WORLD ROUNDUPVietnam Accelerates Island Building | Is Israel Ready for the Next Iranian Attack?, and more
· Israel Repelled Iran’s First Direct Attack. Is It Ready for the Next One?
There is apprehension in Israel about the strength of its regional anti-Tehran coalition and the ability of its air defense systems to repel a complex assault
· Vietnam Accelerates Island Building to Challenge China’s Maritime Claims
As tensions mount in the South China Sea, Vietnam is dredging and filling in land, fortifying barriers and erecting new structures to create hundreds of acres
· Maduro Takes the Easy Way Out
Venezuela’s strongman appears to believe that dictatorship can survive on repression alone. What if he’s right?
· White Supremacist and Anti‐Government Extremist Groups in the US
White supremacist and anti‐government groups in the US are adept at manipulating events and societal developments
Israel Repelled Iran’s First Direct Attack. Is It Ready for the Next One? (Shira Rubin, Washington Post)
As Israel braces for an attack from Iran — fueling fighter jets, positioning air defense batteries and coordinating with Washington on the placement of U.S. military assets — there is growing apprehension about one of its most critical lines of defense: an American-led Arab coalition that helped thwart the last Iranian assault.
The once covert alliance, involving Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, burst into public view on the night of April 13, when it aided Israel in intercepting 99 percent of more than 300 drones and missiles launched from Iran — the first direct strike of its kind by Tehran after decades of shadow war with the Jewish state.
Israel’s military chief lauded the collaboration at the time as paving the way for “new opportunities for cooperation in the Middle East.” White House national security adviser John Kirby said it sent “a strong message about where Israel is in the region versus where Iran is in the region.”
Four months later, with Iran vowing to respond forcefully to the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in its own backyard, Israel is more regionally isolated, which military analysts say could make the country more vulnerable. There are also fears that, even with American support, Israel’s aerial defense systems may not be able to fully counter a massive, coordinated attack.
Vietnam Accelerates Island Building to Challenge China’s Maritime Claims (Rebecca Tan and Laris Karklis, Washington Post)
Vietnam has dramatically accelerated its effort to expand islands and reclaim land in the contested South China Sea since the start of the year to challenge rising Chinese assertiveness, according to satellite imagery and interviews with Vietnamese officials, security analysts and diplomats.
While Vietnam has been enlarging its presence across a remote collection of rocks, reefs and islets called the Spratlys since 2021, the country is on pace this year to create more than 1,000 acres of new land there, more than in any year prior.
Not since China carried out its own island-building campaign there a decade ago, turning semi-submerged reefs into sophisticated military bases, has the landscape of the archipelago been so transformed. In just three years, Vietnam has increased its amount of land in the Spratlys tenfold.
