Sunday Reads: Turkey’s ISIS problem, The Biden doctrine, Putin as Israel-Palestine mediator
US
Sarah Wheaton discusses “another blow” to President Obama’s legacy in Syria – the failure to stop the use of chemical weapons:
President Barack Obama hasn’t had many victories to point to in Syria, but there was one: the U.S. and Russia-brokered deal in 2013 that compelled the Syrian regime to hand over hundreds of tons of chemical weapons.
Now, a U.N. investigation has put even that victory in question, leading critics to hammer a U.S. president they say is too stubborn to admit he was wrong to pull back on military strikes, even after he’d warned the regime there that chemical weapons use would cross a “red line.”
Steve Clemons talks to Joe Biden, “the Geopolitical therapist,” about the Biden doctrine:
I have had a view for a long time that, in terms of the use of force, the cause not only has to be a vital U.S. strategic interest, but when force is used there [must be] efficacy in the use of that force—and the effort [should be one that] can be sustained. I don’t have any doubt if we put 200,000 forces in Syria— although we might have a war with Russia—we could control the place, settle it down. But the moment we left, we’d be right back exactly where we are today. [We’re still] arguing about Afghanistan.
Israel
Aaron David Miller examines the possibility of Putin becoming a mediator in the Israel-Palestine peace process:
But Putin's idea has failure written all over it. And if the Russian leader persists, Washington should stand back and let him try.
If there ever was a loser issue designed to suck huge amounts of thankless effort out of any would-be mediator without achieving results, it's the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
Yoaz Hendel writes about Israel’s balancing act between healthy patriotism and nationalism:
Those who claim that Israel also harbors nationalism are just as correct. Every country does. The difference between patriotism and nationalism is the emotion each of them helps cultivate: for whereas patriotism helps cultivate the love of one’s homeland, nationalism grows the hatred you feel for your enemy. In our case, it is the Arabs. Cultivating a symbol isn’t nationalism, despite the ignorance of those fascists who grow to hate.
Middle East
Aaron Stein shows why invading Syria won’t solve Turkey’s ISIS problem:
In the wake of the failed coup, Turkey has also effectively handicapped the institutions best-positioned to root out ISIS. Turkish security forces face the impossible task of disrupting and defeating three different sub-state groups: the PKK, ISIS, and suspected followers of Gulen. But the purge of thousands of police officers and members of the judiciary for their alleged links to Gulen have decimated Turkey’s police intelligence organization: 6,500 out of 7,000 personnel have been purged from this body, the law-enforcement institution that would normally be expected to play a role in the ongoing investigation into the latest ISIS attack in Gaziantep.
Max Fisher takes a look into the Syrian war in the light of studies about civil wars:
Despite many offensives, peace conferences and foreign interventions, including this week’s Turkish incursion into a border town, the only needle that ever seems to move is the one measuring the suffering of Syrians — which only worsens.
Academic research on civil wars, taken together, reveals why. The average such conflict now lasts about a decade, twice as long as Syria’s so far. But there are a handful of factors that can make them longer, more violent and harder to stop. Virtually all are present in Syria.
Jewish World
Rory Castle Jones writes about the Jewish consciousness of Rosa Luxemburg:
Rosa Luxemburg was both a victim and active opponent of anti-Semitism. Her witnessing of the terrible Warsaw pogrom of 1881 as a 10-year-old schoolgirl was in fact a major factor in her political awakening. Such accusations as those put forth by Telushkin and repeated elsewhere, must now be challenged in the light of new research, scholarship, and understanding of Luxemburg’s Jewish identity.
Nathan Guttman takes a look at Hillary Clinton’s big lead with Florida Jews in the polls (despite the Orthodox community’s support for Trump):
According to a new poll conducted by Democratic pollster Jim Gerstein and published Friday, 66% of Florida Jewish voters say they will vote for Clinton and only 23% for Donald Trump in a four-way vote which includes Green Party and Libertarian candidates.
“Clinton has a commanding lead,” Gerstein said, noting that she is outperforming Barack Obama’s showing in the state among Jewish voters when he ran against Mitt Romney in 2012.