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In-Depth Issues:
Iran Gets Major Economic Lifeline for Minimal Concessions in Initial Deal - Yeganeh Torbati ( New York Times)
An initial agreement by the U.S. and Iran to halt their war grants Iran major economic benefits while delaying, for now, the thorniest areas of disagreement.
The agreement lifts the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports and grants Iran waivers to begin exporting its oil even before the negotiation of a final agreement on its nuclear program. That will give Iran a critical economic lifeline.
The MoU also commits the U.S. to temporarily lifting banking restrictions to help facilitate Iran's oil trade.
"Broadening authorization to financial transactions would crack the core architecture of U.S. oil and financial sanctions against Iran, arguably the most powerful economic leverage the U.S. holds over this regime, absent the naval blockade," said Miad Maleki, a former U.S. Treasury official.
See also Deal Gives Iran Chance to Turbocharge Its Oil Revenue - Rebecca Feng ( Wall Street Journal)
MoU Provides a Lifeline for Iranian Proxies ( Institute for the Study of War)
Iran will likely use renewed economic access under the MoU signed with the U.S. to reconstitute members of the Axis of Resistance, particularly Hizbullah.
Iran has told Hizbullah that it will increase funding as soon as possible once the U.S. unfreezes Iranian assets.
The degree to which Axis of Resistance factions remain contained or weakened is in large part contingent on how much funding Iran can provide to them.
Trump's Suggestion that Syria's President Deal with Hizbullah Raises Major Questions - Yaniv Kubovich ( Ha'aretz)
Senior Israeli defense officials have voiced increasing concern that American negotiations with Iran are discussing security issues that directly affect Israel, but Israel has no real ability to insist that its security interests be upheld or to set conditions.
President Trump's suggestion on Tuesday that Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa (also known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani) take over the job of dealing with Hizbullah in Lebanon raises major questions.
A senior IDF officer said, "It's hard to understand how anyone thinks that replacing the IDF with Golani's people would make the security situation better for Israel." The officer said Israel hasn't bought the moderate image the new Syrian regime is trying to sell.
"The discourse we've been seeing [shows that Syria] continues to view Israel as an enemy. There are people who continue to hold extremist ideological worldviews, and their attitude toward Israel is far from being of the type on which long-term security arrangements could be built."
Moreover, the forces loyal to Al-Sharaa aren't a regular army, but a collection of armed militias with high ideological motivation. "Bringing forces like these into southern Lebanon could therefore end in revenge attacks and massacres."
How Should Israel Implement the Disarming of Hamas? - Prof. Kobi Michael ( Institute for National Security Studies-Tel Aviv University)
Hamas is hoping for a U.S.-Iranian agreement that would leave the regime in Tehran intact so it can continue supporting resistance efforts.
Although Hamas is currently far from posing a threat similar to the one it presented on Oct. 7, 2023, each passing day makes the Israeli effort to dismantle the organization's military capabilities and remove it as a governing authority increasingly complex.
The necessity of disarming Hamas and demilitarizing Gaza constitutes a fundamental precondition for Gaza's reconstruction.
Disarming Hamas by an international, Arab, or joint task force, or by future Palestinian security mechanisms, would not be feasible or operationally effective.
There is no actor other than the IDF that is both willing and capable of disarming Hamas.
The writer, a senior researcher at INSS, served as deputy director general and head of the Palestinian desk at Israel's Ministry for Strategic Affairs.
Why Iran Continues to Choose War over Peace - Kasra Aarabi and Saeid Golkar ( Persuasion)
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) does not view war and peace the same way a normal state institution does. It was created to defend the Islamic Revolution and the regime's ideological identity.
Its mission has always been larger than Iran's territorial security: it includes exporting the 1979 Islamic revolution, eradicating the State of Israel, confronting the U.S., protecting the regime from internal enemies, and reshaping the regional order.
This is why the IRGC may prefer a contained war, or at least a continued limited confrontation, to a deal based on major concessions.
