Islamist Militants Aim to Redraw Map of the Middle East

Governments Under Siege as ISIS Seeks to Impose Vision of Single Radical Islamist State

By Bill Spindle and Gerald F. Seib, WSJ
June 12, 2014 8:43 p.m. ET

At an annual security conference in Israel this week, the head of the military showed pictures of two long-dead diplomats.

Mark Sykes, an Englishman, and François Georges-Picot, a Frenchman, secured their place in history by cutting a deal that drew the borders of the modern Middle East.

The point of recalling the men: It suddenly appears those century-old borders, and the Middle Eastern states they defined, are being stretched and possibly erased.

"This entire system is disintegrating like a house of cards that starts to collapse," Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz said.

(More here.)