While Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is committed to defeating the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamic State, which would persecute severely or even exterminate Egyptian Christians if given the chance, this ancient religious minority has hardly flourished under his rule. Samuel Tadros explains:

For the past six years, since the Muslim Brotherhood’s government was overthrown by General Sisi, Western delegations, often composed of evangelical leaders, have returned from the country telling a similar story: . . . not only is the choice in Egypt a binary one between the Islamists and Sisi but, more profoundly, Sisi is a champion of religious freedom.

But these claims, writes Tadros, are dubious, and often distort the truth. Take for instance the statement recently made in an American newspaper that a law passed by the Egyptian parliament in 2016 has allowed for the building of hundreds of new churches:

In fact, the new law makes it nearly impossible for new churches to be built in existing cities by tying their approval and space to an unspecified necessary minimum number of Christians in an unspecified area. In practice, this has meant that, in the three years since, not a single church has been approved in existing cities. Since taking power, President Sisi has approved the building of 35 new churches in new cities being built in the desert, but none in any inhabited by actual Copts. This record is worse than that of former President Hosni Mubarak.

But the plight of Copts in Egypt is not limited to church building or the lack of equality. In the past several decades, over 1,000 mob attacks have taken place on Copts in Egypt’s villages and towns. Under Sisi, the number of those attacks has increased. In none of these incidents, whether under President Anwar Sadat, Mubarak, the [period of] military rule, Muhammad Morsi, or Sisi has a single person ever faced trial. The government is always happy to try Islamists, its sworn enemies, but it has shown no interest in punishing regular Egyptians for pogroms that have terrorized Copts and have included dozens of murders.

Instead, the Sisi government continues the practice of holding reconciliation sessions. These have created a culture of impunity and encouragement that rewards the attackers by meeting their demands. The message is clear: you can attack Copts, get away with it, and be rewarded.

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.”