US
Retired Lieutenant Colonel William Astore criticizes the outdated structure of the US Army:
Much of our military today remains structured to meet and defeat a Soviet threat that long ago ceased to exist. (Occasional sparring matches with Vladimir Putin’s Russia in and around Ukraine do not add up to the heated “rumbles in the jungle” we fought with the Soviet leaders of yesteryear.) … If you had asked me in 1990 what the U.S. military would look like in 2015, the one thing I wouldn’t have guessed was that, in its force structure, it would look basically the same.
Andrew Bacevich argues that President Obama doesn’t always need to make America’s Middle East allies happy:
Scaremongers suggest that courting Iran implies a willingness to sell out Iran's adversaries. In fact, the recalibration of relationships now underway points to something quite different: It holds out the prospect of putting U.S.-Israeli and U.S.-Saudi relations on a more businesslike footing.
Israel
Jonathan Tobin doesn’t understand how Israel can be criticized for helping out with the humanitarian efforts in Nepal:
There’s something particularly egregious about those who actually criticize Israeli aid efforts to a prostrate Third World nation. Apparently nothing, not even a humanitarian crisis, is enough to cause those who wish to see the Jewish state brought down to call a timeout in their campaign of delegitimization. That’s bad enough when it comes from bottom feeder websites like Mondoweiss. But when it comes from supposedly legitimate figures within the human rights community, it bridges the gap between the absurd and the pathological.
Check out Matti Friedman’s special essay about the complexities of modern day Jerusalem:
So how do we see Jerusalem now? Is it a place headed for integration or disintegration? As someone who has lived his entire adult life here—not in a city of big ideas like “redemption” or “peace,” but in the city of supermarkets and kindergartens—and as someone with no plans to leave, the soul of Jerusalem is of more than journalistic interest to me. Talking about ordinary people in Jerusalem often feels like talking about people who work at the zoo: No one comes to see the people. They just block the view of the leopards.
Middle East
Michael Singh discusses the challenges posed by Iran’s recent naval aggression in the Persian Gulf:
U.S. allies continue to express skepticism about our willingness to stand up to Iranian aggression in the wake of a nuclear deal. If the United States fails the test, it will further undermine U.S. alliances and the credibility of our commitments, as well as encourage further measures to limit our forces' access in the Gulf and perhaps elsewhere. How we conduct ourselves on the Gulf's torpid waters will do more to reassure or discomfit our allies than any statements issued from Camp David.
How does the CIA view the Syria war? Former top CIA official Michael Morell gives his analysis:
“The two most important are, number one, a proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia, and it's a proxy war over long-term influence in the Middle East,” Morell said. “Iran wants it. Saudi Arabia doesn't want Iran to have it. In that war, in my personal view — I'm stating a policy view here, which is unusual for an intelligence guy — but in my view, we should be all in with Saudi Arabia. The other interesting war that's going on in Syria is between a secular leader, Assad, and ISIS and al-Qaida,” he said. “Who should we support in that war? The secular leader, right? So we have two different wars pointing in two completely different directions. That's why this is so complicated.”
Jewish World
Nathan Guttman takes a look at a new ‘Birthright for Evangelical Christians’ program:
Program organizers say their target audience consists of Christian student leaders who support Israel. While not officially limited to evangelical Christians, most of those signing up identify as evangelical. Many attend Christian colleges like Liberty. One of the trips planned for this summer will include only Christian students from Ivy League universities. The heavily subsidized cost for students on all Covenant Journey tours is $500. (Taglit-Birthright Israel is free.) Two foundations underwriting the project covered the rest.
Professor Jeffrey Heff writes about a recent victory against the BDS movement:
Jacobson’s glass-half-full-glass half-empty assessment is probably on the mark. It is almost certainly true that only a minority of students and faculty in American universities favor a boycott of Israel. It is equally the case that a very large majority views the boycott efforts as a threat to academic freedom at least and at worst as a fig leaf for anti-Semitism.
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