Israel, according to Ya’alon, is stuck in a hostile neighborhood and must maneuver within it, exercising toughness as well as caution. 

Washington wants Erdoğan to do more to back the Kurds in Kobani, while Ankara insists Assad should be removed first.
 

“With the exception of Vice News, ISIS has permitted no foreign journalists to document life under their rule in Raqqa,” Crabapple wrote. “Instead, they rely on their own propaganda. To create these images, I drew from cell-phone photos a Syrian sent me of daily life in the city. Like the Internet, art evades censorship.”

French actress Julie Gayet, whose affair with President Francois Hollande made headlines worldwide, opened the Beirut International Film Festival on Wednesday and criticised “fundamentalism” in neighbouring Syria.

With the Islamic State waving its black flag at the gates of Baghdad, Persian Gulf nations have decided to set aside their differences. “Radical Islam is a profound threat to us and our values,” said Yousef al-Otaiba, the UAE’s ambassador to the United States. “We need to confront it as a team.”

Mr. Obama is acting as polls show rapidly shifting public opinion, with a large majority of Americans now favoring military action against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, even as they express deep misgivings about the president’s leadership, Mr. Obama is also facing difficult crosscurrents on Capitol Hill, where Republican lawmakers, initially reluctant to demand congressional authorization of military action, have begun agitating for a vote...