Why Not Victory?

The Biden administration chastizes Israel for not showing proper restraint. It keeps mewling about a unilateral cease fire. It recommends proportionality, as though that has even been a tactic in warfare. 

Yet, it never talks about winning. It never suggests that Israel should be allowed or encouraged to win its war against Iran and its proxies.

Eli Lake explains the failure of Biden administration policy.

So Biden arms the Jewish state and professes his support for Israel’s right to defend itself, but there is always a “but.” Israel has a right to self-defense, but it must do more to protect the Palestinian civilians Hamas uses as human shields. Israel has a right to self-defense, but it should not escalate its war against Hezbollah—even as the terror group fires rockets and missiles over Lebanon’s southern border. Israel has a right to self-defense, but it must participate in ceasefire talks that Hamas has boycotted. Israel has a right to self-defense, but there is no way it can enter its enemy’s last stronghold in Gaza without unacceptable casualties. Put another way, Israel has a right to fight its enemies to a tie.

And he adds an important point, via the Financial Times, namely that after October 7 Israel was ready to attack the head of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrollah, but that the Biden administration insisted that Israel not do so.

The flaw in the reasoning behind the Biden administration policy is quite simple. Roger Simon identified it in a recent article. Simply put, Biden has been willing to sacrifice everything in order to resurrect Barack Obama’s Iran Nuclear Deal. That this was a horribly bad deal, never crosses their minds. It makes you think that Obama is pulling the strings in the Biden administration.

And yet, while pretending that Israel has the right to defend itself, Biden insists that the Iranian nuclear facilities are out of bounds. 

Simon explains:

Notably, other than the mullahs themselves and their Republican Guard, the man most responsible for what happened Tuesday was Barack Obama.  Our 44th president was the one who lifted sanctions, opening the economic spigot for Iran to become the world biggest state sponsor of terrorism and finance violence across the Middle East and the globe. 

Why he did this, when Iran’s client Hezbollah had already exploded the truck bomb at the Buenos Aires Jewish community center that killed 85 and injured hundreds more, not to mention perpetrated fatal attacks on a U.S. Embassy and a Marine barracks that killed hundreds of our citizens, is a question with an answer few in the Democrat Party are willing to confront or even think about.

Nevertheless,  President Donald Trump wisely shut the spigot down until President Joe Biden, Obama’s slavish lieutenant, opened it again and we are where we are, demanding ceasefires at every turn almost by reflex, thereby guaranteeing the preservation of our evil adversaries.

Of course, Tommy Friedman at the New York Times has been leading the march toward surrender. He blames the Israeli Prime Minister and proposes a two state solution, the type that no one else wants. 

More importantly, Times columnists Bret Stephens wrote yesterday that it is time to help Israel win the conflict.

As for the case against Iran, Stephens explains it:

Iran presents an utterly intolerable threat not only to Israel but also to the United States and whatever remains of the liberal international order we’re supposed to lead. It is waging a war on unarmed commercial ships through its Houthi proxies in Yemen. It has used other proxies to attack and kill American troops stationed in allied countries. It encouraged or ordered Hezbollah to fire nearly 9,000 munitions into Israel, supposedly in solidarity with Hamas, before Israel finally began retaliating with full force last month. And it appears to be seeking Donald Trump’s assassination, according to reporting by The Times — a direct assault on American democracy, no matter how anyone feels about the former president.

What does Stephens propose?

Iran currently produces many of its missiles at the Isfahan missile complex. At a minimum, Biden should order it destroyed, as a direct and proportionate response to its aggressions. There is a uranium enrichment site near Isfahan, too.

Elsewhere, Iran’s economy relies overwhelmingly on a vast and vulnerable network of pipelines, refineries and oil terminals, particularly on Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf. The administration can put the regime on notice that the only way it will save this infrastructure from immediate destruction is by ordering Hezbollah and the Houthis to stand down and to pressure Hamas to release its Israeli hostages. We can’t simply go on trying to thwart Iran by defensive means only — fighting not to win but merely not to lose.

I trust you noticed the flaw in this reasoning. Rather than suggest that the Israelis attack Iranian facilities, Stephens recommends that Biden do so. The problem is, there is effectively no chance that the Biden administration will grow enough courage to do as much.

The Wall Street Journal editorializes about the Biden fecklessness:

Even before he talks with Mr. Netanyahu, the President engages in public lobbying aimed at blocking a sovereign state and American ally from deciding on its own what is the best response to a direct military attack on its territory. Iran attacked Israel for the second time in six months, but Mr. Biden tells Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that the U.S. will help the regime protect its most prized and threatening military asset.

This is the thinking that has led to the collapse of U.S. deterrence on Mr. Biden’s watch. Enemies rely on him to come to their defense by restraining allies from responding to aggression. Mr. Biden didn’t even wait to keep Iran guessing.

What happened to the “severe consequences” for Iran the Administration promised Tuesday? On Wednesday Mr. Biden mentioned new sanctions, but he won’t even enforce the oil sanctions already on the books.

Obviously, there are no limits to Biden administration incompetence or cowardice.

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