News reports suggest the U.S. administration is considering a historic decision to redefine who is and is not a Palestinian “refugee.” I hope the reports are true. A change is long overdue and could actually help the search for peace long-term.
The decision to drop charges against Pastor Brunson and let him go home was strictly a judicial determination, says the Turkish government, but anyone familiar with Turkish President Erdogan's efforts in recent years to bend the judges to his party's will is entitled to accept this elegant claim cum grano salis, indeed, with a larger than usual grain of salt.
Syria and Iran are entwined tighter than an intricately woven Persian carpet. Unless Syrian President Bashar Assad has a change of heart and decides to expel Iranian forces, his most treasured foreign guests are staying.
With no grand solutions either violent or peaceful at hand, the IDF's preferred option remains conflict management. At its core lies the old, ugly but useful concept that has always been central to Israel's security doctrine: deterrence, writ large.
Only a firm, hard headed set of specific demands, particularly on reversing the "sunset clauses" of the JCPOA and ensuring that Iran will never obtain enough fissile material for the bomb, will actually produce "a better deal."