For the Guard, compromise is an ideological danger. Shaped for decades by thorough indoctrination, selective recruitment, and internal surveillance, IRGC members are trained to see the world through the lens of resistance, martyrdom, anti-Americanism, antisemitism, and blind loyalty to the Supreme Leader.
Since the conflict began, the U.S. and Israel have eliminated more than 100 high-ranking IRGC commanders as well as Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Accepting a deal with Trump could be framed as a betrayal of the martyrs, both inside the organization and among the 10% of Iranians who are radical Islamists.
This means that as long as the IRGC exists, a permanent solution to the Strait of Hormuz crisis - and long-lasting peace in the Middle East - remain unattainable.
Therefore, any strategy pursued by America and its allies should focus on continuing to undermine the IRGC. Regime change in Iran remains possible, but only if the IRGC is significantly weakened.
Kasra Aarabi is the Director of Research on Iran's IRGC at United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI). Saeid Golkar is an associate professor of political science at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga and a senior advisor at UANI.
U.S. Amb. Huckabee: U.S. Would Not Exist Without Israel - Tzvi Jasper ( Jerusalem Post)
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee told a conference on Israeli heritage in Judea and Samaria on Tuesday:
"Your heritage...is also the heritage of the United States. Without Israel, without the Jewish foundation, there would not be America. We owe our very existence to what happened in this land."
His statement followed a claim by President Trump this week that "without me, there would be no Israel."
Israeli Drones Give Morocco the Edge Against Polisario in Western Sahara - Amine Ayoub ( Ynet News)
Morocco used an advanced loitering munition manufactured by BlueBird Aero Systems, an Israeli defense contractor, to eliminate senior Polisario Front commander Lahbib Mohamed Abdelaziz in the Western Sahara.
The Western Sahara dispute has simmered for half a century, as the separatist Polisario Front operates primarily from refugee camps located across the Algerian border.
Inside Elbit's Laser Lab - Yonah Jeremy Bob ( Jerusalem Post)
Elbit Systems is the company that developed the Iron Beam laser defense system. It is now working on applying it to aircraft, so that aerial threats can be shot down from much closer range and from above.
Elbit Systems President and CEO Bezhalel Machlis said, "Putting a high-power laser in the air enables us to first overcome some of the challenges of the ground, like weather and dust and turbulence."
It "will enable us to gain more range and be more effective, and also to eliminate the threats far away from our borders."
Photos of Jewish Life in the Holy Land in the 1850s - Lenny Ben-David ( Substack)
In 1988, John Barnier purchased boxes of old photographic glass plates at a garage sale in St. Paul, Minnesota.
They included photos of Jerusalem taken in the 1850s and 1860s by Mendel Diness, who arrived in the U.S. in 1861 and adopted the name Mendenhall John Dennis.
Search the Recent History of Israel and the Middle East
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
- Trump and Iran's President Digitally Sign Memorandum of Understanding with Terms to End War - Henry Austin
President Donald Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian both digitally signed a memorandum of understanding on Wednesday laying out terms for ending the war, according to U.S. officials. The U.S. is expected to lift sanctions on Iran and unfreeze funds and assets linked to the country's regime under the 14-point MoU.
Trump said the deal would see frozen Iranian funds released "only if they're doing things right."
The agreement calls for an immediate end to all fighting, including in Lebanon. "The Lebanon peace is something we'll have to work on a little bit," Trump said. Israel is not a direct party to the U.S.-Iran agreement.
U.S. officials said, "The Israelis...remain skeptical, as we remain skeptical, and obviously they're preparing for what will happen in the event that Iran does not make the concessions in the final deal."
