WSJ: Trump Wants a Calm Middle East
Even before senior national security figures discussed secret war plans over a Signal chat that inadvertently included a magazine editor, it was clear that March Madness has broken out in the Middle East.
Military conflicts and political unrest are simultaneously on the boil across the region. The Trump administration is sending a second carrier strike group to the region as the U.S. confrontation with the Houthis intensifies.
Iran, staggered by its catastrophic and humiliating losses to Israel, hesitates between the alternatives of nuclear breakout and negotiated settlement with its foes.
As Turkish financial markets melted down and demonstrators across the country called for democracy, the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan jailed his most formidable rival on corruption charges. Israeli troops returned to Gaza even as the Israel Defense Forces stepped up the pressure in Syria and Lebanon.
Back home, Israeli streets filled again with protesters denouncing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government even as the cabinet fired the head of Israel’s domestic intelligence agency and initiated proceedings to oust the attorney general—and Houthi missiles sent millions of Israelis into bomb shelters.