Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- March 13, 2015

Ilene Prusher, Time: Is This the Man Who Could Beat Netanyahu and Become Israel’s Next PM?



Isaac Herzog has maintained a lead in opinion polls but winning the election is not enough to become prime minister


When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chose to dissolve his government last November and call for new elections he didn’t expect a formidable challenge from the Labor party leader Isaac Herzog.


Herzog is the closest thing Israel has to a patrician politician. His father, Chaim Herzog, was an Israeli army general and the sixth president of Israel and his grandfather was the first chief rabbi of Ireland. And while the 54-year-old Isaac Herzog has served four times as a government minister since 2004, few have seen him as having the charisma some believe is necessary to be Israel’s prime minister.

Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- March 13, 2015

An Uneasy Israel Heads to the Ballot Box -- Isi Leibler, Jerusalem Post



Relax, Israel – if your ally is working with your enemy, it doesn’t make them friends -- Ilan Goldenberg and Elizabeth Rosenberg, Reuters



Iraqi, allied forces try to win back Tikrit, win over hearts and minds of residents -- Ben Wedeman, Laura Smith-Spark and Greg Botelho, CNN



Americans ‘Fighting ISIS’ Are Just Props -- Mat Wolf, Daily Beast



Will US Provide Military Help Against Boko Haram? -- Anne Look, VOA



China’s Emerging Interests in the Arctic -- Nong Hong, University of Nottingham



China is stealthily arming troops in South Sudan -- Peter Dörrie, War Is Boring



The Biggest Threat to Afghanistan Isn't the Taliban -- Matthew Gault, Real Clear Defense



Putin Ally Sees ‘Bloody, Short’ Russia Win If U.S. Arms Kiev -- Henry Meyer/Irina Reznik/Ilya Arkhipov, Bloomberg



Military analysis of what Russia really wants reveals nuclear dangers -- Commodore Philip Thicknesse, Reuters



Putin Disappears Like a Dictator -- Leonid Bershidsky, Bloomberg



Colombia Gambles on Peace With Its Rebels -- Mac Margolis, Bloomberg



Chavistas still waving the flag in the face of disaster, even as Venezuela’s economic crisis deepens -- Matthew Fischer, National Post



Now Argentina Can't Even Pay Bonds in Argentina -- Matt Levine, Bloomberg



Surprise: U.S. Economic Data Have Been the World's Most Disappointing -- Steve Matthews & A Catarina Saraiva, Bloomberg