Ben Buckman.net

Via Jeffrey Goldberg, some Iran-related missile defense news:

Israel's Arrow missile defense system was designed to intercept Scud missiles with a range of 300-400 kilometers. After it became clear that the Iranians -- with aid from North Korea and China -- are increasing the range of their missiles, Israel was forced to regroup and cope with the new reality, leading to the development of the Arrow 2 System. But it's not working out so well. Ha'aretz says that after a missile test failed to reach even the direction of its target on Wednesday night, Israel must develop a better way to defend itself against an attack from Iran, whose Shihab 3 missile's range exceeds 1,000 kilometers -- more than enough to reach Israel. 

It gets worse:

"Iran is about to incorporate a missile with a range of 2,000 kilometers into its arsenal. Not coincidentally, even though there has been little media attention on the subject, Israel is mulling the purchase of the U.S.-made THAAD missile defense, which is still in the development phase. ... This mishap will be thoroughly examined in Iran. There is no doubt that Tehran's director of its missile program will be rubbing his hands with satisfaction. Beyond the technical glitch, this failure is also a psychological blow for Israel and the U.S, its partner in the project."

Oh, and it doesn't help that Israel, at least in public, is calling all of this a "partial success" for its missile defense strategy.  

And a thoughtful analysis of J Street and Obama's Israel policy:

Jamie Kirchick wrote this week, under the headline, "Obama's Jews," that the "constellation of far-left 'pro-Israel' organizations put a kosher stamp of approval on Obama's bizarre hectoring and moral equivalence." Well, count me - a genuine warmongering fascist, according to some on the Interwebs - as a person who also puts his kosher stamp of approval on Obama's approach to Israel. I don't think his approach is bizarre or hectoring, or represents an exercise in moral equivalence. If he equated Hamas and Israel, then he would be making a moral equivalency argument, but he didn't. And I don't think there's anything bizarre about an American president asking Israel to end its addiction to settlements. And I don't think there's anything bizarre or marginal about a group of American Jews forming an organization like J Street to press for a different vision of Israel than the one advocated - or acquiesced to - by so-called mainstream groups like AIPAC and the ADL. 

I agree with Jamie - J Street has made some dumb mistakes in its brief history; its knee has jerked to the left when it shouldn't have, and it needs to grapple with the Iranian threat in a sophisticated way, and not simply stand in opposition to whatever AIPAC happens to be advocating at the moment. But all knees in the organized Jewish community tend to jerk, and when they do, they jerk in the direction of the status quo, and the status quo is untenable. The Zionist vision of a Jewish democratic state won't survive the demographic and moral realities of the current situation. Some people in J Street, I think, are motivated by animus to the idea of a Jewish state, but most, in my limited experience with them, want to preserve both Israel's democratic and Jewish character. That's more than I can say for some people in the "mainstream" pro-Israel community, who blind themselves to the coming crisis.

I'm not naïve about Arab intentions - or should I say, I'm no longer naïve about Arab intentions. I don't automatically believe that the creation of a Palestinian state will lead to an end of claims, or an end to the conflict. But I know that Israel's continued entanglement with the Palestinians, an entanglement deepened and exacerbated by its addiction to settlements, will eventually lead to the demise of the Jewish state. So I'm glad that "Obama's Jews" support his demand for Israeli self-reflection (are we so wonderful that we couldn't use a little self-examination now and again?), and I'm surprised that people are surprised by Obama's modest demand. He said in his campaign that he would hold up a mirror to Israel, and he is. He's also holding up a mirror to the Arab side, and that's all for the good as well. Time is running out - if Israel doesn't achieve permanent, internationally-recognized borders and diplomatic relations with the bulk of Muslim-majority countries soon, the campaign to delegitimize the very idea of Israel will become even more ferocious than it's been.  In my humble opinion, J Street is trying, in its own way, to prevent this from happening, and this puts it in the mainstream of American Jewish political life.