From Morton Abramowitz, the National Interest:  [Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip] Erdogan has transformed Turkey in a way that no other leader has since Ataturk.

Turkey and Israel are close to resolving their dispute over last year's flotilla fiasco, but the partnership that existed between them for more than a decade will almost certainly stay submerged.

As Israel prepares to conduct its official inquiry into the recent Israeli Defense Force (IDF) raid on the flotilla attempting to breach the blockade against Gaza, it is important to understand how this tragic incident affects U.S.

With official summer 12 days away, the temperature in Washington is already blistering. Whether this is a metaphor for an overheated political summer remains to be seen but signs and symptoms of lurking danger are in abundance.

North Korea can target, attack and sink a South Korean warship, kill 46 of the South Korean crew but South Korea cannot retaliate without triggering a barrage of shells from North Korea's 11,000 artillery tubes that can lay waste Seoul, a capital city of 11 million. North Korea is also a rogue nuclear power and a single nuclear-tipped missile could probably achieve the same result.

Atlantic Council President and CEO Fred Kempe appeared on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" to discuss the recent Israeli raid on the Gaza-bound Freedom Flotilla Mavi Marmara.

Israel articulated three main objectives when it started its offensive against the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip last winter: stop the rocket fire into southern Israel, weaken the security infrastructure of Hamas in Gaza, and restore the deterrence that it felt had been lost after enduring years of rocket attacks, as well as the kidnapping of its soldier, Gilad Shalit.

Who has jurisdiction over alledged war crimes?  A growing number of countries believe they do, Paul Haven reports for AP.

A Spanish judge's decision to investigate seven Israeli officials over a deadly 2002 attack against Hamas that had nothing to do with Spain has renewed a debate about the long arm of European justice.

-->