A Year That Will Live in Infamy | RealClearDefense
Iran s attack on October 7th for Hamas is a member of Iran s Axis of Resistance, not an independent actor sui generis opened up another front in the world crisis. Iran sought to have Hamas break through to the West Bank, triggering an intifada against Israel. With the IDF overstretched, Hezbollah would have assaulted from the north, a situation forestalled only by rapid Israeli mobilization and stout defense against Hamas initial incursion. Since that point, Iran has hoped to tie Israel down in a ring of conflicts. Hamas kidnapped over 240 hostages, placing in opposition Israel s strategic imperative to eliminate the threat from Gaza with the political demand to recover Israel, and lest we forget, American, citizens. It then activated its proxy network across the Middle East, attacking U.S. bases in the Levant, harassing international shipping in the Bab-el-Mandeb, and threatening Israel from Lebanon. For the past year, Israel has been engaged in a delicate strategic balancing act, seeking to deter Hezbollah in the north as it grinds down Hamas in Gaza. But all the while, international pressure on Israel has mounted, as Iran leverages the Islamist-Leftist partnership to question the Jewish State s basic right to national security.
Initially, the Biden administration s response seemed robust. It deployed an American carrier group to deter further Iranian intervention and gave Israel full-throated rhetorical support. This position evaporated by the end of 2023. Since December last year, the U.S. has accused Israel of obstructing ceasefire talks never mind that a ceasefire on Hamas and Iran s terms would amount to Israeli capitulation. It has restrained any Israeli attempt to impose cost on Iran in Lebanon. It has accused Israel of reckless escalation for any strategically creative offensive action. It has lifted sanctions on Iran and threatened to impose them on Israel. Most egregiously, it has insisted upon a fantastical two-state solution, ignoring the reality that the structure of Palestinian sovereignty the U.S. sponsored through the Oslo Accords, and the subsequent decay of Palestinian political authority into corrupt mafia-esque autocracy, guarantees a Hamas takeover of the West Bank if a State of Palestine is created today.
It is almost as if senior American policymakers see Iran as a reasonable actor drawn into a crisis beyond its control, and Israel as a bloodthirsty tyrannical regime. Never mind that the former country executes citizens for homosexuality and beats women to death for refusing to wear the hijab, while the latter holds regular elections and has a quintessentially democratic domestic political debate.
At this point, Israel has eliminated the threat from Hamas, while Ukraine has fought Russia to a bloody standstill. Israel s campaign against Hezbollah destroy communications, decapitate leadership, and neutralize enemy offensive capability is working despite the Biden administration s opposition. There is still time for the U.S. to recover strategically.
Seth Cropsey.