US
According to David Brooks, the Iran deal, like Vietnam and Iraq, is a strategic defeat for America:
This administration has given us a choice between two terrible options: accept the partial-surrender agreement that was negotiated or reject it and slide immediately into what is in effect our total surrender — a collapsed sanctions regime and a booming Iranian nuclear program.
Virginia Senator Tim Kaine does not understand why Congress refuses to seriously debate ISIS:
One year of war against the Islamic State has transformed a president who was elected in part because of his early opposition to the Iraq war into an executive war president… And it has demonstrated that Congress would rather hide from its constitutional duty to declare war than have a meaningful debate about whether and how the United States should militarily confront the Islamic State.
Israel
Mazal Mualem discusses the incitement against President Rivlin from within his own Likud party:
In the many interviews Rivlin has given following the wave of incitement against him, the president sounded hurt and offended to the point of tears, especially when he spoke of how his friends on the right had not stood up to defend him and had accused him of treason. In doing so, Rivlin pinpointed the real problem: The incitement is no longer the purview of a handful of extremists.
Former Mossad Chief Efraim Halevi criticizes Netanyahu’s attempt to engage American Jewry in the fight against the Iran deal:
This approach could cost both Israel and American Jews dearly: It would be a historic mistake to push US Jews into a corner, and force them to choose between the trust and respect they have for their president, and answering the cry for help coming from Jerusalem. In addition, the kind of campaign Netanyahu is waging against the agreement actually undermines Israel's deterrence as a strong and steadfast country.
Middle East
Bruce Riedel examines the escalation in the war in Yemen and its effects on other important matters of the day:
The emphasis on Yemen explains the muted Saudi reaction to the Iran nuclear deal. Riyadh fears the deal will strengthen Iran and end sanctions permanently. But the Saudis cannot fight the deal when they need the support of its key arms suppliers — especially the United States and the UK — to fight in Yemen. The Saudi media has stressed that Washington has given assurances of support in fighting Iran's allies, including the Houthis, and new arms sales. Quiet acceptance of the nuclear deal and sanctions relief for Iran is the price Riyadh has to pay to win in Yemen.
Lee Smith takes a look at the possible longer-term consequences of Obama’s Iran policy:
The conflict Obama thinks he is balancing with the Iran nuclear deal looks more likely to widen throughout the region, spreading from Iraq and Syria to include the Gulf, the eastern Mediterranean, and North Africa. It may soon reach the capitals of Europe, where Sunni and Shiite fighters will seek to avenge their grievances with the West and with each other. It is not difficult to imagine it touching down on our shores as well. War is not the alternative to Obama’s Iran deal but its likeliest consequence.
Jewish World
According to this piece in the Forward, Donald Trump has the strongest Jewish connections out of all the GOP candidates:
Given his myriad Jewish associations, Trump is not an unfamiliar face in Jewish circles. He has served as a grand marshal at New York’s annual Salute to Israel Parade. After Hurricane Katrina, he was among a group of celebrities who decorated Jewish federation tzedakah boxes to be auctioned off to support hurricane disaster relief. And in February, he was honored with an award at the annual gala for the Algemeiner, a right-wing Jewish news organization.
Shaul Magid takes a look at the curious Post-Zionism of the late West Bank Rabbi Menachem Froman:
Post-Zionism, however, is not really about the Diaspora, it is about Israel. It is about what kind of country Israel is, or wants to be. For the most part, post-Zionism has taken a secular form. That is, it is promoted by secular scholars and intellectuals who view Zionism as a secular Jewish ideology that is in need of significant revision. Yet there have been a few significant religious voices in Israel who have tried to make what I will call a spiritual case for post-Zionism. Rabbi Menachem Froman is one of them.
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