Selected articles concerning Israel, published weekly by Suburban Orthodox Toras Chaim’s (Baltimore) Israel Action Committee Edited by Jerry Appelbaum ( [email protected] ) | Founding editor: Sheldon J. Berman Z”L Issue 8 4 5 Volume 20 , Number 2 4 Parshias Korach June 2 7 , 20 20 Why Israel Must Maintain Its Presence in the Jordan Valley By Dan Schueftan israelhayom.com June 16, 2020 Peacekeepers and high - tech surveillance are no arrangement at all. Without it, Israel acts "defiantly" substitute for the IDF’s boots on the ground. against threats when it sees them, and foreign diplomats The strategic steps being taken in Judea and Samaria protest after they are successfully neutra lized. Since must b e done in coordination with the US. At the same decolonization in the mid - 20th century, the fate of a time, Israel must maintain a delicate balance between the foreign military presence in sovereign land of a hostile need to achieve its national goals, a reasonable response to country has been grim. This scheme will postpone and Palestinian aggression and recalcitrance, and the fears of sterilize the Israeli response to perceived threats and will Jordan. This balancing act req uires that Israel refrain from give the Palestini ans an effective tool to damage Israel's integrating millions of West Bank Palestinians into its relations with the US. Endangering the lives of US soldiers boundaries in order to maintain its pluralistic, democratic, by defending Israeli territory will eliminate the independent and Jewish identity. discretion of Israel in vital issues. And principally: this The response to Palestinian recalcitrance and format will encourage constant fr iction and provocations aggression, and the strategic fears of Jo rdan, calls for between the Israelis, Palestinians, and Americans. isolating the Palestinians in the West Bank, and by proxy It's important to take such a harmful option off the the millions in Gaza, from the Hashemite kingdom. To table. If it were possible to ensure the current situation in achieve this isolation, it is best not to apply Israeli the Jordan Valley, there would be no need to discuss sovereignty to all settlements in Judea and Samaria. sovereignty n ow. The main reason it has arisen is the Additionally, to ens ure the Israeli response to the renewed discussion on the Palestinian issue and the Palestinians and Jordan, it is best to strive for establishing distress it causes the Jordanians. Democrats in the US will permanent Israeli rule in the Jordan Valley. increasingly disapprove. The EU and some of its In 2014 General John Allen, the security adviser to unfriendly states may cause trouble. The UN and the former Secretary of State John Kerry, suggested a plan that Hag ue will draw up anti - Israel initiatives. was based on much goodwill yet little understanding of the The Arab streets may awaken. The Palestinians, as conditions in the Middle East. always, will go berserk. Jordan will have to protest The plan was drawn up by dedicated officers who vigorously and may even suspend diplomatic ties and call made notable achievements for their country during an era back its ambassador. All these are grave possible of strategic failure in Afghanistan and Iraq. The plan conse quences, but if Joe Biden is elected, the US is included Palestinian sovereignty in the Jordan Valley. The expected to return to the sterile route that strives for an answer to Israel's security fears would be sensors, agreement between Israel and Palestinians based on the unmanned aircraft, satellites, and other technological outline of Allen's plan. Applying sovereignty in the Jordan devices. There was also talk of foreign troops, possibly Valley will improve Israel's nego tiating position in the American, being stationed along banks of t he Jordan battle against this terrible format. River, and a possibility of a US - Israel deal ensuring Jordan is expected to return to its normal pattern of American support for unilateral moves by Israel when behavior in every confrontation: to be happy deep in its responding to threats on its security. heart about Israel's achievements, and to shout loudly on Establishing control in the Jordan Valley entails behalf of the Palestinians . The physical isolation of the abandoning the delusional idea of Israeli and Jord anian Hashemite kingdom from the aggressive subversion of the security based on technology and foreign presence. What Palestinians in West Bank calms the regime in Amman. Israel needs is not information on threats and the hope The need to differentiate itself from Israel, due to radical that someone else will respond before it's too late. Rather, internal elements, causes the Hashemite king to respon d to it needs deterrence that comes with a good chance of Israeli actions in a more