What Were We Thinking? Selected Schar School Op-Eds (October 2023)

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From the National Interest:

Hamas Could Be Baiting Israel Into Invading Gaza

Israel must not be drawn into this trap set for it by Hamas. Instead, Israel should focus on destroying Hamas’s military capabilities in a way that minimizes civilian casualties.

—Mark N. Katz

 

From Small Wars Journal:

Drone Proliferation in the Conflict Zones: Who Are the Supplier and Users?

Among the non-state actors, terrorist organizations occupy a special place in deploying more complex and technological weapons. Terrorist groups are rarely random and senseless in their tactics and prefer weapons that can cause high impact and more deaths. 

—Mahmut Cengiz

 

From the Hill:

A Third Party in the House? McCarthy’s Fall Makes It Possible

But if they succeed at creating a third party in Congress, they would become the linchpin of the House for the next year. Polarized Democrats and polarized Republicans would have to craft legislation that would get the support of this little party.

—Jeremy Mayer

 

From Inside Higher Education:

Medical Exam Cheating in Pakistan Demands Tech and Cultural Responses

These devices, which apparently incorporate miniature earpieces to receive answers and assistance during the exams, were reportedly sold by unknown actors for a hefty sum of approximately $10,000 (£8,300), with the promise of enabling the students to achieve scores exceeding 90 per cent.

—Muhammad Salar Khan, et al.

 

From Responsible Statecraft:

Why the Kremlin May Be Sweating the War in Israel and Gaza

Further, Moscow’s warnings about conflict in the Middle East spreading are an indication that it fears its own interests would be harmed if this occurs. An all-out conflict between Israel and Hezbollah could result in Hezbollah’s forces in Lebanon becoming so degraded that it will be forced to redeploy a substantial number of its fighters now in Syria back to Lebanon, thus destabilizing the Russian-backed Assad regime, which relies in part on Hezbollah’s military prowess. 

—Mark N. Katz

 

From Small Wars Journal:

Playing with Fire in the Middle East: Who Are the Winners and Losers of Hamas’s Terrorist Attacks?

Israel's controversial counterterrorism strategies have received criticisms of being too punitive and violating international laws. These harsh policies have prevented terrorist attacks but caused increasing grievances of Palestinians who live under challenging conditions. 

—Mahmut Cengiz

 

From American City and County:

Cyber Insecurity, AI, and the Rise of the CISO

Taken as a whole, zero trust, AI, workforce development and adapting to NIST’s modified Cybersecurity Framework, adds to the ever-growing load to the CIO. This leads to the growing recognition that every local government needs someone who can remain laser-focused on cyber and all the moving parts, hence the rise of the chief information security officer (CISO).

—Alan R. Shark

 

From the Atlantic Council:

The Israel-Hamas War Is a Distraction from Ukraine, But Russia Isn’t Necessarily Benefiting

The eruption of conflict between Israel and Hamas, which creates the potential for an even broader conflict—possibly involving Lebanese Hezbollah in the North and Iran—poses dangers for Moscow, too.

—Mark N. Katz

 

From the Hill:

What Makes Presidential Campaigns Successful?

Since the 1970s, the most critical factor in American presidential campaigns has not been candidate qualifications, name recognition, financial backing or the burning issues of the day. As important as these may be, the hallmark of successful campaigns over the last 50 years has been effective campaign strategy, usually led by effective campaign managers.

—Frank T. Manheim

 

From the Richmond Times-Dispatch:

With Fall Elections Approaching, McCarthy’s Ouster Undermines Virginia GOP

Virginia’s normally provincial legislative races are already highly nationalized, dominated by themes of abortion rights, immigration and border security, the rights of transgender people, gun control, crime rates and even sharp differences over U.S. support for Ukraine. Because of that, partisan actions on Capitol Hill influence the high-stakes, hugely expensive fight to rule Richmond’s Capitol Square.

—Mark J. Rozell

 

From the Messenger:

Polarization Helped Oust McCarthy, But It Won’t Exit With Him

The system was not designed for strong government like a parliamentary system. In fact, our first system of government, the Articles of Confederation (1777), provided for a system of government that was so weak it was unworkable and had to be discarded and replaced by the current Constitution (1789).

—Bill Schneider

 

From Bearing Drift:

Israel

We need to understand that these terrorist groups, be it Hamas in Gaza or Hezbollah in Lebanon, are committed to the total destruction of Israel, and they are backed in this effort by Iran. Israel’s only way to survive is to destroy them first.

—Bill Bolling

 

From Italian Institute for International Political Studies:

U.S.-MENA Relations in the Russia-Ukraine War Era

Many in the Biden Administration, Congress, and in the US generally have been very disappointed by all this.

—Mark N. Katz

 

From Bearing Drift:

Debt, Debt Everywhere, and No One Seems to Care

We are currently spending almost as much every year to cover interest payments on the national debt as we are spending on Medicare for seniors or for national defense.

—Bill Bolling