Sunday Reads: The Iranian threat to the Arab world, The plight of the Jews of France

US

Military strategist Steven Metz makes the case for a punitive expedition against ISIS:

Airstrikes by the U.S. and other nations have put a damper on the mobility of IS, but cannot defeat it outright. In fact, the organization appears to be finding new recruits as fast as the airstrikes kill its fighters. Even though some U.S. military officials believe the Iraqi military will eventually go on the offensive, Baghdad’s armed forces and the various anti-IS militias will never eradicate the extremist organization, at least as long as it controls parts of eastern Syria and has a steady flow of foreign recruits. To believe otherwise is wishful thinking, not sound strategy.

Hillel Fradkin and Lewis Libby try to understand what Obama’s real ISIS strategy is:

Now, it seems, allied strikes along with local forces will not accomplish the military defeat of ISIS, but rather defeat will come from dissention within the Islamic State over its ultimate failures to sustain its economy and its people. This presents a very different means, and likely a very different time frame, for defeating ISIS. In Cold War terms, it is more in the nature of Containment of ISIS, until it “ultimately” rots from within, than of a military plan to defeat it outright.

Israel

Ben Dror Yemini urges PM Netanyahu to cancel his trip to Washington:

Don't go, Netanyahu, don't go, precisely because the Iranian threat is so important, precisely because you are right, precisely because the things you are planning to say at the US Congress are important – don't go. Because this trip will impair the exact issue that you are traveling on behalf of.

You know that, Mr. Netanyahu. So if you are really concerned, you should do the right thing.

Mazal Mualem discusses the recent dismissal of Israeli diplomats after some controversial tweets:

Nonetheless, it is hard to ignore the fact that the anticipated “tweets' dismissal” affair reflects the diplomats’ distress these days, when Israeli-US relations are at such a nadir. A senior diplomat, speaking with Al-Monitor on Feb. 6, described the great difficulties facing the diplomatic staff in the United States. “It’s a difficult situation. Netanyahu’s speech to Congress is a sort of terror attack. It’s hard to explain why the speech is necessary. A large number of Israeli diplomats in the US feel helpless, that they’ve been thrown into battle without suitable ammunition, and they are standing speechless in the face of what seems to be long-term damage. I don’t envy them for a minute.”

Middle East

Anthony Cordesman believes that a nuclear Iran is as big of a threat for the Arab world as it is for Israel:

If Iran can acquire nuclear warheads, however, this would radically shift the balance against Arab states that lack nuclear weapons. It would greatly increase the threat Iran can pose, and help deter its Arab neighbors and their allies from using their advantage in air power. This is why Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf states are so concerned about the P5+1 negotiations with Iran. Their governments do not see an Iranian threat to a nuclear armed Israel; they see a nuclear threat to the Arab world.

Simon Cottee tries to follow the logic behind ISIS’ exceedingly shocking videos:

This is the demonic nature of the Islamic State’s terrorism: Each act of atrocity must eclipse the previous one. The group's brand of terrorism is like a drug: You need to keep ramping up the dose to sustain the pleasure high. For ISIS and organizations like it, that high is global publicity.

Jewish World

The WPost’s Griff Witte reports on the possibility of a possible exodus of the Jews of France following the recent attacks:

The Jewish Agency, which encourages immigration to Israel, says the number of French Jews leaving for Israel each year had been steady at about 2,000 until 2013, when it hit 3,400. Last year, it jumped to more than 7,000 — making France the leading contributor of immigrants to Israel and marking the first time that more than 1 percent of a Western nation’s Jewish population has left for Israel in a single year, according to Avi Mayer, a spokesman for the Jewish Agency.

Conservative Rabbi Adina Lewittes explains why she changed her position on intermarriage:

For the first 20 years of my rabbinate I turned away interfaith couples who asked me to marry them. I believed it my professional duty to do so. But telling someone that I won’t do their wedding because I disapproved of their life partner increasingly chafed against my calling to engage Jews with their heritage. Judaism isn’t mine to offer or withhold at will. I don’t own it. As clear as my policy was, saying no caused pain for the couple and for me. My refusal was often taken as rejection by Judaism itself, leading couples to reject Judaism in turn.