Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is right: Israel is truly a dangerous place. Thousands of Hezbollah missiles are pointed toward northern Israel. It’s only a matter of time before the rocket fire on the region surrounding the Gaza Strip reaches its rate prior to the 2014 Operation Protective Edge.
On the Golan Heights, one can hear the echoes of the war the Syrian army is conducting against the opposition and Islamic State militants. The eastern neighbor, Jordan, is collapsing from the burden of refugees from Syria, and the prime minister has promised to build a fence along the Jordan River to block armed terrorists from crossing. Even the seashore was until recently under attack by poisonous jellyfish. And then there is the deepening hegemony of Iran in the region since the nuclear agreement signed in Vienna went into effect. A senior diplomatic source told Al-Monitor this weekend that Iran’s minister of defense will hold a coordination meeting in the next few days in Beijing with his colleagues from Russia and China. And while all this is happening, the fight that most concerns the United States, Israel’s patron, is next year's race to the White House.