US
Charles Krauthammer calls the proposed agreement with Iran the worst agreement in US diplomatic history:
How did it come to this? With every concession, Obama and Kerry made clear they were desperate for a deal.
And they will get it. Obama will get his “legacy.” Kerry will get his Nobel. And Iran will get the bomb.
Trita Parsi writes about the hidden dignity factor in the US-Iran negotiations:
For the Iranians… any suggestion that it is unequal to the other parties in the negotiations risks collapsing the diplomacy altogether. The Iranian foreign minister oftentimes refers to the other countries in the negotiations as his partners, reflecting equality. No U.S. diplomat would use that language for the very same reason.
Israel
Ben Dror Yemini is displeased with the disparity between the French government’s words and actions when it comes to fighting Islamist extremists:
France is led by a prime minister and a president who are determined to fight against terrorism and anti-Semitism. But all of this determinism is not worth much when France itself keeps funding those who support BDS, support the annihilation of Israel, and support Hamas. This is their responsibility. They must do something.
Yossi Klein Halevi writes in defense of his friend Michael Oren:
If Michael feels that American Jewry is failing Israel at the most dangerous moment in its history, he has the obligation to say so. Ironically, the Israeli-American Jewish relationship has become the reverse of its old problematic dynamic. Where once it was forbidden for American Jews to criticize Israel, now, apparently, it is forbidden for an Israeli to criticize American Jewry.
Is Michael wrong in his assessment of American Jewry? Is he wrong about the Iranian deal? By all means argue with him. But argue the argument, not the person. Stop demonizing a man whose essence is service to Israel and the Jewish people.
Middle East
The Atalantic’s Kathy Gilsinan talks to Farzan Sabet, managing editor of IranPolitik, about Iran’s hardliners and the effect they might have on the deal:
I’ve seen some in D.C. try to draw equivalence between “hardliners” over here (the U.S.) and over there (Iran) undermining negotiations, when it’s really not the case. Senator Cotton and the coalition he represents can bring pressure to bear on the Obama administration to change its negotiating stance and potentially even block the implementation of a final deal. The Persevering Front, and even parliament as a whole, are not powerful enough to block a deal by themselves. If and when the regime consensus turns against the implementation of a deal—and the parliamentary leadership would have input in any shift—the legislature may become a vehicle for its undoing. And the Persevering Front and their ilk would be the regime and leader’s most loyal pawns leading the headlong charge.
Al-Monitor’s Rasha Abou Jalal reports on Hamas’ struggle to handle extreme Salafist elements in the Gaza strip:
The disappearance of prisoner Mahmoud Salfiti, who belongs to a Salafist group in the Gaza Strip and is convicted of killing an Italian man in 2011, has raised serious questions in Palestinian society on how he managed to escape and the role of the Hamas security forces. Salfiti's escape has also revived the debate on the expansion of Salafist influence and its ability to affect change in Gaza.
Jewish World
Rabbi David Golinkin tries to explain, following several cases of intolerance in Israel, that pluralism has always been an important Jewish value:
In conclusion, the attempt of certain Orthodox rabbis in Israel to impose their specific halakhic opinion on all the Jews of Israel (and the Diaspora) contradicts the way that Jewish law has worked since the dissolution of the Sanhedrin.
May we aspire, rather, to the Jewish ideal of unity without uniformity. In the words of Rabbi Kuk: “the multiplicity of opinions, which comes from the difference of souls and educations (sic!), that is the very thing which enriches wisdom and causes it to expand”.
Alf Dubs, who was saved from the Nazis in the Kindertransport, remembers Nicholas Winton, the great hero who died this week (and here is a 60 minutes segment about Winton's inspiring story):
The last time I met him was a few weeks ago, at his 106th birthday party in Maidenhead. He was becoming frailer, and protested that his memory was not as good as it used to be. I told him that his memory was still better than that of many younger people. Of course there was a birthday cake with candles shaped in the figures for his age but he needed help to blow them out.
I treasure my memory of that last occasion but also of many others. I think it was at his 104th birthday party that I asked him how he was and his characteristic reply was: “I am all right from the neck upwards.”
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