On Monday, the Washington Post reported that the IDF had conducted two airstrikes—on March 5, 2020 and June 8, 2021—targeting Syria’s chemical-weapons program. Jerusalem is thought to have carried out similar attacks in 2018. Besides demonstrating the failure of the 2013 U.S. agreement to have Russia supervise the removal of Damascus’s chemical weapons, the Israeli attacks send a clear message to the world. Yoav Limor writes:

In the past few decades, the Jewish state has vastly expanded its diplomatic, economic, and sometimes military ties with South and East Asia, while doing its best to stay away from the conflicts that divide the countries in the region. Daniel Samet surveys the potential for these relationships, urging Jerusalem to avoid deepening cooperation with China and instead to focus on cultivating further its alliances-in-the-making with China’s competitors: