Descent From Entebbe
Bret Stephens (Wall Street Journal)
Tomorrow, the Israeli government is scheduled to release five Lebanese prisoners, including a man named Samir Kuntar in exchange for two of its kidnapped soldiers. The exchange might seem semiequitable, if only the three Israelis weren't all presumed dead.

It’s Not Easy Being Hard
Charles Krauthammer (National Review)
On the day the Colombian military freed Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other long-held hostages, the Italian parliament passed yet another resolution demanding her release. Europe had long ago adopted this French-Colombian politician as a cause celebre. Unfortunately, karma does not easily cross the Atlantic. Betancourt languished for six years in cruel captivity until freed by a brilliant operation conducted by the Colombian military, intelligence agencies, and special forces.

New York Times vs. Helms, Part 529,876
Ann Coulter (WorldNetDaily)
Last Friday, on the Fourth of July, the great American patriot Jesse Helms passed away. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson also went to their great reward on Independence Day, so this is further proof of God. Helms is now the second great American patriot I've always wanted to meet and never will, at least in this lifetime.

Students in Servitude
Jonah Goldberg (National Review)
There’s a weird irony at work when Sen. Barack Obama, the black presidential candidate who will allegedly scrub the stain of racism from the nation, vows to run afoul of the constitutional amendment that abolished slavery. In his speech on national service , Obama promised that he would "set a goal for all American middle and high school students to perform 50 hours of service a year, and for all college students to perform 100 hours of service a year."

Why a Black Artist Replaced the National Anthem
Dennis Prager (WorldNetDaily)
Last week in Denver, almost all the values of the post-1960s left were exhibited in one act. It happened on the Denver mayor's most important day -- the one in which he was to deliver his annual State of the City Address. The day was to begin with the singing of the National Anthem by the black jazz singer Rene Marie. But Marie had, by her own admission, long had other plans.

Obama’s Brazen Reversals
Charles Krauthammer (National Review)
Barack Obama is now wearing a flag pin. Again. During the primary campaign, he refused to. So why is he back to sporting pseudo-patriotism on his chest? The primaries are over. While seducing the hard-core MoveOn Democrats that delivered him the caucuses, Obama not only disdained the pin. He disparaged it. Now that he’s running in a general election against John McCain, and in dire need of the gun-and-God-clinging working-class votes he could not win against Hillary Clinton, the pin is back.

McCain: Pump This!
Ann Coulter (WorldNetDaily)
Well, I guess we're all pretty relieved we didn't drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge back in 2002. What a disaster that would have been. John McCain opposed drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge because he polled soccer moms and found out they were against drilling.

How About a Game of "Pin Obama on the Donkey"?
Jonah Goldberg (National Review)
The majority of voters want to vote for a Democrat and for Obama. Hence, if they feel comfortable with the Democratic nominee, he will win. If they don’t, he’ll lose. This is bad news for McCain because he is congenitally discomfited from attacking his political adversaries (while emotionally buoyed when attacking his natural political allies).

Why I Support John McCain
Dennis Prager (WorldNetDaily)
My bottom line is this: The gulf between John McCain and conservatives is miniscule compared to the gulf between John McCain and Barack Obama. This is true regarding virtually every issue of significance to America. The America that a President Barack Obama would shape, with the help of a Democratic Congress and a liberal Supreme Court, would be very dissimilar from the America shaped by a President John McCain.

Unabashedly Unprincipled
Charles Krauthammer (National Review)
Normally, flip-flopping presidential candidates have to worry about the press. Not Obama. After all, this is a press corps that heard his grandiloquent Philadelphia speech -- designed to rationalize why "I can no more disown (Jeremiah Wright) than I can disown my white grandmother" -- then wiped away a tear and hailed him as the second coming of Abraham Lincoln.

From Breadbasket to Basket Case
Mary Anastasia O’Grady (Wall Street Journal)
As the presidential campaign drones on, Barack Obama and the Democrats are fleshing out the promise of "change" with some specific, big-government policy proposals. Many are familiar, perhaps because they already have been tried -- in Argentina. That country has gone from South American breadbasket to world-class basket case.

You Can’t Fuel All Of The People All Of The Time
Ann Coulter (WorldNetDaily)
Democrats couldn't care less about high gas prices. The consistent policy of the Democratic Party, going back at least to Jimmy Carter, has been to jack up gas prices so we can all start pedaling around on tricycles. Environmentalists are constantly clamoring for higher gas taxes as the cure-all to their insane global warming theory. Clinton proposed a 26-cent tax on gas.

Ten Concerns About Barack Obama
William J. Bennett & Seth Leibsohn
Barack Obama’s foreign policy is dangerous, naïve, and betrays a profound misreading of history. For at least the past five years, Democrats and liberals have said our standing in the international community has suffered from a "cowboy" or "go-it-alone" foreign policy. While politicians with favorable views of our president have been elected in Germany, Italy, France, and elsewhere, Barack Obama is giving cause to make our allies even more nervous.

Why Iraq Was Inevitable
Arthur Herman (Commentary Magazine)
It is too often forgotten, not least by historians, that George W. Bush did not invent the idea of deposing the Iraqi tyrant. For years before he came on the scene, removing Saddam Hussein had been a priority embraced by the Democratic administration of Bill Clinton and by Clinton’s most vocal supporters in the Senate:

Israel’s Darkest Week
Caroline Glick (Jerusalem Post)
The Olmert-Livni-Barak-Yishai government's liquidation sale of Israel's strategic assets opened officially this week. Iran's proxies have pounced on the merchandise. The first asset sold was the security of southern Israel. The Olmert-Livni-Barak-Yishai government's "cease-fire" with Hamas transferred all power to determine the fate of the residents of southern Israel to Iran's Palestinian proxy.

Tick, Tock, Tick, Tock
Abe Greenwald (Commentary Magazine)
Tensions with Iran have moved into a more palpably dangerous phase than the ill-defined stand-off that's characterized the past few years. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been crowing about Iran's official defiance of the West's calls to end nuclear development and Israel is reportedly holding attack drills over the Mediterranean and Greek territories.

Anti-Americanism Is Mostly Hype
By Fouad Ajami (Wall Street Journal)
So America is unloved in Istanbul and Cairo and Karachi: It is an annual ritual, the June release of the Pew global attitudes survey and the laments over the erosion of America's standing in foreign lands.