US
Robert Satloff believes that the American public and its leaders need to differentiate between Islam and Islamism:
If we, in our public rhetoric, have figured out how to differentiate between Christians and Klansmen, we should be able to talk with sensitivity and humility about the difference between Muslims and Islamists. At the very least, our leaders need to talk candidly and sensibly about the threat of Islamism in order to make the case for building partnerships between Muslim communities around the country and federal, state and local governments—partnerships that are essential to winning the battle against this pernicious ideology
The Washington Post is unpleased with President Obama offering more concessions to Putin in Syria:
Administration officials claim they have no alternative but to go along with Mr. Putin. The former Plan B, more support for rebels, would merely lead to more fighting with little result, they say. It’s the same logic that President Obama has used to deflect proposals for U.S. action in support of anti-Assad forces since 2012 — even as the country, and the region around it, spiraled deeper and deeper into bloodshed, chaos and humanitarian crisis. Mr. Obama appears fiercely determined to learn nothing from his tragic mistakes in Syria. The latest U.S. proposal, if accepted by Mr. Putin, would compound the damage.
Israel
Elliott Abrams discusses the flaws in the Middle East Quartet’s new report on Israel and Palestine:
It should be possible for the Quartet and for UN bodies to express opposition to settlement expansion without equating it with terrorism and murder. The “peace process” will go nowhere until such terror stops, and until the Palestinian Authority insists on what the Quartet correctly demands: an end to the incitement of and reward for murder.
Itamar Eichner writes about the details of and disagreements on the aid package deal with the US:
While the Americans are prepared to increase the aid, they added some sticking points that Israel was just not ready to swallow. The first is the limitation of “off-shore procurement” (OSP)—Israel spending a portion of the aid domestically. The existing agreement permits spending up to 26.3 percent of the military aid—i.e., $815 million—converting it into shekels and using it to purchase equipment and weapons systems in Israel. This is mainly used for systems that were developed in Israel and integrated with American weapons systems and also for Israeli maintenance of American arms… Such a clause would be devastating for Israel. It would likely lead to the termination of thousands of workers in defense industries.
Middle East
Le Monde’s Alain Franchon explains why beating ISIS is not enough to save Syria and Iraq:
So even if the state-like organization of ISIS is destroyed, something else will come along to embody Sunni hardship. Jihadism can survive the caliphate's defeat by moving into guerrilla warfare. How long will this continue? Well, as long as Syria and Iraq don't accept the diversity of their population and grant their citizens equal rights. It's a job that will last at least a generation.
Aaron Magid writes about how ISIS is turning its attention to Jordan:
IS’ Rukban attack was designed to send a strong message to the Jordanian leadership and security forces. However, immediately after the truck bombing, Amman declared the Rukban area a closed military zone while preventing food and medical supplies for the more than 60,000 refugees. More than half of the trapped refugees are minors, and disease and malnutrition are spreading rapidly in these harsh conditions. Once again, the Syrian refugees — who are overwhelmingly Muslim — are paying a heavy price for IS’ military strikes.
Jewish World
Following the passing of Eli Wiesel, writer, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust Survivor, here is his interview with the Paris Review, in which he discusses his life as a writer :
If I had thought that by my silence, or rather by our silence, we could have achieved something, I think I would have kept silent. I didn’t want to write those books. I wrote them against myself. But I realize that if we do not use words, the whole period will be forgotten. Therefore, we had to use them, faute de mieux.
Here is the text of Wiesel's Prayer for the Days of Awe:
What about my faith in you, Master of the Universe?
I now realize I never lost it, not even over there, during the darkest hours of my life. I don't know why I kept on whispering my daily prayers, and those one reserves for the Sabbath, and for the holidays, but I did recite them, often with my father and, on Rosh ha-Shanah eve, with hundreds of inmates at Auschwitz. Was it because the prayers remained a link to the vanished world of my childhood?
And here is the text of his 2009 speech at Buchenwald:
I was so hopeful. Paradoxically, I was so hopeful then. Many of us were, although we had the right to give up on humanity, to give up on culture, to give up on education, to give up on the possibility of living one's life with dignity in a world that has no place for dignity.
We rejected that possibility. And we said, “No, we must continue believing in a future, because the world has learned.” But again, the world hasn't. Had the world learned, there would have been no Cambodia and no Rwanda and no Darfur and no Bosnia.
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