Supporters of the campaign to boycott, divest from, and sanction the Jewish state (BDS) claim to be motivated by concern for the well-being of Palestinians. In fact, writes Abed Almaala, a leader of Jordan’s parliamentary opposition, BDS’s success would be disastrous for them as well as for Israel’s Arab neighbors.

Israel is at the forefront of the war against terror in [the Levant], ‎and if Israel is hurt, [the region] will suffer, and Jordan will suffer the most.‎ Therefore, BDS is a threat to us all—a threat to America as much as it is a threat to ‎Israel, Jordan, and [my] Palestinian brothers.‎

BDS claims to target Israel because Israel oppresses the Palestinians. If so, why does BDS never target Jordan, [whose government] oppresses and destroys the lives ‎of . . . Jordanians of Palestinian origins, and where many of my own people, the Bedouin Jordanians, go hungry?‎

Why does BDS never boycott Lebanon, where Palestinians are banned from working ‎as taxi drivers? Why does it not boycott Syria, where President Bashar Assad has killed thousands of Palestinians ‎in the Yarmouk [refugee] camp?‎ Admit it, BDS: you are racists and anti-Semites.‎ . . .

We Arabs have boycotted Israel for 70 years. Where has it gotten us? We are ‎light-years behind Israel in technology and the economy. We in ‎Jordan must put an end to this situation and begin learning from our Israeli friends.‎

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.”