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In-Depth Issues:
Israel Believes Iran Moved Nuclear Centrifuges into Pickaxe Mountain - Laurence Norman ( Wall Street Journal)
Israeli intelligence believes Iran moved thousands of uranium-enrichment centrifuges into tunnels deep inside Pickaxe Mountain last fall, Israeli and U.S. officials say, heightening concerns that Tehran could reconstitute its nuclear program.
Iranian Strikes Have Targeted the U.S. Military in at least 4 Countries - Sanjana Varghese ( New York Times)
Iranian strikes have targeted U.S. military installations and other facilities in at least four countries since July 7, according to satellite imagery and videos that show recent damage at those locations.
Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan was hit multiple times, where at least 24 U.S. soldiers have been wounded and two killed.
See also Iran Missile Struck Housing for U.S. Troops at Jordan Base - Michael R. Gordon ( Wall Street Journal)
The Iranian ballistic missile attack on Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan on July 17 that killed two U.S. soldiers from Army air and missile defense units struck prefabricated housing units where troops lived and slept, U.S. officials said.
The attack was one of three separate missile strikes on the base in 24 hours last week.
Israel Shoots Down Fragments of Iranian Missile Fired at Jordan - Yonah Jeremy Bob ( Jerusalem Post)
On Sunday, the IDF's Iron Dome was used to shoot down fragments of an Iranian ballistic missile fired at Jordan near the border with Israel after the U.S. Aegis anti-missile system had shot down the primary missile warhead.
Iran Ceasefire Seen Unlikely in Coming Days - Danny Zaken ( Israel Hayom)
Mediation efforts between Iran and the U.S. have intensified in an attempt to secure a ceasefire and resume talks.
The proposal under consideration calls for a ceasefire lasting one to two weeks, aimed at restoring the understandings set out in the memorandum of understanding.
However, the U.S. said that only the complete and unrestricted reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, along with compliance with all the terms of the memorandum, would lead to renewed negotiations, the lifting of the naval blockade and an end to U.S. strikes.
The U.S. calls for guarantees that commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps will publicly endorse any agreement.
Therefore, diplomatic sources assess that a ceasefire is unlikely in the coming days, and that a formal resumption of negotiations is even less likely.
Israel Rejects Reports Khamenei Fled Iran -
Itamar Eichner ( Ynet News)
After Saudi broadcaster Al Hadath cited what it said was an Israeli security source claiming that Iran's new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei was no longer in Iran, Israeli officials familiar with the intelligence reject that account.
One security official said, "He is wounded, he is alive and he continues to give orders."
"Mojtaba is in Iran. He is wounded and is a very weak figure who is being managed by [Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Ahmad] Vahidi."
"They are deliberately building a sense of mystery around him, but the truth is that Vahidi writes everything for him. He is not really an important figure."
Dragged from Nova, Executed in a Gaza Hospital: the Horrific Abduction of Hanan Yablonka - Francine Wolfisz ( Mail on Sunday-UK)
The sister of a murdered Hamas hostage has revealed his tragic fate. Hanan Yablonka, 42, was at the Nova Festival on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists unleashed their savage assault.
His sister, Avivit Yablonka Abady, arrived in London this month for the opening of the Nova Exhibition. On Wednesday she described how his fate remained unknown to his distraught family for almost eight months.
"Hanan, his friend Leor, and two women fled towards his car and left the festival. But on the way, a car in front of them...turned around - crashing into their car. Hanan left his car to check on the other vehicle when he was suddenly shot by terrorists in the chest."
"He fell down onto the road. Hanan was badly injured and dying. Then the terrorists turned their guns on his friends and murdered all of them."
"They put Hanan on a truck and took him to a hospital inside Gaza. But when the doctors saw he was dying, they decided to shoot him - in his head, three times. They put him inside a bag and hid the body inside the walls of a tunnel in Jabalia."
On May 24, 2024, IDF forces recovered his body, alongside the remains of Michel Nisenbaum, 59, and Orion Hernandez, 32. Authorities could only identify him by his teeth.
Foreign Threats Breed Self-Sufficiency - Edward Luttwak ( Unherd)
There are people who imagine that cutting American aid would irreparably damage the Jewish state. Yet Israel defeated the Arabs in June 1967, again, as it did in 1948, without any U.S.-supplied weapons.