"We were very clear with Iran that this will not be a one-sided ceasefire. You know, they have to get a collar on their dog in Hizbullah, and they've got to hold them back. And if Hizbullah attacked Israel, Israel's going to have the full ability to go and attack back." (NBC News)
See also An Annotated Analysis of the 14-Point Iran Deal - Laurence Norman (Wall Street Journal)
- Israeli Ambassador to U.S.: "Iran Has No Business in Lebanon" - Steve Inskeep
Israel's Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter told NPR on Tuesday: "It seems that Lebanon has been included in an agreement with Iran, and we think that that's unnecessary and unhelpful. We have an agreement with the United States and with the government of Lebanon that a ceasefire will be implemented in Lebanon, which we've agreed to on the condition that Hizbullah pull back all of its fighters, all of its terrorists, to north of the Litani River."
"This, by the way, is an agreement which has been repeated some three times in UN Security Council resolutions, and Hizbullah has not been a party to that agreement. They continue to defy the government of Lebanon and continue to occupy south Lebanon. Just yesterday, we discovered a cache in the western district in south Lebanon of dozens of killer drones, five ton of explosives. So this is something that we simply can't live with. We can't have jihadi terrorists on our border."
"The [U.S.] administration was crystal clear that this agreement has nothing to do with our withdrawal from south Lebanon. We're not going to withdraw from south Lebanon, and the madmen of Tehran have no business poking their nose into Lebanon....Iran has no business in Lebanon. The Lebanese want the Iranian IRGC out of there. They want Hizbullah out."
"Israel is in south Lebanon to protect its people, like any self-respecting country would do....The people we've killed are Hizbullah terrorists. We don't target civilians....We hope that the million people who have been displaced will be able to return to their homes, as we hope that the Israelis who have been displaced from their homes because of Hizbullah rockets will return to their homes." (NPR)
- Trump Defends Letting Iran Maintain Missile Arsenal - Filip Timotija
President Trump on Wednesday defended letting Iran maintain its large arsenal of ballistic missiles when discussing the emerging deal with Iran. He noted that when the U.S. will be working with Persian Gulf allies in addressing issues not related to Iran's nuclear program, including the conventional missile program, Tehran will still have some ballistic missiles left.
"I mean, they have to have some, because other people have some. You got to have some," Trump said. Trump said advisers told him, "You shouldn't let them have any missiles." "I said, 'well, what am I going to do? Am I going to let Saudi Arabia have missiles, but they can't have them?'" (The Hill)
News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
- Israeli Officials See U.S.-Iran Deal as Problematic - Itamar Eichner
Israeli officials on Wednesday privately described the U.S.-Iran agreement as disappointing and problematic, identifying several clauses as particularly troubling. The MoU states that the U.S. Treasury Department will immediately allow exports of Iranian crude oil, effectively providing Tehran with billions of dollars before it makes significant concessions and giving Tehran financial breathing room.
The MoU states that existing enriched uranium stockpiles would be diluted in Iran and would not be removed from the country.
While the MoU declares an immediate end to military operations on all fronts, including Lebanon, Israeli officials have opposed linking the Iranian and Lebanese theaters, arguing that doing so could shield Hizbullah.
The MoU does not require an immediate Israeli withdrawal and any permanent arrangement would only be addressed in a final agreement following negotiations that could be extended beyond the initial 60 days. Israeli officials said they do not expect a comprehensive agreement to be reached quickly.
IDF officials insist on preserving Israel's operational freedom throughout Lebanon, maintaining a buffer zone north of the border where Israeli forces are deployed, and ensuring the continued demilitarization of southern Lebanon. Israel opposes any withdrawal before an effective agreement with the Lebanese government is reached. (Ynet News)
- IDF Soldier Killed, Seven Wounded, by IED in Southern Lebanon - James Genn
IDF Master Sgt. (res.) Alexander Filin, 29, was killed and seven other soldiers were wounded in southern Lebanon on Wednesday when a Hizbullah IED exploded near a team of soldiers patrolling near the Litani River.
