Sunday Reads: Israeli politicians on the Brussels attack, Trump’s Middle East, Shandling’s legacy
US
Adam Garfinkle explains why Saudi-bashing is not a smart way to go:
Have the Saudis contributed roughly since 1979 to a major historical shift in the Sunni Muslim world toward a more literalist, less tolerant attitude toward non-Muslims and non-Sunni Muslims? Yes. Have Saudi schools in the Kingdom and Saudi financing of Wahhabi mosques and madrassas abroad been the means for this giant misdeed? Yes. Have the Saudis bribed Americans and Europeans with “endowment” funds here and there to mute objections to this knavery in the West? No doubt about it. Have they been playing essentially a double game for many years, buying protection against radical threats at home by bribing them into export, as it were? Sure, absolutely.
So this means that the U.S. government should break ties with these villains, treat them as enemies, and seek regime change if possible? No, no, and no.
Kevin Sullivan takes a look at Trump’s opportunistic views on Middle East affairs:
Trump's America First refrain is attractive to a sizeable amount of Americans who feel left behind by globalization and by a U.S. economy that increasingly caters to a college-educated workforce. His more simplistic solutions — such as the possibility of nuking ISIS, or seizing Iraqi oil fields for American coffers — assuage the frustrations of a certain subsection of the American public that views the Middle East not so much as a place, but as a problem to be dealt with and disregarded.
Israel
Mazal Mualem does not like Israeli politicians’ exploitation of terrorist attacks in Europe:
Whenever terror strikes mercilessly in Europe, the entire spectrum of the Israeli right raises its head. It misses no opportunities to boast about having chosen the right path. The consequences are extremist rhetoric and domination of the country’s security and even its nationalist dialogue. When enlightened Europe closed its eyes and provided immigrants with a home and a relatively easy life, they paid it back with terror. This chorus of “we told you so” is conducted by none other than Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He sets the tone and sends out his list of talking points. There is no one like Mr. Terrorism himself to explain to the world, “Our way is the right way.”
Dan Raviv and Yossi Melman tell the wonderful story of the Nazi who became a Mossad agent:
Mossad officials had known for some time that to target the German scientists, they needed an inside man in the target group. In effect, the Mossad needed a Nazi.
The Israelis would never find a Nazi they could trust, but they saw a Nazi they could count on: someone thorough and determined, with a record of success in executing innovative plans, and skilled at keeping secrets. The seemingly bizarre decision to recruit Skorzeny came with some personal pain, because the task was entrusted to Raanan, who was also born in Vienna and had barely escaped the Holocaust. As an Austrian Jew, his name was originally Kurt Weisman. After the Nazis took over in 1938, he was sent — at age 16 — to British-ruled Palestine. His mother and younger brother stayed in Europe and perished.
Middle East
Daniel Byman shows how the ISIS attack in Brussels might backfire:
Going international, however, often works out poorly for terrorist groups. Algerian terrorists in the 1990s found that attacks in France backfired, leading a once-skeptical West to favor the Algerian regime and increase France’s support for the government the terrorists were fighting. ISIS may discover similar problems. For one, the more global the threat, the more likely it is to grab the attention of the United States and its potent military and intelligence services. Jihadis not affiliated with al-Qaida criticized Osama Bin Laden after 9/11 because it led to U.S. intervention into what had once been local struggles and also greatly expanded aid to governments in the Middle East. As the jihadi strategist Abu Musab al-Suri lamented, the 9/11 attacks cast “jihadists into a fiery furnace … A hellfire which consumed most of their leaders, fighters, and bases.”
According to Matthew Levitt, the Islamic State’s ‘Lone Wolf’ era is over:
Today's petty criminals are now tomorrow's potential suicide bombers. And they will not be carrying out their attacks in faraway war zones but rather in the heart of the countries in which they grew up. The U.S. intelligence assessment written after the November Paris attacks presciently warned that “the involvement of a large number of operatives and group leaders based in multiple countries in future ISIL-linked plotting could create significant obstacles in the detection and disruption of preoperational activities.” That is certainly the case, but it is only half the problem. The still greater challenge European countries now face is contending with the European Islamic State terrorists being groomed today within their own borders.
Jewish World
Jason Diamond explains why Garry Shandling was one of the greatest Jewish comedians of all time:
Garry Shandling was the master of turning Jewish dissatisfaction into comedy. People love to talk about neurosis like it’s the defining trope all Jewish comedians share, but Shandling wore a look on his face like he was uncomfortable with nearly everything, like nothing was ever right. That’s what made him one of the greatest comedians ever.
Jeff Robbins points out that although times are tough for AIPAC, Israel still enjoys a lot of support in the US:
It’s been a challenging period for AIPAC, which has weathered withering criticism from Israel’s enemies and frostiness from the Obama team. But the size of AIPAC’s annual meeting and the robust support that Israel continues to enjoy in the United States indicates that Israel’s case is strong, and that it has no shortage of Americans prepared to make it.