Sunday Reads: American Values against Islamic Extremism, Israel and Turkey Rapprochement?

US

Larry Diamond emphasizes the importance of strengthening American values of freedom in-face of the fight against Islamic extremism

You can’t beat a surging ideology with no ideology or higher sense of purpose. In the face of the persistent challenge of violent Islamist extremism and the global recession of freedom, what the world has needed is a powerful reaffirmation of the universal relevance of liberal values. Instead, the democratic West has been retreating into moral relativism and illiberal impulses…..

If the United States degrades freedom in the quest for security, its citizens will wind up neither free nor secure. There is little that the radical Islamists want more than to propel America down this self-destructive path. In the battle against Islamic terrorism, there is nothing that will strengthen the country more than to affirm that Americans are all in this fight together, equally, irrespective of race, religion, or class.

Devlin Barrett writes about the growing effort of the US to defund Hezbollah

What you’re seeing now that is new, and not just by the United States, is a more robust effort around the world to make it more difficult for Hezbollah to engage in criminal conduct,’’ said Matthew Levitt, a former Treasury Department official now at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy

Israel

Lee Smith discusses the rapprochement between Israel and Turkey and analyzes the potential impacts on other alliances

…even as the renewal of diplomatic relations resolves one of Israel’s problems, it raised another, very important, question: How will Russia react? Putin is part of the Iranian axis, protecting Assad. Israel, clearly, is opposed to Iran, so how will rapprochement with a state not only opposed to Assad but a hair-trigger away from conflict with Russia, affect Israel’s fragile balance with Putin? Of course, it would all be a lot less dangerous if the United States were still managing the regional order. But Obama saw a nuclear deal with Iran as the ticket out.

Jonathan Greenblatt writes about the recent accusations in Israel against President Rivlin and Breaking the Silence

…As hostile anti-Israel campaigns grow around the world, some Israelis turn to simplistic solutions. Those include blaming terror on those who disagree with them politically and engaging in behavior that verges into incitement. Such trends risk stifling the culture of free expression that Israel can be so proud of.

Middle East

David Sanger and Somini Sengupta points out the many pitfalls of the UN Security Council Peace Plan for Syria

Friday’s plan is the outcome of what Secretary of State John Kerry tells his administration colleagues was part of a three-month-long “force feeding” of a diplomatic process. But the looming test will be whether it will bring any relief to the people of Syria. The test confronts the world powers — the United States and Russia, principally — but also the regional powers in the region, who can be accused of fueling the war, principally, Iran, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

There are plenty of reasons for skepticism, and a few for hope.

Adam Taylor raises some questions about Saudi Arabia's “Islamic military alliance” against terror

In many ways, this alliance seems designed to calm Western critics who have frequently complained that the Muslim world isn't doing enough to combat terrorism and extremism. However, the details of the planned alliance are more than a little unclear and have left some scratching their heads, unsure who exactly is in the alliance and what it is actually designed to do.

Jewish World

David Goldman writes about the Jewish philosopher Michael Wyschogrod, who just passed away, and his unique Jewish-Western philosophy

Wyschogrod asserted that God’s first love for Israel did not exclude love for all humankind. On the contrary, “When we grasp that the election of Israel flows from the fatherhood that extends to all created in God’s image, we find ourselves tied to all men in brotherhood, as Joseph, favored by his human father, ultimately found himself tied to his brothers. And when man contemplates this mystery, that the Eternal One, the creator of heaven and earth, chose to become the father of his creatures instead of remaining self-sufficient unto himself, as is the Absolute of the philosophers, there wells up in man that praise that has become so rare yet remains so natural.”

J.J. Goldberg explains why the new Vatican memo is important despite the fact that it did not announce that Catholics should not try to convert Jews

Given all the uncertainty, does the new document matter at all? Yes, it does, for two reasons. First, it adds new pressure on the Vatican to adopt the no-conversion principle formally. That will influence other Christians. Jewish religious life will become easier in many parts of the world.

Second, as a formal statement from the Vatican, however tentative, it makes news. That means Jews hear about it. That’s important. Most Jews probably heard about Vatican II annulling the deicide charge, but few have heard about all the other reforms in Catholic teaching since 1965. Jewish leaders and institutions have done shamefully little to tell folks in the pews about them.