In a separate incident on Wednesday, two Hizbullah explosive drones wounded five soldiers in southern Lebanon. (Jerusalem Post)
See also Soldier Who Fell in Lebanon Had Foiled Terror Attack - Adi Hashmonai
Master Sgt. (res.) Alexander Filin immigrated to Israel alone from Ukraine 14 years ago and later enlisted in the IDF. In 2018, he received the Israeli President's Award of Excellence after thwarting a stabbing attack at a checkpoint near Nablus in the West Bank. (Ha'aretz)
- U.S. Weighs Boosting Ties with PA as It Seeks to Advance Gaza Plan - Jacob Magid
The U.S. is in talks with the Palestinian Authority about boosting their strained bilateral relationship, three government officials said. President Trump's administration is working to transfer PA revenues currently withheld by Israel to the Board of Peace, which Washington established to rebuild Gaza.
The U.S. is seeking a Palestinian commitment to halt efforts to internationalize the conflict against Israel and to withdraw cases against Jerusalem in international legal forums, an American official said. At the same time, the U.S. official did not deny the lack of enthusiasm in the administration for elevating ties with the Palestinians, as focus and political capital are being spent elsewhere in the region. (Times of Israel)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis:
Iran
- The Ceasefire Neither Ends nor Eases the Iranian Threat - Bret Stephens
Iran's military leaders have greeted the ceasefire agreement with President Trump as a triumph, crowing that "through the imposition of their divine and iron will" they had "humiliated American and Zionist enemies."
Today, Iran is no longer within sprinting distance of a bomb. Its ally in Syria was deposed. Hizbullah, Hamas and the Houthis have lost much of their fighting strength. The Iranian rial is worthless. The leadership rules an unhappy population that would almost certainly overthrow it if given the chance. Its latest ballistic missile salvo against Israel failed to land a serious single blow.
Americans who supported the war believed that Iran, which has waged a 47-year war against us, posed an increasingly intolerable threat to our security and vital interests. This ceasefire neither ends nor eases that threat. It removes the one point of U.S. leverage over Iran - the naval blockade of its ports - before there's any negotiation over its nuclear program, which the Iranians will almost surely drag out until Trump is out of office.
(New York Times)
- Trump's Iran Deal Isn't Perfect. It Doesn't Need to Be. - Michael Singh
Notions that the U.S. should have held out for more upfront nuclear concessions from Iran gets things backward. The U.S. and the world need shipping to resume through the Strait of Hormuz. They do not need a nuclear agreement with Iran, and Mr. Trump should not make negotiating one a priority in his postwar Iran policy.
For all the operational capability demonstrated by the U.S. military over the course of this conflict, there is no painting the preliminary outcome as a resounding American victory. Food and energy costs have spiked; U.S. military resources have been depleted; America's alliances in the Middle East and Europe have suffered. Nor was the war a win for the Iranian regime, whose conventional military capability is diminished, economy crippled and leadership demolished.
These results obscure an important detail: the U.S. has significantly reduced the nuclear threat posed by Iran. According to U.S. intelligence agencies, Iran's nuclear program was advanced enough that it was capable of producing sufficient fissile material for a nuclear weapon within a matter of days, and a small arsenal's worth within just weeks.
Today, Iran's nuclear program is arguably the weakest it's been since the early 2000s.
To produce a nuclear weapon, Iran would need to reconstitute its infrastructure, which is believed to have been largely destroyed, while facing the prospect of additional strikes as it tried to rebuild.
Much of the global economic pressure that has been building as a result of this war will dissipate once the Strait of Hormuz reopens, but Iran's economy will remain in tatters. Whatever agreement Washington and Tehran reach, an Iranian regime determined to dominate its region and control its people through force will be unfriendly to American interests and its regional partners.
