Sunday Reads: Israel’s ‘compensation’ for the Iran deal, Erdogan’s attack on social media

US

George Will discusses the impossible task of containing a huge, hostile nation’s nuclear ambitions:

Dealing with Iran is disagreeable, but no more so than depending on Stalin’s Soviet Union as a World War II ally more important than all the other allies combined. Deterring a nuclear Iran might be even more problematic than deterring the Soviet Union was, depending on whether Iran’s theological intoxication is more than rhetorical. We are going to find out.

RAND’s Dalia Dassa Kaye tries to explain why the deal with Iran is not likely to change the US’ regional politics:

Yet fears that a deal will lead to a major readjustment in U.S. regional strategy are overblown. Even if the administration is interested in reorienting its regional policies, there are a number of obstacles that will stand in the way. In other words, as significant as a final nuclear agreement would be, it may not prove transformative—at least not without considerable effort.

Israel

Nahum Barnea discusses the possibility of the US ‘compensating’ Israel for the recent nuclear deal:

Compensation for Israel includes advanced weaponry and funding for defense systems, steps that will balance out the compensation going to Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries, and ensuring an Israeli military advantage. It also means a US promise to attack Iran militarily if it violates the agreement or at least an American promise to support an Israeli attack should such a situation arise.

But negotiations of this nature cannot take place when Netanyahu is simultaneously trying to muster a majority in Congress to override the president's veto. Netanyahu cannot have it both ways.

Ghaith al-Omari writes about what seems to be a forgotten topic these days, the security cooperation between Israel and Palestine:

Despite these obstacles, security cooperation and the positive dynamics it creates are one of the few hopeful spots in an otherwise grim arena. Expanding the latest police initiative to other parts of the West Bank could give Palestinians a badly needed sense of progress without endangering Israel's security. While such progress is no substitute for a political peace process, it can help fill the vacuum in the meantime and even increase the chances of relaunching peace talks by cementing trust between the two sides.

Middle East

David Pollock examines the Arab world’s polarized reaction to the Iran deal:

One common denominator has stood out: Arab commentators and officials have paid remarkably little attention to the framework's technical details (at least before President Obama's latest statement that Iran's breakout time may shrink “almost down to zero” in little over a decade). Instead, Arab reactions evince a single-minded focus on a nuclear deal's potentially broader implications for Iran's conventional intervention in regional conflicts. In addition, survey research demonstrates that most Arab publics share their governments' highly negative views of Iranian policies — even if some of those publics, as Obama mused publicly this week, are probably concerned about various domestic problems as well.

A Washington Post editorial attacks Turkey’s social media power grab:

As Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan steadily concentrates power, Turkey has become one of the most difficult places in the world for social media to operate. Twitter reports show that 60 percent of the requests it received to remove content in the second half of 2014 came from Turkey; restrictions of content on Facebook in Turkey doubled during the same period. Turkey’s domestic media have been cowed with prosecutions of journalists on trumped-up charges and forced sales of outlets to government-friendly investors.

Jewish World

Lee Smith muses on what could be construed as a Presidential ‘dis’ to Jewish-American leaders:

It’s a pretty nasty joke the White House played. But even if Kahl didn’t have a long personal history as the administration’s point man on the downgrade Israel beat, the fact that Obama sent the vice president’s aide to brief Jewish leaders on an issue of vital concern to them suggests how little the commander in chief now respects or fears the power of a community he once courted so assiduously.

The Forward’s Donald Snyder talks to a Muslim resident of Malmo, Sweden who has been bravely fighting anti-Semitism in a notoriously tense European city:

Siavosh Derakhti, a 23-year-old Swedish Muslim, seems an unlikely champion in the fight against anti-Semitism. But Derakhti, whose parents immigrated to Sweden from Iran, has been recognized for his work in combating hatred and bigotry.

When he was 19, he founded Young Muslims Against Anti-Semitism, now known as Young People Against Anti-Semitism and Xenophobia. He worked tirelessly to teach Muslim youth about the evils of anti-Semitism, and has taken mixed Muslim and Christian groups to Auschwitz to show them the results of hate.