Posts of Note

Two posts I want to flag:

1)  Who’s more powerful: the State Department or Pentagon?  A non-American friend asked me this question yesterday, wanting to understand the implications of Hillary Clinton becoming appointed SoS.  The Pentagon, I replied, although it would still be a tremendous coup for Hillary if she was appointed to head Foggy Bottom.  Shortly after,  by chance, I came across a great  post by Remarkz analyzing the comparative positions and their ability to influence US foreign policy (or perhaps for one of them its an inability)

2) Egypt’s policy of selling gas to Israel is a major domestic political issue and its hard to go a week without reading an Op-Ed in a newspaper attacking the arrangement.  But now it could be in jeopardy.   Semi-Expert reports  that:  “On 18 November an Egyptian court overturned an agreement between the Egyptian government and Israel for Egypt to supply natural gas to Israel, which has been in the offing since at least 2005 and perhaps since 1999. ”  I recommend reading the whole post because it frames the issue in its strategic-political context and provides lots of background.