In recent years, Israeli popular music—once avowedly secular—has drawn increasingly on Jewish tradition for inspiration, as Yossi Klein Halevi writes:

In a little remarked-upon statement in May, James Jeffrey, the State Department’s envoy for Syria policy, said that his goal was to turn the war-torn country into “a quagmire for the Russians.” By using economic leverage, this policy has achieved modest success, writes Jonathan Spyer: