Tensions between Iran and the US were running high Monday following a disputed account of a confrontation between warships in the Gulf of Oman. Iran said one of its ships warned off a US warship there in recent days while the US Navy said, essentially, that the Iranian boast was pure fiction. Nevertheless, military forces of both countries continue to warily eye each other at various flashpoints across the region as diplomats engage in a parallel attempt to outmaneuver each other.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara departed for a visit to Argentina, Columbia and Mexico Sunday evening. It is the first ever visit to the region by a sitting Israeli Prime Minister and comes amidst a surge in bi-lateral trade as well as warming political, diplomatic and cultural ties.

A Jewish National Fund memorial near Jerusalem to the victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks (the only such memorial outside the US) was the scene of a memorial ceremony Monday morning, bringing together US and Israeli officials. “On September 11, we all fell victim to the genocidal force of our time – radical Islamic terrorism,” US Ambassador to Israel Friedman said. “No country has felt a greater loss to radical Islamic terror than Israel.”

he Israeli-developed Iron Dome air defense system is currently undergoing extensive testing at the White Sands Missile range in the US State of New Mexico as the Pentagon looks for options to defend its forces against short-medium range threats. The US Army’s SHORAD exercises began on September 4th and will run through the 16th, with Iron Dome, which has already recorded over 1,500 operational intercepts in wartime conditions in Israel, reportedly among the leading contenders for a contract.

TimeOut London, a dining and entertainment guide in the British capital, recently listed Barbary, part of the Jerusalem-based Machneyuda restaurant group, as the first of its top 100 restaurants. The article accompanying the ranking said Barbary has “taken the ancient recipes from across North Africa (from the one-time Barbary Coast) and the Middle East that have gone on to influence food in today’s Israeli kitchen, then reimagined them for 2016.”

Sending a signal of unhappiness with Iran is understandable, particularly given what Iran is doing in Syria and throughout the Middle East. But our aim at this point should be to isolate Iran, not ourselves. We want the world riveted on Iran’s bad behaviors, and not what some of our allies will see as ours.