Jerusalem • President Donald Trump, as he so often does, deployed “smash the glass, pull alarm” tactics last month over the stalemate developing in Syria’s civil war. As with so many moves by the president to apply a sort of shock therapy to an intractable problem set, his announcement that U.S. troops would withdraw from Syria is working. A case in point can be found here in Israel, where Trump’s decision has triggered focused thinking amid a tumultuous political season.
Israeli politics were more unsettled than usual before Trump’s announcement. Early elections are coming in April.