U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson declared during a press conference on Wednesday that the JCPOA nuclear agreement with Iran “fails to achieve the objective of a non-nuclear Iran. It only delays their goal of becoming a nuclear state.” He added that it also fails to address “alarming ongoing provocations” by Iran in several countries throughout the Middle East and beyond.

The Islamist terror militia Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, made an attempt on Wednesday to smuggle material used to manufacture improvised explosive devices (IED) into Israel inside an ambulance being used to transfer a Palestinian cancer patient into Israel for treatment. The attempt was intercepted during a routine security check at the Erez Crossing.

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin met with the Patriarchs of the Catholic and Greek Orthodox communities in Jerusalem on Wednesday morning to honor the Easter holiday. “I say to you here, our Christian brothers of Jerusalem, our thoughts are with you at this difficult time,” Rivlin said. “We have all seen the pictures from Syria; I visited some of the injured being treated in Israeli hospitals. What has happened there to the Christian community – and to the whole country – is a stain on all of humanity.”

Israel will have three athletes representing it at the European Artistic Gymnastics Championships finals in Cluj, Romania this weekend. Alex Shatilov, Andrey Medvedev and Artem Dolgopyat all advanced during recent competitions and have hopes for a medal in the finals.

Israel’s Police announced a huge drug bust in Jerusalem on Wednesday, saying a months long undercover operation has resulted in the arrest of 30 suspects and the confiscation of millions of shekels worth of drugs. They added that the investigation is expected to result in more arrests in the near future.

The US is not going to “win” in Syria. No one will. Left to its own, the war will simmer, like so many conflicts in the Middle East. For the US and its allies, a Syria that oozes radicalism and discontent is not merely a sore, it is a threat. Military instruments cannot fix Syria, but they can prepare the ground for negotiations that might.