Precisely because of Israel's long history of denials and embargoes by the British and U.S. governments, its nine million people are enough to support disproportionately large and diverse military industries.
This state of nine million is one that can research, develop and manufacture the world's heaviest battle tank, a full range of tactical and strategic missiles, and the interceptors that inaugurated humanity's first instance of space warfare two years ago.
Israelis reacted to the start of U.S. military aid after the Six-Day War with deep, genuine gratitude, eagerly pursuing any opportunity to reciprocate.
Israel's Mossad was inside the Soviet Union, which the CIA could only watch from afar, and offered up all it uncovered.
After its October 1973 tank-warfare victories, Israel supplied the U.S. Army's tacticians with every bit of data for their, and NATO's, revolutionary "fight outnumbered and win" manuals, explicitly based on the desperate Golan Heights fight in which 200 Israeli tanks destroyed four times as many Soviet-built Syrian tanks.
In my many encounters in Israel over the years, I have heard a great eagerness to contribute Israel's research and development talents, whose fruits are now built into some of the most capable U.S. weapons, most conspicuously in the F-35 fighter jet, whose innovative helmet-mounted piloting system was entirely developed in Israel.
Israel's pilots sat in their cockpits for hours to reach and bomb Iran's distant missile launchers, which were attacking U.S. bases and U.S. allies, as well as Israel itself.
Israel would never refuse any military help it could provide, as countless U.S. officers have known for decades.
The writer is a contractual strategic consultant for the U.S. government.
Israeli Defense-Tech Start-Ups Raised $3 Billion in First Six Months of 2026 - Anna Ahronheim ( Jerusalem Post)
Israeli defense-tech start-ups working with the Defense Ministry raised nearly $3 billion in the first six months of 2026, according to figures presented at the Haifa DefenseTech Start-ups and Investors Forum.
Some 800 start-ups are currently fulfilling direct procurement orders for the ministry.
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
- Secretary of State Rubio: Iran's Behavior Has to Change in Order for Ours to Change
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday:
"The U.S. is conducting strikes against assets of Iran that are being used to attack global commercial shipping. The Straits of Hormuz are an international waterway, and they continue to launch against ships in that international waterway."
"Other countries should join us in this effort, but the United States is involved not just in protecting those ships but in targeting the places that they use to launch these missiles and drones....We continue on a daily basis very successfully to degrade Iran's ability to target ships."
"As long as Iran insists on controlling an international waterway, we're going to have to respond to that. I think we're always open to diplomacy. It has to be real. It has to be a deal that they're willing to live by. Look, Iran a week ago was supposed to put out a statement saying that the Straits of Hormuz would be opened and that they would no longer attack shipping. And instead of doing that, they attacked three ships....Their behavior has to change in order for ours to change."
"The world has to decide whether or not it's going to allow an international waterway to be under the control of a country like this. It's completely illegal, unlawful, and unacceptable. The United States will continue to do what it needs to do to protect global shipping, but other countries need to begin to step up and provide - whether it's hardware or finances - to help carry that burden. It is not the United States' job to protect shipping for the entire planet forever." (U.S. State Department)
- The Cost of War Is Starting to Be More Palpable in Iran - Erika Solomon
After more than a week of strikes by the U.S., discontent over the human and economic cost of war is starting to be more palpable in Iran. On Saturday, 268 prominent Iranians, including academics, politicians, athletes, clerics and trade unionists, signed a "No to war" petition - a risky move at a time the government, backed by a fiercely pro-war hard-line base, has continued to crack down fiercely on dissent.
"The government will have a very difficult time convincing people that they should continue fighting this war at the cost of Iran's destruction," said Omid Memarian, an Iran analyst at DAWN, a Washington-based Middle East research institute. "So time is ticking for them too."
That sense of time slipping away is likely what encouraged Iran to launch the attacks on ships that began the latest spiral, said Farzan Sabet, an Iran analyst at the Geneva Graduate Institute in Switzerland, to take advantage of strategic gains while they have them. "They saw their leverage in terms of being able to control the strait quickly decline," he said. (New York Times)
- Hamas Terrorizes Civilians at UN Food Centers - Henry Bodkin
Palestinians told the Telegraph how in recent days, groups of terrorists had stormed food distribution points and refugee shelters. On July 13, gunmen stormed into a shelter for the elderly, firing into the air and then demanding compensation for the bullets they had fired.
Palestinians said Hamas had perfected the art of hijacking aid shipments. One said: "For some time, there has been a pattern of smuggling, cigarettes, mobile phones, tobacco and various other goods inside trucks, including those belonging to international food organizations and commercial merchants....It is believed that these items are often loaded at warehouses in the countries of origin, while merchants bribe officials to include illicit goods during the packing process." (Telegraph-UK)
News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
- Lebanese Military Deploys in "Pilot Program" Areas, Securing Hizbullah-Free Zones - Amichai Stein
On Monday, the IDF confirmed that a pilot program had begun to enable the Lebanese military to enter designated "Safe Zones" in southern Lebanon to verify they have been cleared of Hizbullah operatives and weapons, in cooperation with the U.S. "The pilot areas will serve as a test of Lebanon's ability to exercise its sovereignty in practice by implementing the agreed-upon conditions through the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) under the supervision of [the U.S.]," an Israeli official said.
A U.S. official said, "The establishment of these initial pilot zones represents...an opportunity for the Lebanese state to begin to reassert real control in areas historically dominated by Hizbullah....The LAF will clear the areas of terrorist weapons and infrastructure, conduct verified clearance operations, and hold and secure the zones so Hizbullah cannot continue to use these communities as cover for their terror attacks." (Jerusalem Post)
See also Launch of First Pilot Zones in Lebanon (U.S. State Department)
- IDF Targets Hamas Oct. 7 Commander Who Held Gaza Hostages - Miriam Sela-Eitam
The IDF and Israel Security Agency killed Adham Ibrahim Sha'aban Nasman, Hamas's Gaza City Brigade Operations Head, on Saturday, it was announced Tuesday. Nasman served as a battalion commander in Hamas's Nukhba Force, and led Hamas's Gaza City Brigade's infiltration into Israel during the Oct. 7 massacre.
He held several former hostages captive, including Romi Gonen, Emily Damari, Ziv and Gali Berman, Eitan Mor, Matan Angrest, and Omri Miran. Ziv Berman, writing on social media, thanked all those involved in the operation.
(Jerusalem Post)
See also Ex-Hostage Says Terrorist Killed by IDF Was "a Monster"
Former hostage Emily Damari reacted to the killing of Hamas commander Adham Ibrahim Sha'aban Nasman, who held her and other hostages in captivity, calling Nasman a "monster" in a social media post. "So many of the brutal terrorists we encountered aspired to be like him. They were all evil, some at high levels and some at lower levels. Now they're not talking about us on the phone. They're burning together in the fires of hell....God willing, more will join them." (Times of Israel)
- IDF Targets Islamic Jihad Terrorist Who Attacked Nova Festival, Abducted Inbar Haiman - Emanuel Fabian
Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist Taher Ahmad Salem Abd al-Wahed, who, on Oct. 7, "infiltrated the Nova music festival and commanded" the kidnapping of Israeli Inbar Haiman, 27, was killed in an IDF strike on Friday. Haiman was caught and shot by terrorists and taken away on a motorcycle. In December 2023, the IDF determined that she had been murdered. Her remains were finally returned to Israel by Hamas on Oct. 15, 2025. (Times of Israel)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis:
Iran
- What the U.S. and Iran Are Fighting Over - Michael Doran
Gen. Ahmad Vahidi, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), is a die-hard jihadi.
For him, the officials negotiating with Washington serve as infidel handlers: officials who translate the demands of the IRGC into language acceptable to Western diplomats.
The IRGC struck ships that transited the Strait of Hormuz without coordinating with it to enforce Vahidi's interpretation of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed in mid-June. Vahidi never accepted the U.S. view that Iran would reopen the strait and treat it as an international waterway rather than a sovereign asset.
Trump has opted for a campaign of calibrated escalation designed to force Vahidi to accept the American definition of the MoU, seeking to impose enough pain to make the status quo untenable without igniting a wider regional war. But this theory expects Vahidi to place the welfare of Iranian society above the institutional interests of the IRGC.
