Israel's isolation. That's what the White House wanted.

George Friedman, Geopolitical Futures
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has condemned Israeli settlements on the West Bank. The interesting part is that the United States abstained from the vote, which is why it passed.

Michael Auslin, Wall Street Journal
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is not the first Japanese leader to go to Pearl Harbor since Dec. 7, 1941.

Dan Restrepo & Michael Fuchs, RealClearWorld
President-elect Donald Trump would be wise to build on the path-breaking progress Obama has made.

George Koo, Asia Times
The Trump transition team recently announced the appointment of Peter Navarro to a newly created post as the head of newly created National Trade Council.Apparently this appointment will not require a Senate hearing and confirmation. Thus a lightweight could be rewarded for his loyalty and not risk embarrassing the new administration.

Gordon Chang, National Interest
China's economy is moving in wrong directions. In many ways, the rest of the world is bound to suffer as a result.

Victor Cha, JoongAng Daily
The normally aggressive regime has taken an unprecedented violent path even by its own extraordinary standards.

Rowan Williams, NS
Immigration presents us with a moral and political quandary. Can two new books help us decide what to do?

Yiyun Li, New Yorker
My brain has banished Chinese. I dream in English. I talk to myself in English. It was a crucial decision to be orphaned from my native language.