Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- February 13, 2018

Ronen Bergman, New York Times: The Middle East’s Coming War

In the early hours of Saturday morning, the Middle East was on the brink of yet another war.

During the night, according to my high-ranking sources, Israel’s intelligence services had been tracking an Iranian drone that was launched by the Quds division of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from the Tiyas air base in central Syria.

A minute and a half after the drone entered Israeli airspace, an Israeli Air Force attack helicopter shot it out of the sky. Simultaneously, eight Israeli fighter jets fired missiles at the drone’s command and control center at Tiyas, blowing it up, along with the Iranians manning the center. (Iran has denied that its drone was shot down or that its troops were killed.)

The Syrian military, allied with Iran, responded by firing surface-to-air missiles at the Israeli jets. The missiles locked onto two Israeli aircraft. One of these managed to evade the rockets, but the other was hit by fragments of the exploding missile. The two-man crew ejected and landed in Israeli territory. One of them was gravely wounded.

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Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- February 13, 2018

Reports of Russian deaths underscore dangers of Syria’s war -- Robert Burns and Vladimir Isachenkov, AP

US, Turkey could be on collision course in Syria -- Metin Gurcan, Al-Monitor

The Only Way to Solve the North Korea Crisis: Kill Kim Jong Un? -- Zachary Keck, National Interest

Frustrations at the White House and the Pentagon: Why They Can't Seem to See Eye to Eye on North Korea -- Julianne Smith and Loren DeJonge Schulman, Foreign Affairs

Trump’s ‘Hard Line’ on North Korea Is Soft Symbolism -- Eli Lake, Bloomberg

Modi a match for Trump as he picks his own foreign policy course -- M.K. Bhadrakumar, Asia Times

2018: India’s Year of Turmoil -- Mohammed Ayoob, National Interest

China will not fall into the ‘Thucydides Trap’ with India -- Pepe Escobar, Asia Times

How Djibouti Became China's Gateway To Africa -- Dietmar Pieper, Spiegel Online

ANC briefing on Zexit: Two certainties and one very big elephant in the room -- Carien du Plessis, Daily Maverick

Estonian Spies Understand the Russian Threat -- Leonid Bershidsky, Bloomberg

No One's in Charge of Stopping Russia Meddling, Spy Chief Says -- Nafeesa Syeed/Chris Strohm/Tony Capaccio, Bloomberg

Dawn of the Eurasian century -- Jon Boone, CAPX

Inside France's Secret War Against Jihadists Of Mali -- Didier François, Worldcrunch

Mexico’s Drug War Is No Closer to an End -- Jacob L. Shapiro, Geopolitical Futures