Last week, the Israeli government confirmed that a researcher named Elizabeth Tsurkov has been held captive in Iraq, most likely by the Iran-backed militia Kitaeb Hizballah—an offshoot of the similarly named Lebanon-based terrorist group. Tsurkov, a dual Russian and Israeli citizen, is currently a graduate student at Princeton University, and had traveled to the Middle East to pursue her academic research. Hussain Abdul-Hussain comments:

Anti-Western regimes have always used hostage-taking as a tactic to blackmail Western governments. . . . After a nuclear deal was signed in 2015 between the international community and Iran, Tehran freed all Westerners in its custody. Since then, Iran has taken thirteen new Western hostages, eleven of whom are of Iranian origin. From time to time, Tehran offers to “swap prisoners” with the U.S., Canada, and European countries, or asks for some American concessions, mainly sanctions relief, in return for releasing one or more hostages.

Baghdad enjoys strong ties with Washington and does not need to take hostages to extract concessions. On the contrary, [the kidnapping] shows that, in Iraq, the government cannot guarantee the safety of foreign tourists or residents. This is why it is imperative for Baghdad to take custody of Tsurkov.

America has invested a lot in Iraq. . . . As a close ally, it would be wise for Washington to impress on Baghdad that Tsurkov should be freed, not for the sake of Israel, but for the image of Iraq as a sovereign country where law and order are upheld by courts and law-enforcement agencies.

While conventional wisdom in the Western press believes that the war with Hamas has left Jerusalem more isolated and scuttled chances of expanding the Abraham Accords, Gabriel Scheinmann points to a very different reality. He begins with Iran’s massive drone and missile attack on Israel last month, and the coalition that helped defend against it:

America’s Arab allies had, in various ways, provided intelligence and allowed U.S. and Israeli planes to operate in their airspace. Jordan, which has been vociferously attacking Israel’s conduct in Gaza for months, even publicly acknowledged that it shot down incoming Iranian projectiles. When the chips were down, the Arab coalition held and made clear where they stood in the broader Iranian war on Israel.

The successful batting away of the Iranian air assault also engendered awe in Israel’s air-defense capabilities, which have performed marvelously throughout the war. . . . Israel’s response to the Iranian night of missiles should give further courage to Saudi Arabia to codify its alignment. Israel . . . telegraphed clearly to Tehran that it could hit precise targets without its aircraft being endangered and that the threshold of a direct Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear or other sites had been breached.

The entire episode demonstrated that Israel can both hit Iranian sites and defend against an Iranian response. At a time when the United States is focused on de-escalation and restraint, Riyadh could see quite clearly that only Israel has both the capability and the will to deal with the Iranian threat.

It is impossible to know whether the renewed U.S.-Saudi-Israel negotiations will lead to a normalization deal in the immediate months ahead. . . . Regardless of the status of this deal, [however], or how difficult the war in Gaza may appear, America’s Arab allies have now become Israel’s.