The writer is managing director and a senior fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. (New York Times)
- Diplomacy Cannot Be a Substitute for Security - Editorial
The U.S.-Iran understanding calls for an end to the war on all fronts, including Lebanon. Previous understandings among Israel, Lebanon, and the U.S. reportedly conditioned a ceasefire on Hizbullah withdrawing from southern Lebanon and disarming, with the Lebanese Armed Forces entering designated areas as the IDF withdrew. That was the correct direction: strengthen the Lebanese state, weaken Hizbullah, and separate Lebanon's future from Tehran's agenda.
By placing Lebanon inside the Iran track, the U.S.-Iran framework effectively ties Hizbullah's fate to Tehran's leverage. That is precisely the danger: Israel's northern border becomes another bargaining chip in a deal whose central parties are not the people who live under Hizbullah's rockets.
Israel should support any serious effort to turn Lebanon into a sovereign state capable of enforcing its own territory. But hope is not a security mechanism. A ceasefire that leaves Hizbullah armed, politically emboldened, and protected by Iranian patronage is not a solution. Israel cannot accept less than dismantling Hizbullah. (Jerusalem Post)
- The Iranian Regime Thinks It Is the Winner of the War and Can Address the U.S. as an Equal - Editorial
An end to the blockading of the Strait of Hormuz that has gummed up global trade must be a good thing. But nothing has been agreed about Tehran's quest for a nuclear arsenal, and not a word has been uttered about the potency of its missiles, their stockpiles and production. Iran remains a source of instability to the Middle East, a menace not only to the freedom of navigation but to any power that seeks to restrain its geopolitical ambitions.
Iran demanded an "immediate and permanent end to military operations on all fronts, including Lebanon." Israel's northern townships remain under bombardment from Hizbullah and Mr. Netanyahu is right to reserve to his country the right of self-defense. Israel's intentions in Lebanon are plain: it wants a stronger Lebanese government capable of resisting the encroachment of Hizbullah. It therefore wants the U.S. to sunder links between Iran and the terror group.
But Iran has no interest in a strong government in Beirut. Its aim is not only to sap U.S. support for Israel but ultimately to achieve a complete U.S. military withdrawal from the Middle East. Having survived, at high cost, its war with the U.S. and Israel, and having chastised its Gulf neighbors, Iran now wants to revive its dream of becoming the region's leader. The negotiating process with the U.S. has instilled in the Iranian regime the delusion that it is the winner, able to address the U.S. as an equal. (The Times-UK)
- Trump's Iran Deal Will Not Lead to Long-Lasting Peace - Editorial
The imminent agreement between the U.S. and Iran to end hostilities between the two countries does not presage peace in the Middle East. It extends the existing ceasefire and offers Donald Trump a way out of the war by being able to claim some successes. These include the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and Iran's agreement to stop holding the world to ransom by blocking unfettered transit of shipping in and out of the Gulf. However, the regime possesses the power to shut down the Strait whenever it chooses. That bodes ill for the future.
Even if a commitment has been made by Tehran to end its nuclear program, it is unlikely to be kept.
In addition, Israel will never let Tehran develop a bomb. It will be forever vigilant about the prospect and prepared to use force if necessary to stop it. (Telegraph-UK)
- The Memorandum of Understanding Is Not a "Peace Deal" with Iran - Clifford D. May
American diplomats have been talking to mediators for the Khomeinists who slaughtered tens of thousands of Iranians just this January. Can anyone seriously believe they care about economic prosperity? Iran's rulers never win on battlefields, but I cannot recall them ever losing in negotiations.
Last year, Abbas Araghchi, the Iranian foreign minister, published the English-language version of his book: The Power of Negotiation: Principles and Rules of Political and Diplomatic Negotiations. He made clear that if a diplomatic outcome is more important to Washington than to his regime, then his regime will prevail. "The Iranian negotiation style...means continuous and tireless bargaining." Over time, opponents grow weary.
What President Trump has accomplished cannot be denied. But it is what the Israelis call "mowing the lawn." It is a treatment, not a cure.
Ayatollah Mohsen Araki, a top member of Iran's Assembly of Experts, said last week, "America is a hostile infidel enemy, and jihad against it with all one's strength is obligatory." By now, this should be obvious: The Islamic Republic is not and does not intend to be a "partner for peace."
