For the past 50 years, the nation's leading biodefense laboratory has been at the forefront of combatting infectious-disease threats to the United States. But the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), at Fort Detrick, Maryland, has been largely missing in action from the fight to contain the coronavirus. So far, more than 22,000 people in America have been diagnosed with the virus, and more than 280 have died from the respiratory disease associated with Covid-19. U.S. infection rates are likely to climb precipitously as more testing becomes available.

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Panic over coronavirus has spread throughout the Middle East even faster than the virus itself. But nowhere in this volatile region is the anxiety as broad and as deep as in Israel.

What war, terrorism and economic boycotts of Israel have failed to achieve, fear over Covid-19 seems to be accomplishing: New government measures to combat the virus are poised to isolate the Jewish state from much of the world and depress the region's most vibrant economy.

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Moments after Israeli television projected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the winner of the country's latest election, Israel's most popular satirical television show, Wonderful Country, broadcast a special edition. In the parody, the actor portraying Netanyahu—or "Bibi," to supporters and opponents alike—rode triumphantly onto the studio stage on a white donkey, an unsubtle parody of the ancient Jewish legend that this is how the messiah will enter Jerusalem. As he waved to the audience, a coterie of ecstatic religious figures danced in celebration around him.

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The most dangerous place to be a Jew in Europe today is France—that's the conclusion of an as-yet unpublished, two-year report on anti-Semitism in 11 European countries, conducted by former NYPD commissioner Raymond W. Kelly for Ronald S. Lauder, the former U.S. Ambassador to Austria.

Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, has donated heavily to efforts combatting anti-Semitism in Europe and the United States. He asked Kelly, New York's longest-serving police commissioner, to assess the growth of the anti-Semitism sweeping Europe and suggest practical ways to strengthen the security of Jewish communities and institutions.

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Few Americans have heard of Qaboos bin Said al-Said, the sultan of Oman. But when he died Friday at 79, the U.S. lost an invaluable interlocutor. In nearly 50 years on the throne, Qaboos time and again helped presidents navigate delicate diplomatic and military challenges.

The sultan kept such a low profile that the adjective "reclusive" was almost obligatory in articles about him. But when President Obama's efforts to restrict Iran's nuclear-weapons program stalled in 2012, the interview I had long requested was suddenly and mysteriously granted. Within days, I was seeing him for a second time—the first was in 1997—at Hisn Al Shomoukh palace, some 90 miles from Muscat, the capital.

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