• Kerry Arrives in Israel, No Bold Peace Push Expected - Bradley Klapper
  U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Israel on Tuesday in the midst of a new rash of deadly Palestinian attacks. The visit includes no ambitious agenda for Israeli-Palestinian peace mediation and is primarily focused on ending the terror. He told reporters on Monday that he sought steps "that could calm things down a little bit so people aren't living in absolute, daily terror that they might be stabbed or driven into or shot trying to walk around their city."  (AP)
      See also Kerry: Israel Has Every Right to Defend Itself
  Secretary of State Kerry told Prime Minister Netanyahu before their meeting on Tuesday: "Clearly, no people anywhere should live with daily violence, with attacks in the streets, with knives or scissors or cars....Israel has every right in the world to defend itself. It has an obligation to defend itself. And it will and it is. Our thoughts and prayers are with innocent people who have been hurt in this process."
      "I'm here today to talk with the Prime Minister about the ways that we can work together, all of us - the international community - to push back against terrorism, to push back against senseless violence and to find a way forward."  (Prime Minister's Office)
      See also Palestinians Protest Kerry's Visit
  Several Palestinian groups have called for an escalation of violence in the Palestinian territories in protest against Secretary of State Kerry's visit on Tuesday. Palestinian national and Islamic groups announced their opposition to Kerry's visit and called for demonstrations and protest marches. (Jerusalem Post)
• Putin Meets Ayatollah Khamenei in Iran - Andrew Roth
  Russian President Vladimir Putin met on Monday in Iran with the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Khamenei told Putin there was a Western conspiracy that he said is dangerous to both Iran and Russia. Putin announced Monday that Russia would resume exporting nuclear technology to Iran. Russia has also contracted to supply Iran with S-300 surface-to-air missile systems. Iran has allowed Russian missiles and strategic bombers in the past month to fly through its airspace en route to Syria. (Washington Post)

• Palestinian Wounds Three Israelis in Car-Ramming Attack Tuesday - Elisha Ben Kimon
  A Palestinian terrorist hit a Border Police officer and two IDF soldiers with a vehicle on Tuesday at Tapuah Junction in the West Bank. The terrorist was shot and wounded. (Ynet News)
• Israeli Soldier Killed, Two Wounded in Palestinian Stabbing Attack Monday - Gili Cohen and Ido Efrati
  An Israeli soldier, Pvt. Ziv Mizrachi, 18, was killed and another was wounded in a stabbing attack at a West Bank gas station on Highway 443 on Monday. Another woman was injured during the attempt to stop the Palestinian attacker, who was shot and killed.
      Also Monday, a Palestinian man tried to stab a soldier at a West Bank IDF army base. Soldiers shot and killed the terrorist. (Ha'aretz)
• Israel Plans Restrictions in Bid to Quell Palestinian Terror Surge - Tamar Pileggi
  Israel is planning new security measures in response to an escalation of Palestinian terror attacks, including barring family members of terrorists from entering Israel and deploying more troops to safeguard terror hot spots, Israel's Channel 2 TV reported Monday. Israel is also looking into the legality of deporting inciters of violence from the West Bank to Gaza. (Times of Israel)
      See also Netanyahu Tours Gush Etzion after Palestinian Attacks (Prime Minister's Office)

• Iran Is Part of the Problem in Syria, Not Part of the Solution - Lt. Col. (ret.) Michael Segall
  The U.S. is now leaving the Syrian arena to Russian and Iranian military and political involvement. Iran is part of the problem in Syria, but the West now sees it as part of the solution. Iran is greatly encouraged by several key developments, including Russia's involvement in Syria, the beginning of the nuclear agreement's implementation, the first breaches in the sanctions, and by being cast as a regional actor that can help settle the region's problems.
      Iran has headed the list of terror-supporting states for years. It is now awarded the status of a partner in trying to settle the Syrian crisis even as it continues to support Hizbullah (officially designated a terror organization by the U.S. and Europe) and other terror groups in the Persian Gulf and elsewhere. The West's agreement to include Iran in seeking a solution in Syria may help defeat the Islamic State, but it will create a greater problem in the long term in light of Iran's ambitious plans for regional hegemony.
      The writer, an expert on strategic issues with a focus on Iran, terrorism, and the Middle East, is a senior analyst at the Jerusalem Center and at Alcyon Risk Advisors. (Institute for Contemporary Affairs-Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)
• How to Beat ISIS - Walter Russell Mead
  Running wild through the streets, gunning down the crowds in a night club: This is fantasy violence, video games brought into the real world. ISIS is again the coolest of jihadi brands, the cutting edge of the war against the real. The intent is not so much to terrorize the West as to galvanize the faithful.
      Life for the average ISIS fighter has to become a miserable affair of holing up, getting shot, running out of food, and putting up with bad medical care and low supplies. To cut the flow of recruits and funds to ISIS, we must make ISIS look unattractive and weak.
      The defeat of "terrorism" is a long way off. But the defeat of individual terrorist groups and forms of jihadi ideology contributes to the long-term solution: the definitive disillusionment of potential radicals. This is what we have to teach our enemies and those tempted to join them: disenchantment. The writer is professor of foreign affairs and humanities at Bard College and professor of American foreign policy at Yale University. (American Interest)
• Inconvenient Truths about the Middle East Peace Process - Aaron David Miller
  Given the region-wide melt down in the Middle East - Syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen; a rising Iran; and the threat from ISIS - it's no longer credible to argue that solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a priority or that it's even possible now. With all the other failing states in the region, it's worth considering why the U.S. would want to risk a failed or weak Palestinian state.
      Abbas can't rein in Hamas and silence all of the guns of Palestine. And he can't control the Palestinians who are killing Israelis with knives, guns and cars. The writer is a vice president at the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars. (Wall Street Journal)

Israel at UN: When Will the Palestinians Say Yes to Peace? - Amb. Danny Danon (Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

Israel's Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon told the UN General Assembly on Monday:

• If the Arab states and the Arabs of Mandatory Palestine had accepted the existence of a Jewish state, Israelis and Palestinians would have been spared decades of needless conflict. But instead of saying yes to living side-by-side with Israel in peace, the Palestinians said no - no to peace, and no to the existence of a Jewish state. The root cause of the conflict is the unwillingness of the Palestinians - even now - to accept a Jewish state in any part of the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.
• Why did the Palestinians reject peace offers which would have granted them a state - not once, but three times? Why did they launch violent waves of terror every time they had the opportunity for statehood?
• After Israel signed the Oslo accords [in 1993] and recognized the PLO, shooting, stabbings, and suicide bombing took the lives of nearly 300 Israelis. Following Arafat's rejection of a state for the Palestinians at the Camp David Summit in 2000, the Palestinian leadership ignited a five-year intifada in which more than 1,000 Israelis were killed. Since Israel withdrew all of its security forces and evacuated all Israeli communities from Gaza in 2005, more than 11,000 rockets have rained down on Israeli cities.
• If Palestinian leaders really want peace, why do they refuse to sit in the same room with the Israeli prime minister and negotiate? If Palestinian leaders truly want a home for the Palestinian people, why do they reject the very idea of a home for the Jewish people? If Palestinian leaders are concerned for the protection of their own people, why do they encourage and incite them to terror and violence?