Sunday Reads: Israelis on Trump/Clinton, Turkey’s shift in Syria, On BDS and Jewish campus activism

US

Lee Smith talks to Jay Solomon about US-Iran relations:

On the other hand, it seems clear the Iranians are escalating now at the end of Obama's term. Harassing U.S. Navy ships, arresting of dual nationals, testing ballistic missiles, installing the S-300s at Fordow. And there's been little pushback from the administration. The Iranians seem to be setting a firm line out so that whoever comes into the White House next understands that there's a new paradigm.

Jeff Jacobs explains how someone who supports Israel could be against US aid to Israel:

But is it possible to support Israel and uphold the importance of the US-Israeli relationship while simultaneously opposing the annual subsidy Congress provides to Israel’s military? Of course it is. The Jewish state, with its booming economy, doesn’t need American charity. If only out of national self-respect, Israel should want to wean itself off the US dole — and America shouldn’t want its friendship for its stalwart Middle East ally to be tainted by financial dependence.  

Israel

Haviv Rettig Gur examines the possibility of Israel becoming a maritime power:

Israel’s strength set against an imploding Arab state system – indeed, Israel’s strangely separate life in a region that is increasingly seen as an exporter primarily of its own social and religious imbalances – is quietly but decisively transforming the Jewish state’s place in the calculations of both friend and foe.

We don’t normally share Shmuel Rosner articles in our Sunday Reads, but here’s one about Israel’s preferences in the 2016 elections:

The government is silent, and theoretically there should be nothing new about that. The Israeli government is supposed to be silent when Americans go to the polls. Only most times, even though the government is silent, even though it officially says that Israel has no position other than everybody-will-be-a-friend, we know what it wants. This time we don’t, except for this: According to a poll of Israelis, any one of the current presidential candidates would be better, at least initially, than President Obama. So that’s something.

Middle East

Soner Cagaptay tries to figure out how far Turkey will shift its policy in Syria:

But, ultimately, given Erdogan’s ideological stance in the Syrian civil war, unless Washington convinces Qatar and Saudi Arabia to end completely their support to the rebels—an unlikely scenario—Turkey will continue to let aid flow to the anti-Assad rebels while formally standing behind a U.S.-Russia deal, especially if the Turkish incursion into northwest Syria manages to create a mini homeland for the Ankara-based rebels against the Assad regime.

David Ignatius believes that the America’s Syria policy rests on a treacherous fault line:

How can the United States build a firmer foundation for finishing the campaign against the Islamic State? Washington must help build governance for a post-Islamic State world. It should sponsor renewed peace talks between Turkey and the PKK. And it should make clear to all that the only durable future is a federalism that can give Kurds, Sunnis, Shiites, Turkmen and other minorities a sense of ownership and control in Syria and Iraq.

U.S. military power can’t save a house built on quicksand. Before we press on to evict the Islamic State from Raqqa, the United States needs to frame a clear understanding with the neighboring states about what comes next.

Jewish World

Seffi Kogen writes about how BDS is pushing young Jews away from campus activism:

Today, to be a social justice advocate of any kind on many U.S. college campuses requires a sort of litmus test. Do you believe that your university should divest its holdings in fossil fuel companies to help fight global warming? Then you also have to support divestment from private prisons. Do you want to fight the epidemic of campus sexual assault? Good, but you must also support BDS. And, if you believe that women on U.S. campuses shouldn’t have to fear rape each time they venture out at night, but don’t want to sign on to an anti-Israel agenda, you might just find yourself pushed out of the sexual violence advocacy arena.

Yair Rosnerberg argues that a vote for Trump is a vote for mainstreaming Anti-Semites:

The elevation of these hateful voices has been disturbing enough during the campaign. But should Trump be elected, these are the people who will inevitably end up filling many of the hundreds of positions in his White House, given that most traditional Republican operatives refuse to work for him.