Those fleeing Syria for Germany come from a country that has been at war with Israel since 1948 and where the government has disseminated anti-Semitic propaganda for decades. Germany, writes Jeffrey Herf, faces a decision: whether simply to allow these refugees to remain in its borders or to take difficult (and necessary) measures to integrate them into its social order. The latter would include encouraging them to shed received ideas about Jews and the Jewish state:

Germany’s successes since 1945 have rested to no small degree on . . . a willingness to learn lessons from past disasters, the rejection of totalitarian ideologies, [and] self-criticism. . . . It may occur to some of the Syrian refugees that decades of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and hatred of Israel coming from the Baath dictatorship had something to do with the self-destruction that has now engulfed their native land. For this welcome outcome to occur, German intellectuals, scholars, and politicians must teach incoming migrants about the importance of Germany’s tradition of facing the Nazi past honestly—and insist that most of what the Syrians have heard from their own government over many decades about Israel, the United States, West Germany, Zionism, and the Jews is false.

Yet perhaps the Syrians and the Germans will take the easy path, one of silence and the avoidance of difficult truths. . . . If so, Syrian migration to Germany could weaken the country’s traditions of coming to terms with its Nazi past, foster a growth of anti-Semitism in Germany and Europe, and stimulate a Jewish exodus out of the country.

Analyzing the recent direct Iranian attack on Israel, and Israel’s security situation more generally, Michael Oren looks to the 2015 agreement to restrain Iran’s nuclear program. That, and President Biden’s efforts to resurrect the deal after Donald Trump left it, are in his view the source of the current crisis:

Of the original motivations for the deal—blocking Iran’s path to the bomb and transforming Iran into a peaceful nation—neither remained. All Biden was left with was the ability to kick the can down the road and to uphold Barack Obama’s singular foreign-policy achievement.

In order to achieve that result, the administration has repeatedly refused to punish Iran for its malign actions:

Historians will survey this inexplicable record and wonder how the United States not only allowed Iran repeatedly to assault its citizens, soldiers, and allies but consistently rewarded it for doing so. They may well conclude that in a desperate effort to avoid getting dragged into a regional Middle Eastern war, the U.S. might well have precipitated one.

While America’s friends in the Middle East, especially Israel, have every reason to feel grateful for the vital assistance they received in intercepting Iran’s missile and drone onslaught, they might also ask what the U.S. can now do differently to deter Iran from further aggression. . . . Tehran will see this weekend’s direct attack on Israel as a victory—their own—for their ability to continue threatening Israel and destabilizing the Middle East with impunity.

Israel, of course, must respond differently. Our target cannot simply be the Iranian proxies that surround our country and that have waged war on us since October 7, but, as the Saudis call it, “the head of the snake.”