While the US and the West have focused recent attention on condemning Israel, Russia's President Putin has been a busy boy. He has announced a peace process that might stop, if not resolve, the civil war in Syria. Elevating Russia's standing in the Middle East, it is a process in which the US and the West are excluded.

Israeli analysts look at the fall of Aleppo and conclude that America "has no real say in the next chapter of [Syria's] horrific war." Instead, the US Democratic party is using Syrian bloodshed to delegitimize the President-elect. One purpose? To prevent a resolution in Syria that would trump Obama's failure.

With ISIS under attack by the Russian coalition in Syria and the US coalition in Iraq, it should be on the run. Instead it is on the offense, launching a terror attack in Cairo yesterday. That attack could be the first strike in Islamic State's promised holiday terror campaign throughout the Middle East - and beyond.

Libya's General is in Moscow seeking help in the fight against ISIS. For his part, Putin may be asking for a new military base on Europe's southern doorstep. The prize that everybody seeks? Libya's Mediterranean oil fields.

Genuine warmth between Israel's leaders and visiting Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev did not provoke Jerusalem to compromise the nation's mandate to defend itself. Just the opposite. "We are determined to do two things," Netanyahu told Mevedev.