Sunday Reads: A path out of the Middle East collapse, The roots of violence in Jerusalem, #ImthatJew

US

Henry Kissinger shares his plan for the path out of the Middle East collapse:

American policy runs the risk of feeding suspicion rather than abating it. Its challenge is that two rigid and apocalyptic blocs are confronting each other: a Sunni bloc consisting of Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States; and the Shiite bloc comprising Iran, the Shiite sector of Iraq with Baghdad as its capital, the Shiite south of Lebanon under Hezbollah control facing Israel, and the Houthi portion of Yemen, completing the encirclement of the Sunni world. In these circumstances, the traditional adage that the enemy of your enemy can be treated as your friend no longer applies. For in the contemporary Middle East, it is likely that the enemy of your enemy remains your enemy.

Laura Rozen stresses that Iran is still quite cautious about engaging directly with the US:

But after two years of negotiations at which large US and Iranian delegations were meeting almost every month at a high level, often at the ministerial level, it seems that the tempo, seniority and range of diplomatic contacts between the United States and Iran in the implementation phase could be reduced for now to what is anticipated to be quarterly meetings of the Joint Commission.

Israel

Ben Dror Yemini believes that, despite everything, Israel should be careful not to fall into despondency about peace:

The fact that there is currently no partner on the other side does not mean we should lose hope. Ben-Gurion's wisdom was that he always, always extended his hand in peace. Israel must prove to the world that it wants peace. Anyone who belittles the role or the importance of the international community does not understand the world we currently live in, and that they themselves are in fact helping the anti-Israel campaign.

Jeffrey Goldberg discusses the religious roots of the current round of violence in Jerusalem:

One of the tragedies of the settlement movement is that it obscures what might be the actual root cause of the Middle East conflict: the unwillingness of many Muslim Palestinians to accept the notion that Jews are a people who are indigenous to the land Palestinians believe to be exclusively their own, and that the third-holiest site in Islam is also the holiest site of another religion, one whose adherents reject the notion of Muslim supersessionism. The status quo on the Temple Mount is prudent and must remain in place. It saves lives, lives fundamentalist Jewish radicals would risk in order to advance their millennial dreams. But it is the byproduct of the intolerance of Jerusalem’s Muslim leadership.

The Middle East

Eric Trager gives a breakdown of the Egyptian parliamentary elections, which will take place today:

The consolidation of Egypt's autocratic trajectory through elections will generate significant discomfort in Washington, which has rightly objected to Sisi's crackdown on oppositionists, media critics, and civil society. But the Obama administration should bear in mind that it cannot influence Egypt's domestic politics in a more democratic direction under the current circumstances. Sisi and his supporters still believe they are locked in a kill-or-be-killed struggle with the Brotherhood, which has called for Sisi's death and vowed to avenge Morsi's ouster; as a result, they view authoritarianism as essential to their self-preservation. So while Washington should not bless these elections, it should recognize that there is not much upside to cursing them either.

Bloomberg’s Leonid Bershidsky gives an interesting take on Russia’s oil war with the Saudis:

Oil competition is a dangerous undercurrent in Putin's Middle Eastern policy. The Russian leader hopes that when its ally Iran re-enters the global oil and gas market, Russia will somehow share in the profits, perhaps through new pipelines across Syria. He also wants to stop the Saudis from establishing export routes in Syria. Now that Russian energy supremacy in Europe also is at stake, Putin's determination to resolve the Syrian conflict on his terms can only grow.

The Jewish World

As all of the candidates are so pro-Israel, Canada’s Jews seem to be divided about the upcoming elections:

But while the three largest parties may be closely aligned on this issue, the country’s Jewish community is more divided than ever over which party should be elected. Harsh words, fear mongering and caustic tactics have become the norm, bringing even some of the community’s violent fringe members into play.

And here’s a link to Eitan Chitayat’s wonderfully edited video on the varieties of Judaism:

“Lest any Jew forgets,” Eitan Chitayat wrote on his youtube page this morning. “We should be proud of our heritage, accomplishments and spirit.” His accompanying video splices together a whole range of accomplished Jews—from Albert Einstein to Mark Zuckerberg—and reminds viewers that, amidst the violence, “human dignity will prevail and the world is made up of decent people.”