US
Robert Kaplan makes some interesting points comparing between President Obama and George H.W. Bush, whom the current President views favourably:
Bush was an internationalist who never would have talked about “nation-building at home.” Though he exercised restraint—in not liberating Baghdad, in not breaking relations with China after the Tiananmen Square massacre—he was careful in how he telegraphed that message, so as not to create the impression abroad that America could be intimidated. Restraint tends to work well when you don't incessantly advertise it, otherwise it signals apologetic weakness.
James Traub examines what Trump’s isolationist nationalism says about the American public’s current attitude toward foreign policy:
There may be allies out there, but Trump rarely bothers with them. Foreign countries want what we’ve got, and they’ll get it unless we hit them harder than they hit us. The word for this view is not quite isolationism; it’s nationalism. Internationalists think that America shares collective interests with other countries and thus profits from working closely with them. Nationalists think defensively; the home front, for them, is always jeopardized. So Charles Lindbergh thought, and Patrick Buchanan. Of course, they were also isolationists. The wall — coastal defense, homeland security, embargos, tariffs — is the emblem of isolationism. The wall — coastal defense, homeland security, embargos, tariffs — is the emblem of isolationism.
Israel
Judah Arie Gross tries to understand why the IDF prefers uneasy quiet to a preemtive strike against a strengthening Hamas:
Strictly from a tactical standpoint, it is always preferable to catch your opponents with their pants down. But the strategic gains of another tunnel-busting operation, Israel’s military planners believe, pale in comparison to the cost — especially because a victory for Israel in such a conflict would not completely eliminate its root cause, Hamas.
Ehud Eilam looks at the prospect of an eruption between Israel and Egypt:
In late September 2015 a poll in Egypt showed that its public considers Israel to be their biggest enemy, far more than any other state. The Egyptian government might use this environment to distract the population from their troubles at home. It might be also vice versa, i.e. the Egyptian public might drag its leadership to confront Israel. In both cases the purpose of the Egyptian government/ people might not be to actually fight Israel, but it might end in that.
Middle East
On the eve of the anniversary of the 2011 uprising against Bashar Assad, Julian Pecquet talks to senior officials who reflect on America’s ongoing failure in Syria:
At the root of the Obama policy's failure, argues former Ambassador Ryan Crocker, was the mistaken impression that Bashar al-Assad would be as easy to dislodge as other dictators felled by the Arab Spring. As ambassador to Syria, Crocker had formed firsthand impressions of the Syrian regime's “near-perfect police state” in one-on-one discussions with the future Syrian leader in the late 1990s, but no one in the administration asked for his opinion before announcing that Assad had to go.
RAND’s Patrick Johnston writes about the Islamic State’s money problems:
To counter the Islamic State effectively in this new phase of economic warfare, the United States and coalition must continue to apply pressure against ISIL’s oil operations and its bulk cash reserves. But it is crucial for coalition forces to find new ways to break the cycle of ISIL control over the economy. The best way to do this is simple: Separate ISIL from the population from which it profits. Reasserting control over ISIL-held territories such as Ramadi and Tikrit are good examples of such successes. Effective partnerships with host-nation security forces capable of retaking Mosul and Raqqa — ISIL’s capitals in Iraq and Syria — while also rooting out ISIL’s formal and informal taxation programs, are necessary to destroy the Islamic State’s war chest.
Jewish World
Shalom Goldman tells the story of how the chief rabbi of Rome turned into a Christian right after WW2:
Following their rabbi’s apostasy, the congregants of Tempio Maggiore gathered to sit shiva, ritually mourn, for Zolli. More people attended this meeting than had attended the earlier service commemorating the liberation of Rome from the Nazis. Zolli’s Jewish critics saw his apostasy as sudden and unexpected. They portrayed Zolli as a coward and an opportunist who left Rome’s Jewish community at the moment of its greatest need. In the words of American Rabbi Louis I. Newman, “Conceived, as we shall see, chiefly in spitefulness and spleen against his own flock, Zolli desired his apostasy to be given the greatest publicity. Only thus could he feed his revenge.”
Joel Pollack writes about the campaign to present Donald Trump as an anti-Semite:
It is not simple fear of populist nationalism. It is being carried out by those who know, or are capable of deducing, that Trump is neither an antisemite nor trying to appeal to antisemites. It is a vendetta by political opponents who are determined to stop Trump and have chosen to use this noxious slander as their weapon.
As with false accusations of racism, it tends to desensitize people to the real thing.
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