The writer is founder and president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD). (Washington Times)
U.S.-Israel Relations
- In the Face of the U.S.-Iran Agreement, Israel Must Place Its Security First - Amb. Michael Oren
Less than four months ago, American forces stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the IDF in the most dramatic display ever of the U.S.-Israel alliance. Our Israeli pilots, soldiers, and commanders worked in the closest possible coordination with their American counterparts in mounting thousands of successful missions.
The Iranians have conditioned their agreement with the U.S. on an end to Israel's efforts to defend the north against Hizbullah attacks, even to withdraw IDF troops from southern Lebanon. This will confront Israeli leaders with an excruciating choice: either abandon the north or risk a major clash with Washington.
The prime minister's paramount job is to defend the country at virtually any cost, even a backlash from the U.S. Like Prime Minister Begin in destroying the Iraqi nuclear reactor or Prime Minister Eshkol in initiating the Six-Day War - both in the face of stiff American opposition - Netanyahu must place Israel's security first. Israel can weather Trump's possible response, but Israel cannot endure the loss of our north and forfeit our fundamental security.
The writer was Israel's ambassador to the U.S., 2009-13.
(Substack)
Antisemitism
- In American Politics, Anti-Zionism Has Spilled Over into Antisemitism - Matthew Schmitz
Amid rancorous debates over Israel, some Jewish leaders warn that anti-Zionism has spilled over into antisemitism, questioning not just Israeli policy but also the participation of Jews in American political life. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro described a "very dangerous" development whereby candidates were being denounced for receiving money from Jewish donors who had also donated to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a prominent pro-Israel group.
Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Michigan) was asked at a town hall last month why she had accepted $4.5 million from "pro-Israel lobbies." That figure comes from Track AIPAC, a group that tallies donations from pro-Israel groups as well as from individuals it deems "lobby donors." Slotkin stated that she takes no money from AIPAC, then objected to the math behind the question: "If that's counting Jewish donors and saying Jewish donors are somehow the same as 'pro-Israel lobby,' I got a problem with that, and not just as an elected official, as a Jew."
She pointed out that Americans have every right to organize and donate to groups such as AIPAC.
"There's plenty of groups like them that do the very same thing, a Pakistani American group, or whatever group."
Casting AIPAC's activities as uniquely illegitimate suggests that Jewish Americans do not enjoy the same right to participate in political give-and-take as their fellow citizens do.
(Washington Post)
- Someone Taught Him to Hate - Shai Davidai
I was walking to synagogue with my wife and our two children when a car slowed beside us. A man in the back seat shouted, "Are you that guy from Twitter?" I nodded. Then he screamed, "F--- Israel, baby killer, fascist, Nazi, scum."
How did this man become so consumed by hatred that he could not hold it in any longer? How did we get to a point where screaming obscenities at strangers and their children has become acceptable behavior?
Hatred, at its core, begins with ignorance. It begins with lies, repeated often enough to sound true. It begins with a preference for certainty over curiosity. Eventually, ignorance hardens into conviction. Conviction hardens into contempt. And contempt hardens into hatred.
The man in the car did not invent the idea that Israel, as the homeland of the Jewish people, is uniquely evil. Nor did he invent the idea that violence against Jews and Israelis is morally justified or that Jews are responsible for everything wrong in the world. Someone taught him these things, normalized them, and made them seem righteous. Someone taught him how to hate.
When my ten-year-old son asked me how some people can be so bad, I answered, "I do not think the man in the car was a bad person. I'm sure he loves his family, is kind to his friends, and believes in many of the things that we do." What made him the way he is was the ideas he had been taught to believe.
If hatred can be taught, it can also be untaught. Education remains our most powerful defense against hatred - not teaching students what to think, but teaching them how to do so. We must demand that our institutions of higher education return to their most basic purpose and become places where curiosity, dialogue, and empirical evidence matter more than ideological conformity, dogma, and emotional reactions.
