Israel’s Ultra-Orthodox (haredi) community was in an uproar Wednesday following a ruling the previous day by the High Court of Justice annulling the government’s policy from 2015 regarding the issue of draft deferments for haredi 18 year old males allowing most to avoid military service. The ruling said the policy unfairly discriminates against non-heredi Israelis who are subject to the draft with almost no exceptions. The ruling gave the government one year to come up with a new policy before emergency regulations will be legally initiated which would make it much more difficult for widespread deferments to take place.

Israeli Prime Minister continued his tour of Latin America Tuesday evening, meeting with Argentinian President Mauricio Macri and speaking with reporters afterwards, saying among other things that “In the case of Iran, there have been stories about Israel’s purported position on the nuclear deal with Iran. Let me take this opportunity to clarify: I’ll be straight forward. This is a bad deal. Either fix it, or cancel it. This is Israel’s position.”

Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Lebanese Shi’ite terror militia Hezbollah, declared on Tuesday evening that his organization had “won the war in Syria” adding that “the rebels and their supporters’ project has failed.” He also blamed Israel, Sunni governments and the US for the war in Syria, saying “Since 2011, there has been an American-Israeli-Qatari-Saudi joint attempt to take out the resistance and terminate the [fight for] the Palestinian cause.”

Water tech and agricultural experts, entrepreneurs and government officials from around the world were in Tel Aviv on Tuesday for the opening of the 2017 Israeli Watec Conference. “Israel is really an example, first for the management of the water and the desalinization and recycling and to manage itself, for a place which didn’t have water, now Israel sells water to its neighbors. It’s a miracle,” said Italian Ministry of Environment official Paolo Sabbadini.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) issued a report Tuesday entitled “Education at a Glance 2017” which gave Israel poor marks in a number of areas. The report included statistics showing Israel spends significantly less per student and paid teachers much less than the OECD average. Classroom size was also much higher in Israel than the OECD average. However, Israel did better in some categories, including early childhood education and university graduation rates.

The consequences of the war in Syria; the military opportunism displayed across the region by Iran; and the ploys by China and Russia to chip away at American global standing lost through President Obama’s “strategic patience” bode major foundational shifts in the power equations of the Middle East. Vigilance and careful preparation are needed to face the coming upheaval.

The Arab world’s fifth poorest country, Jordan, has only a quarter of its adult population gainfully employed. Its accumulated debt represents nearly 100% of GDP and the Jordanian economy has been seriously afflicted by the arrival of 1.4 million Syrian refugees over the past few years.