Kerry Meets with Netanyahu to Discuss Recent Violence

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Berlin on Thursday to discuss the recent weeks-long spate of Israeli-Palestinian violence. “There is no question that this wave of attacks was driven directly by the incitement, the incitement or Hamas, the incitement of the Islamist movement in Israel and the incitement, I am sorry to say, from President Abbas and the Palestinian Authority,” Netanyahu said. Kerry called for a renewed effort to “rekindle” the peace process. “I believe people want this to de-escalate. So, let’s go to work and see what we can do,” he said. Kerry will meet with Abbas and Jordan’s King Abdullah in Amman on Saturday.

The challenges to renewed diplomacy are severe, according to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s assessment. In a closed-door teleconference with members of the U.N. Security Council, Ban said he “thought there was a very wide gap” between the two sides “both on the short term, on how to deescalate, and on the longer term to go back to a genuine political process leading to a two-state solution,” the British ambassador to the United Nations told the Associated Press.

Complaint Filed Against Iranian Missile Test at United Nations

The United States sent a letter co-signed by Britain, France, and Germany to the U.N. Security Council’s Iran sanctions committee noting that Iran’s recent missile test is an apparent violation of U.N. resolutions. The letter calls for the United Nations to “take appropriate action in response to violations of U.N. Security Council resolutions.”

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Headlines

• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggested on Thursday that the double suicide bombing in Ankara this month that killed more than 100 people was the result of a conspiracy that included the Islamic State, Assad regime intelligence, and the Kurdish Workers’ Party.

• Russian President Vladimir Putin briefed the leaders of Jordan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt about his meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad yesterday; on Friday, Secretary of State John Kerry will meet in Vienna with his counterparts from Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey to discuss the prospects of renewed negotiations for Syria.

• Egyptian security forces raided the Mada Foundation for Media Development, detaining 20 members of its staff, in what Amnesty International notes is just the latest in a string of actions that curtail press freedom and intimidate journalists.

• More than 100 cargo vessels have arrived in Syria since the start of Russia’s offensive, a large uptick in shipping, writes Reuters; the ships are arriving from Russia and other Black Sea ports, but also Lebanon and Egypt.

• Conflict and low oil prices have had a marked effect on economies in the Middle East this year, says the International Monetary Fund, which announced yesterday that a low rate of 2.5 percent economic growth in the region is expected for 2016.

Arguments and Analysis

“Egypt’s Escalating Islamist Insurgency” (Mokhtar Awad and Mostafa Hashem, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace)

“Although they are bitter enemies locked in a zero-sum struggle, the government and pragmatic senior Brotherhood leaders share an interest in neutralizing this budding jihadi insurgency, as unlikely as this may seem. Sisi’s regime naturally wants stability in order to proceed with critical economic reforms and regime security. For the Muslim Brotherhood, jihadism in its ranks poses a threat to the survival of the group as a unified organization. Salafi jihadists reject the Brotherhood’s basic ideology of political participation and gradual change and deem it apostate, while many of the violent Brotherhood members increasingly view the group’s leadership as unrepresentative and incapable and, as recent events show, are willing to rebel against it. As there are no signs of either side abandoning its zero-sum approach to the ongoing conflict, talk of political reconciliation is at best premature. Yet there are certain steps that each side can take to deescalate the ongoing conflict and contain the violence.”

“Here to stay and growing: Combating ISIS propaganda networks” (Alberto M. Fernandez, Brookings Institution)

“While the social media success of ISIS is indeed remarkable in that it has mobilized tens of thousands (albeit a very small portion of the pool of Muslims worldwide) to take up arms, it cannot be divorced from the political and military reality on the ground. The international community allowed the Syrian civil war to grow and fester, assuming that it could have no real impact on the region. The United States, after invading Iraq in 2003 and destroying the status quo, essentially walked away eight years later. This allowed for a corrupt and increasingly sectarian regime to take over Iraq and create the optimal conditions for the resurgence of ISIS. If Mosul had not fallen to ISIS in June 2014, one wonders if an ISIS caliphate would have been declared. Would Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi have hesitated just like Abu Omar al-Baghdadi did? Has ISIS not seized control of one third of Iraq, videos like ‘Clanging of the Swords, Part Four’ would merely be interesting curiosities.”

-J. Dana Stuster

Amos Ben Gershom/GPO via Getty Images