They must become places where students learn to question assumptions, weigh evidence, and grapple with complexity - places where disagreement is treated as an opportunity for learning, and intellectual courage matters more than ideological certainty. We need institutions that cultivate curiosity rather than certainty, inquiry rather than indoctrination, and education rather than ignorance.
The writer is an Israeli former assistant professor of business at Columbia Business School known for his advocacy for Israel and against pro-Palestinian campus protests. He is the author of American Intellectual Antisemitism: The Anti-Jewish Movement Tearing Through Our Universities (Oct. 2026). (Times of Israel)
Israel and the UN
- UN Report Chooses Scapegoating over Fact-Finding - Lt.-Col. (res.) Maurice Hirsch
I was scheduled to address the UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday to rebut claims in a report by the Commission of Inquiry (COI) against Israel. I had been allotted 90 seconds, but after allowing multiple speakers to attack Israel, the council declared that there was "no time" for an Israeli to speak in his nation's defense. Here is what I would have said had I been allowed to speak:
I am not a thief, I am not a murderer. I am just a proud Jew living in my 3,500-year-old ancestral homeland. But this UN report chooses racial profiling over fact-finding. Imagine the outcry if the claim was that all UN peacekeepers are sexual predators, or that all UN secretary generals are Nazis, that all Muslims are hijackers, that all Somalis are pirates, that all Irish Catholics are terrorists, that all Colombians are drug dealers. Stereotyping and scapegoating have no place in decent society. They are false, they are ugly, they incite hatred.
So why does this Council tolerate vile stereotypes when they are made by this commission of inquiry against Jews? Over 750,000 Jews live in Judea and Samaria and eastern Jerusalem. Less than 0.01% are involved in crime of any sort. But according to the COI, all are violent settlers, and no different from the genocidal Gazan terrorists who raped, murdered and tortured Jews simply for being Jews. Vicious generalizations and stereotyping are the tools of racists and the familiar instruments of the Nazis, and now the diabolical devices of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and Der Sturmer are joined by their successors, the reports of this so-called UN Commission of Inquiry.
The writer, former director of the Military Prosecution in Judea and Samaria, is director of the Palestinian Authority Accountability Initiative at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs. (X)
Observations:
- President Trump has been publicly pressuring Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu in recent weeks, trying to get Israel to pull back from its attacks on Hizbullah in Lebanon - a key demand of Iran. The U.S. and Israel have complementary but not identical interests.
- For the Americans, success in the war with Iran may mean lower gas prices and the elimination of the nuclear threat. For the Israelis, and for the UAE and Kuwait, success also means safety from Iranian and Hizbullah missiles and drones that pose little direct threat to the U.S.
- Such dynamics are common between allies. Large states are perennially frustrated by their smaller partners who fail to do as they are told. Meanwhile, the small state will feel it contributed blood and treasure but was denied a seat at the decision-making table.
- Yet such frustrations obscure a remarkable reality. The war with Iran is the first in decades in which the U.S. military has operated in tandem with a partner as a near-equal. Israel took on a significant share of the work of striking targets in Iran. And elsewhere in the region, Israel has operated largely solo against mutual enemies of the U.S., like Hizbullah, which, prior to 9/11, has been responsible for more American deaths than any other terrorist group.
- President Trump should not be too quick to claim the ability to rein in Israel. Diplomacy often works best when backed by credible threats, and Israel offers a threat that can enhance rather than endanger Trump's diplomatic efforts.
- In addition, U.S. officials should avoid scapegoating Israel. Weakening America's most capable ally in the Middle East may mean fewer opportunities to shift burdens and thus more work, not less, for the U.S. in the region. As Winston Churchill astutely observed, the only thing worse than fighting with allies is fighting without them.
The writer is managing director and a senior fellow at The Washington Institute.
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