Trump's ongoing campaign is unlikely to eliminate the drone threat. Intermittent drone attacks on commercial shipping are enough to drive insurers from the market and achieve severe disruption. Vahidi recently struck a desalination plant in Kuwait with ballistic missiles that are also hard to eradicate.
This reveals how profoundly warfare has changed. The era in which U.S. airpower could rapidly neutralize a regional adversary at acceptable cost is ending. It is being replaced by a more contested, attritional environment in which weaker states can buy time and impose significant costs.
These battlefield realities are already reshaping American strategy. Washington will increasingly prize allies that possess battle-tested militaries, functioning defense industries, advanced intelligence, and practical experience defeating missiles, drones, and hardened targets. It will prize, above all, allies that help the U.S. understand and counter the emerging Sino-Russian-Iranian military system. Israel meets those criteria. Very few others do.
The writer is Director of the Middle East Center at the Hudson Institute.
(Free Press)
- Iran's War on the Arabs - Khaled Abu Toameh
Over the past week, the Iranian regime has demonstrated once again that its ambitions extend far beyond destroying Israel. Tehran has launched an unprecedented campaign of missile and drone attacks against several Arab states, targeting critical infrastructure, ships, airports, oil facilities, power stations, desalination plants, ports and even residential neighborhoods. These attacks should remove any doubt: Iran's war is against the entire Middle East and, ultimately, against the U.S. and the West.
The Iranian regime has never demonstrated any willingness to abide by agreements if they conflict with its revolutionary ideology or strategic objectives. In reality, the negotiations gave the regime time to retrieve missiles it had hidden and to resume firing on U.S. forces and allies in the Gulf. Iran's terrorist proxies - Hamas, Hizbullah, and Yemen's Houthis - also have repeatedly violated ceasefire agreements.
Over the past few months, Iran has carried out sustained missile and drone attacks against at least seven Arab countries, including the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Oman. Tehran claims that it targets only American military facilities. Reality tells a different story. Civilians have been killed and civilian infrastructure has suffered significant damage.
Iran's aggression is steadily eroding whatever sympathy it once enjoyed among many Arabs. Iran's missiles threaten Gulf capitals. Its proxies destabilize Arab governments. Its attacks endanger Arab economies. Arab states therefore have every reason to openly align themselves with the U.S. and Israel in confronting the Iranian threat. This is about defending their own sovereignty, their own interests, their own citizens, and their own future.
Until the Iranian regime abandons its expansionist ambitions or loses the capacity to pursue them, the Middle East will remain trapped in recurring cycles of violence. Until then, the Arab states would be wise to recognize that this is their fight as much as Israel's.
(Gatestone Institute)
- The Islamic Republic Has Been Defeated in War and Knows It - Amir Taheri
U.S. administrations tried a number of schemes to prevent the Islamic Republic from becoming a clear and present danger in the future. They imagined that down the line, Tehran's rulers, besotted by a deadly ideology, would develop intercontinental ballistic missiles, fit them with nuclear warheads, and threaten to hit New York.
Seen from the U.S. and many other countries, especially in the region, the Islamic Republic is a deadly threat. Faced with such a foe, the worst thing to do is wound him but let him live. With such a foe, you either kill him or transform him into a friend.
After almost half a century, it must now be clear to all that the Khomeinist regime is incapable of reforming itself unless it is for the worse. The negotiating process is at a dead end. Those in Tehran who might want a deal don't have the power to do so. And those who have the power don't want a deal.
The good news is that for the first time, the idea of regime change is gaining traction inside Iran, even within the regime's core support base. If Trump cannot change the regime in Tehran, it doesn't mean that Iranians can't either. The Islamic Republic has been defeated in this war and knows it. And defeat in war is often a prelude to regime change.
The writer was executive editor-in-chief of the daily Kayhan in Iran from 1972 to 1979. (Gatestone Institute)
- Iran's Fortitude Is Its Decisive Edge - Reuel Marc Gerecht and Ray Takeyh
Tehran has a wartime advantage over Washington because the ruling Iranian elite wants to fight and has been willing to endure far more pain than Donald Trump has. For nearly half a century, successive American presidents have viewed the Islamic Republic as a collection of competing factions, with "moderates" and "hard-liners" struggling for control. Unfortunately, the Iranian regime isn't divided. It is probably more unified and determined than at any time since Saddam Hussein invaded in 1980.
The bloodbath that ended the popular insurrection in January 2026 resulted from the brutality of Iranian security services and the unity of the ruling elite. There was no daylight among the Islamists in charge when it came to killing rebellious citizens.
Mr. Gerecht is a resident scholar at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Mr. Takeyh is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. (Wall Street Journal)
Turkey
- Why Jerusalem Is Increasingly Wary of Erdogan's Turkey - Ashley Perry
Israel's relations with Turkey have deteriorated for years, but since Oct. 7 they have entered entirely new territory.
At Eid al-Fitr prayers in Istanbul in March 2025, President Erdogan prayed: "May Allah...destroy and devastate Zionist Israel." These are not words expressing policy differences.
That matters because Turkey is not simply another critic of Israel. It is NATO's second-largest military power, occupies a strategically important geographical position, and continues to enjoy considerable influence in Washington. Israel therefore faces the challenge of an increasingly hostile government leading a major NATO member with growing regional ambitions.
Much of Erdogan's foreign policy is driven by neo-Ottomanism, his ambition to restore Turkey's political, economic, cultural and strategic influence across territories once governed by the Ottoman Empire.
Alongside this vision is Erdogan's long-standing sympathy for movements associated with the Muslim Brotherhood.
Hamas, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, has benefited from this relationship. Erdogan has repeatedly defended Hamas and allowed senior Hamas figures to operate from Turkey.
The language emanating from Ankara increasingly resembles that heard in Tehran. Turkish forces remain active in northern Syria and Iraq. Ankara has established military bases stretching from Qatar to Somalia and has become an increasingly influential player in Libya, the Caucasus and the Eastern Mediterranean.
(Jewish Chronicle-UK)
Israel and the West
- It Is Not "Islamophobic" to Stand Up for Jews and Western Civilization - Brendan O'Neill
I never imagined I'd be condemned for expressing horror at the parading of an emaciated Jew through the streets by a mob of antisemites. I never thought I would get it in the neck for using the word "medieval" to describe a swarm of men who surrounded and jeered at a terrified half-starved Jewish woman.
The Centre for Media Monitoring (CfMM) of the Muslim Council of Britain published another "report" about the British media's coverage of Islam and Muslims. A column of mine that really seems to have got their goat
was published in January last year in the Spectator.
It was about the vile spectacle of Hamas's handover of Arbel Yehoud, a young woman seized from her home in Kibbutz Nir Oz during the invasion of Israel on 7 October 2023. She was held for 482 days, entirely alone, deprived of food. Her gaunt, ashen face was a testament to the maltreatment she suffered under the cruel yoke of her racist captors.
I wrote angrily about the barbaric theater of her handover to the Red Cross. Yet the CfMM seems angrier with me than with the gun-toting scum who humiliated a Jew before the eyes of the world. It reprimands me for calling the handover a "medieval spectacle." It rebukes me for saying this Jew-taunting was "sport for radical Islamists." What is going on here? Why is a media think-tank attacking a journalist for feeling revolted by the sight of a terror-stricken Jew being jostled through a howling crowd?
It takes ethno-narcissism to dizzying new heights for someone to read an article about the racist subjugation of a Jew and turn it into a discussion about the wounded feelings of Muslims. Turning a story about the largest act of anti-Jewish persecution since the Holocaust into a screed on hurty words about Muslims is repulsive.
That my piece on Arbel Yehoud has been included in a report on "anti-Muslim hostility" is all the proof we need that the "Islamophobia" industry is a scam whose mission is not to defend Muslims from discrimination but to police and punish political opinion. Under the guise of "defending Muslims," the CfMM is chilling legitimate discussion, seeking to limit what we can say about Islam, Israel, Gaza, religion and a whole host of other things. (Spiked-UK)
- Israeli Communities in the West Bank Are Neither Inherently Illegal Nor the Real Obstacle to Peace - Stephen Daisley
UK Prime Minister-in-waiting Andy Burnham warned he may ban settlement goods. Activists allege that 32 British charities have been donating money to Israeli communities in the West Bank.
