On Tuesday, New York’s Governor Andrew Cuomo announced neighborhood-specific lockdowns in areas with high rates of coronavirus infection, making explicit the fact that these “red zones” hold large concentrations of Orthodox Jews, and threatening synagogue closures if restrictions aren’t observed. In response, anti-lockdown protests erupted in ḥasidic parts of Brooklyn last night, resulting in at least two instances of intrareligious violence. Jonathan Tobin writes that, although the problem of Orthodox noncompliance with social-distancing measures is a real one, Cuomo—like New York City’s hapless mayor Bill De Blasio—has needlessly encouraged anti-Jewish hostility:

The spectacle of Orthodox Jews taking to the streets this week in closely packed crowds, eschewing masks (and in one case, even burning them) to protest Cuomo’s new edicts, cannot be defended. Yet it’s equally fair to ask questions that were raised [previously] when Mayor De Blasio singled out “the Jewish community” as such as the sole source of COVID scofflaws. It’s also reasonable to ask by what logic, let alone scientific principle, they are making decisions that mandate the closing of religious institutions while allowing other secular activities to go on unhindered.

Just as importantly, why have Cuomo and De Blasio, as well as so many other local and state leaders around the nation, treated religious activities and protests against these restrictions as inherently illegitimate and illegal while turning a blind eye towards the mass protests and violence in the streets that have taken place under the banner of the Black Lives Matter movement?

As those “mostly peaceful” protests continued and violence spread, governments that sent cops to shut down synagogues and churches, close playgrounds, or arrest people without masks—while doing little or nothing to stop rioters—lost whatever credibility they once had. If preventing looting by non-socially distanced criminals is not a government priority but stopping people from praying in a house of worship is, something is profoundly wrong, and it’s no good blaming people—whether they are Orthodox Jews or anyone else—for noticing.

Seen from that perspective, the anger of the Ḥaredim who have been resisting COVID-19 restrictions can be understood, if not excused, as a natural reaction to hypocritical policies and a troubling willingness to make the easily identifiable Orthodox Jewish community the scapegoats for the pandemic.

In 2003, the Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, spooked by the American display of might in Iraq, decided to destroy or surrender his entire nuclear program. Informed observers have suggested that the deal he made with the U.S. should serve as a model for any agreement with Iran. Robert Joseph provides some useful background:

Gaddafi had convinced himself that Libya would be next on the U.S. target list after Iraq. There was no reason or need to threaten Libya with bombing as Gaddafi was quick to tell almost every visitor that he did not want to be Saddam Hussein. The images of Saddam being pulled from his spider hole . . . played on his mind.

President Bush’s goal was to have Libya serve as an alternative model to Iraq. Instead of war, proliferators would give up their nuclear programs in exchange for relief from economic and political sanctions.

Any outcome that permits Iran to enrich uranium at any level will fail the one standard that President Trump has established: Iran will not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon. Limiting enrichment even to low levels will allow Iran to break out of the agreement at any time, no matter what the agreement says.

Iran is not a normal government that observes the rules of international behavior or fair “dealmaking.” This is a regime that relies on regional terror and brutal repression of its citizens to stay in power. It has a long history of using negotiations to expand its nuclear program. Its negotiating tactics are clear: extend the negotiations as long as possible and meet any concession with more demands.