Globe Trot: The political realities of Netanyahu's one-state pledge

ISRAEL: Thomas Friedman, someone I often disagree with but whose credentials in the Middle East can’t be denied, writes that newly reelected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s election pledge of a one-state solution means Israel “will become, in time, either a non-Jewish democracy or Jewish non-democracy.” Hint: Just look at the country’s demographics. Friedman also predicted Netanyahu is cynical enough he may go back on his one-state pledge once returned to office. Well, a few hours later it looks like he did.

Baruch Maoz is a long known and popular Messianic pastor in Israel. He takes issue with Netanyahu’s reelection—and the American evangelicals he says treat Israeli believers as “mere pawns in their eschatological scheme of things.”

YEMEN: Suicide bombers at two mosques in Sanaa have killed at least 130 today, in what appear to be the first attacks by Islamic State in Yemen.

SYRIA: Here’s a graphic look at what’s left of Syria after four years of civil war.

IRAQ: ISIS has blown up the 14th century monastery of Mar Benham near Qaraqosh. An older monastery, Mar Matti, along with the ancient Jewish and Christian enclave of Alqosh, has for months now been safe in the hands of the Kurdish peshmerga.

SAUDI ARABIA: The Saudis continue to beat up on the Swedes after Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom criticized the Saudis’ human rights record earlier this month.

WEEKEND READ: I took a departure from foreign affairs to write in the new issue of WORLD about my friend and author Kara Tippetts, now in her last days of a long battle with cancer. Sarah Pulliam Bailey at The Washington Post also writes about Kara, recounting her efforts last fall to convince fellow cancer sufferer Brittany Maynard not to take her own life (Maynard did, on Nov. 1). Generally it’s a good idea to avoid reading the comments section, but many of the comments at the end of Sarah’s article are … revealing, contorted, and just plain bizarre.

NOTE: Starting next week Globe Trot will shift to Tuesdays and Thursdays.