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper has
warned British citizens and companies that they "should not conduct any economic and financial activities in illegal Israeli settlements" - a category that presumably includes the Jewish Quarter in Jerusalem's Old City, where Jews have lived continuously for centuries until they were ethnically cleansed in 1948 by the Jordanian army. When the Jews returned to their ancient neighborhood after the Six-Day War in 1967, they suddenly became "illegal settlers."
Jewish settlement in the West Bank, or, to use its decolonized name, Judea and Samaria, as such is not extreme or shameful or worthy of sanction. These areas are the very heart of the Land of Israel, the cradle of Jewish civilization, places where Jewish life, worship, custom and self-determination can be traced back more than three millennia, and there are substantial arguments in international law supporting Israeli sovereignty over the territory.
Why would the mere presence of Jews in the West Bank be an obstacle to peace? The Palestinians are also building in the West Bank in contravention of the Oslo Accords. Irregular construction is either an obstacle to peace or it's not; it can't be an obstacle only when one side does it. And the vast majority of Jews in the West Bank live anyway in settlements or neighborhoods of Jerusalem that would remain Israeli under any conceivable peace deal.
But why would the presence of Israeli Jews even outside these blocs and neighborhoods stand in the way of Palestinian statehood? After all, Israel is home to two million Arabs, 21% of the population, all of whom enjoy citizenship and equal rights. The future State of Palestine could just do the same as Israel, right?
The dirty little secret of the two-state solution is that there can be no Israeli Jewish minority in a State of Palestine because the Palestinians refuse to consider it. The Palestinians are not content to have a state unless it first had all its Israeli Jewish residents expelled. There is a term for the uprooting of a racial or religious group from a territory but it's not "peacemaking."
A government that applies its moral standards and interpretation of international law consistently
ought to prohibit British NGOs from funding Palestinian entities which do not recognize Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state. If Israelis living over the Green Line pose an obstacle to peace, Palestinians who refuse to accept Israelis living on either side of the Green Line also stand in the way of peace. (Jewish Chronicle-UK)
Observations:
- Is a greater Middle East security alliance, encompassing Israel, Lebanon, the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, and beyond, a realistic prospect? Or will Hamas- and PLO-supporting Turkey replace Israel as the U.S. administration's preferred regional partner?
- In his address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress in July 2024, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu floated an "Abraham Security Alliance," a NATO-style framework open to states that "have made peace with Israel and those that will."
- In February 2026, Netanyahu unveiled what strategists call the "Hexagon Alliance": Israel's technological and security core, linked to India's manufacturing weight, Greek and Cypriot Mediterranean corridors, Emirati economic channels, and Somaliland's Red Sea oversight. Lebanon has since agreed to direct negotiations with Israel. Syria's al-Sharaa government has held direct dialogue with Jerusalem.
- Nonetheless, there appears to be a strategic shift inside the U.S. administration: beyond personal rapport between Trump and Erdogan, there is a growing view that Turkey can assume roles Israel has traditionally played, engaging Arab states wary of Iran. Ankara is exploiting this opening, positioning itself as the Islamic world's next leader, replacing the Iranian regime's role as regional hegemon and becoming Israel's principal long-term strategic competitor.
- Despite Turkey's upgraded military presence in the Middle East and East Africa, Erdogan has not operationalized his threats on Israel. He has avoided military confrontation thus far, and has refrained from disrupting Israeli operations in Syria, despite housing and training Hamas on Turkish soil. Notwithstanding Turkey's malign regional behavior, the U.S. administration still is considering Turkey as a politically "lower-cost" regional security manager.
- If the Abraham Security Alliance is to mean anything beyond aspirational rhetoric, the U.S. must expand the Abraham Accord alliances. Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Somaliland, Greece, Cyprus, and others are realistic candidates. However, the expanded security alliance will depend on a strong U.S., Israel, and Gulf Arab foundation that would be shaken by Turkey's neo-Ottoman imperial ambitions and destabilizing influence.
The writer is President of the Jerusalem Center.
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