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Naftali Bennett to the Rescue?
Israel’s Prime Minister has offered a new diplomatic back-channel to Vladimir Putin. Could it work?
Two weeks ago when Russian military forces moved into the Ukraine, it was a new rubicon crossed in the modern age. For the first time in a long time, though hardly long enough, the world is again nervously considering the prospect of war.
When one sovereign nation invades another, anything might happen. No nation, entering into the global conflicts of the last century knew where that conflict might lead.
The murder of an Archduke, however revered, seems in retrospect such an unlikely cause to launch a global conflict. Of course historians have the benefit of hindsight, of knowing how the first and second world wars turned out. Decision-makers at the time, in every nation impacted by the escalating conflict had no idea then where it all might lead.
Engaging in the major conflicts of the 20th century might have ended with mutually assured destruction, with two major superpowers losing a very tenuous grip on peace and allowing the worldwide conflict to wax hot once again.
Cooler and saner heads, since the beginning of this particular conflict, have advocated everything from sanctions, to mediation, to a light censorious slap on the wrist. The less circumspect have championed strategies like…