aggravated manner. That's how it's prevention and an Israel i force that will neutralize threats been for decades, and that's how it most probably will be when needed. in the future. A scheme like the Allen plan is much worse than no No, Coronavirus Won’t Transform the Middle East By Reuel Marc Gerecht hoover.org June 16, 2020 Some historical perspective. in handling the pandemic will fall from office. There isn’t a In the democratic West, many expect there to be a clear understanding of what virological comp etence in a post – Covid - 19 reckoning. That politicians who did poorly leader ought to look like (Angela Merkel appears, for now, Focus o n Israel June 27, 2020 Page 2 to be the exemplar), but many executives in the more the Mediterranean littoral, the median age is even younger severely infected nations — for example, Donald Trump, than Iran’s. The median age in Saudi Arabia, the newest Emanuel Macron, and Boris Johnson — aren’t role models coronavirus hotspot among the Arabs, is 30. The damage and should be punished. An d beyond leadership, many wrought by this malady on youth is vastly less than on the seem to believe that the virus will produce a social and old. cultural judgment day for national priorities. Much more We still don’t know how this contagion is going to welfare, more state capitalism, and less defense spending play out in Eg ypt’s massive shanty towns. The fate of seem to be the themes. Covid - 19 will, we are assured, Algeria, much more plugged into the West via its shak e and shape us long into the future. immigrant population in Europe, with a military junta that If the coronavirus were the Black Death, which tore may be even more sclerotic than Cairo’s, proven through the Middle East and Europe in the 14th century, democratic aspirations among the people, and an or the less lethal but still pulverizing pneumonic plagues opposition m ovement, Hirak, that the regime doesn’t seem that struck later, one might be more quickly sympathetic to able to squash, is also in a possibly precarious situation. the prognostications about th e contagion’s convulsive Algeria has been hit hard by the drop in prices for oil and effects. This pandemic isn’t what the historian Ibn natural gas, noticeably spooking and, it appears, dividing Khaldun, who lost his parents and many of his teachers to the military junta that has domi nated the country since the the Black Death, described: 1960s. Accompanying the collapse of hard - currency Civilization both in the East and West was visited by a revenue, Covid - 19 has afflicted several large Algerian destructive plague that devastated na tions and caused cities, where public health facilities are bad to abysmal. populations to vanish. It swallowed up many of the good French - speaking Algeria has rarely garnered much things of civilization and wiped them out….Cities and American attent ion; it should attract more. buildings were laid waste, roads and way signs were Among the rich and pampered, the Gulf states will obliterated, settlements and mansions became empty, likely survive, mildly scathed. The loss of oil revenue and dynasties and tribes grew weak. The entire inhabited world commerce, in part due directly to the pandemic abroad, is changed. unlikely to convulse these countries given their cash Certainly in the West, the coronavirus might seriously res erves and the eventual return of better petroleum prices. reorder priorities if economies can’t recover rapidly from Their foreign manual laborers, on whom much daily life the first wave — and can’t withstand subsequent waves — of depends, may not fare as well since they are stacked up in this malady. It’s reasonable to assume that Covid - 19, and poor housing; but they can still probably be forcibly deficit spending that many Western nations, especially the repatriated, if infected, by t he local rulers. The arrival of United States, are utilizing in an effort to stave off Ramadan this year isn’t a blessing for any Muslim country depression, will accelerate the decades - old shift in funds (the Black Death was so devastating in Egypt in 1349 in from defense to domestic spending and bring us more part because it struck during Ramadan, when the Muslim quickly to the d ay when bond markets rebel against debt. identity and communal festivities are fervent). But the Gulf A disarming, retrenching America will, of course, have states’ resources should be able to contain the virus. enormous impact abroad. In the Middle East, American Saudi Arabia is the one possible exception given its power has often checked Russian and Iranian ambitions larger, poorer population and just the general ineptitude of and made worst - case scenarios, say, Iranian dominatio n of Saudi government. Its cash reserves remain extensive, Persian Gulf oil, unthinkable.