In January, Israel’s National Insurance Institute (NII) released its yearly report on the economic situation of the citizenry, which paints a shocking picture, suggesting that one fourth of Israeli children live in poverty. Another government report puts the number at one in three. But, Amiad Cohen argues, these indices represent “a statistical fiction, radically different from the reality.” Worse still, the most recent NII statistics were deliberately reworked when the initial set appeared to downplay the effects of the pandemic:

Considering the current state of the region and the policy mistakes of the recent past, David Pollock and Robert Satloff outline a strategy that is “both virtuous and realistic” for defending human rights and encouraging democratization in a region plagued by autocracy, chaos, and brutality. They argue that “in the long run, more democratic, tolerant, and inclusive governments are likely to be better at defending themselves, and more reliable and effective security partners for the United States.”