On January 19, 2012, Rear Admiral Terence E. McKnight, USN (ret.), a member of JINSA's Board of Advisors, discussed Iran's ability to close the Strait of Hormuz on the nationally syndicated radio program The John Batchelor Show based out of New York's WABC 770 AM.

We should not be too surprised that Iran continues to defy international calls to open its nuclear program to greater scrutiny and transparency. Even as the toughest U.S. sanctions yet were enacted, and Europe was considering a ban on Iranian oil imports, the militant theocracy threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, through which nearly 40 percent of the world’s seaborne supply of crude oil flows. But such bluster, typical of the Tehran regime, was also accompanied by the usual call for new negotiations, this time with both the P5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany), and also with the EU. Such talks have been going on for years with little to show for the effort.

One long-serving soldier is finally getting a good night’s sleep thanks to a retired general, a local bed store, and a Jewish charity. Staff Sgt. Tom Kretz Jr. is still on active duty in Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, but he recently moved from the 97th Civil Affairs to the Warrior Transition Brigade.

The United States’ decision to “pivot” back to the Asia-Pacific is welcome among its allies. But what about its most assertive rising power?

On the campaign trail, Newt Gingrich has given his fellow Republican presidential candidates a wide berth, often going out of his way to praise them. Instead of attacking his rivals, Gingrich has focused his fire on President Obama.

While the Obama administration has pursued Middle East policies that could be characterized as being sometimes indifferent to Israel's precarious security situation, relations between our Department of Defense and the Israel Defense Forces are as good today, if not better, than they have ever been. Both countries reap the benefits that flow from their strategic cooperation and the provision of advanced U.S. defense systems. Above all, they significantly contribute to Israeli deterrence which leads directly to greater regional stability.

A Pre-Commissioning Unit Arlington (LPD 24) Sailor who performed heroic actions in the Middle East while assigned to a guided-missile destroyer earlier this year, received the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs' (JINSA) Grateful Nation Award Nov. 7.

On this Veterans Day, I want to note an annual event I attended this week, on November 7, put on by the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), which honored six young military heroes. The six represented each of the five branches of the U.S. military and the U.S. Special Operations Command. They were honored “for having distinguished themselves through superior conduct in the War on Terrorism,” and each received a Grateful Nation award from JINSA. JINSA is a Washington-based think tank that focuses on issues of the U.S. and Israel in national security.

'First There,' a motto combat controllers bellow during their two-year training pipeline, and later affirm in blood, sweat and sacrifice on the most forward-deployed and dangerous battlefields as they pave the way for other forces to follow.

WASHINGTON — They may have scored a victory at UNESCO, but the Palestinians are running into new obstacles on their push for statehood recognition at the UN.