June 18, 2012 | 4:05 am

June 18, 2012

Posted by Shmuel Rosner

A Syrian soldier who defected to join the Free Syrian Army waves a Syrian independence flag in a Damascus suburb. (Photo: Reuters)

Noteworthy: ‎
Take a Deep Breath, America

The US should think carefully before ‎getting taking sides in Syria, Egypt and ‎elsewhere in the region, writes Leslie H. ‎Gelb in the Daily Beast.‎

Whatever the experts tell them, our leaders will have to come to terms with some ‎hard truths. First, Americans have to understand that they should not enthrone ‎democracy as an end in itself. Free votes can supplant villains with worse ‎villains, corruption and brutality with tyranny and enslavement of women. Just ‎as the ends do not justify the means, the means are not always superior to the ‎ends. Second, diplomatic compromises are often unattainable between those ‎who hate each other, and between those who know they must rule or die, and ‎those who’d rather die than see the rulers continue to rule. ‎

Israel’s an Election Issue ... For Christians

Romney’s vow to do the opposite to Obama on Israel will resonate more with ‎American evangelicals than American Jews, writes Jonathan S. Tobin in Commentary ‎Magazine. ‎

Romney needs a huge turnout of evangelicals—a group that often fails to maximize its ‎numbers at the polls—this fall if he is to beat President Obama. As conservatives work to ‎register and mobilize conservative Christians, expect to hear more about Israel from ‎Romney. It may be that most Jews don’t care if Romney is more sympathetic to the Jewish ‎state, but support for Israel is an issue that a great many Christians believe is a deal ‎breaker.‎

Media Digest

• Times of Israel: Sephardi chief ‎rabbi slams funding of non-‎Orthodox rabbis
• Haaretz: Israeli killed as IDF, terrorists ‎exchange fire along Egypt border
• The Jerusalem Post: With new fence, Navy ‎readying for sea-terror swell
• Ynet: Female officers warn of mass haredi draft
• New York Times:  Crackdown on ‎Migrants Tugs at Soul of ‎Israelis
• Washington Post:  Egypt’s ‎military issues decree ‎giving vast powers to ‎armed forces, but few to ‎president
• Wall Street Journal: Israeli Tax ‎Preparers Snared

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