Military chiefs from nearly 50 nations around the world were convened at Andrews Air Force base in Maryland on Monday to discuss what will be on the “day after” the Islamic State terrorist organization, also known as ISIS or “Da’esh,” is defeated.
Israel was not among them, according to The Hill, although it is not clear whether Israel was simply not invited, or whether Israel chose not to send a representative to the gathering, perhaps because Monday was the Jewish festival of Sukkot and it is the official policy of the State of Israel to observe all Jewish holidays abroad as well as at home, regardless of personal observance.
If the latter, the American military leadership would have been aware of the issue as this is not the first time a conference or top-level meeting has ever been scheduled with the State of Israel at this time of year. Moreover, it is entirely possible that other people involved in the gathering may also have been Jewish.
U.S. Marine General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, opened the conference with the information that he expects to see success in the “next coming months” in Mosul and Raqqa, the respective ISIS capitals in Iraq and Syria.
Dunford was quoted by The Hill as saying military leaders need to think about the “second and third order effects” of defeating the group in those countries, and “where we will see the challenges,” as he put it. He added that military chiefs would provide briefs on their counter terror efforts to enhance transregional cooperation and a common understanding of transregional terror threats, noting that “one region affects other regions,” before the conference broke up into work groups.
The nations who were in attendance included, in alphabetical order:
Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Indonesia, Italy, Jordan, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom.