(Free Press) Eli Lake - The end of Bashar al-Assad's tyranny in Syria was made possible not because President Biden had the foresight to unleash the Jewish state against America's enemies in the Middle East. It's because Israel defied Biden's efforts to restrain it. When Israel took the very steps that have weakened Iran and its proxies, it was greeted by threats and disapproval from Washington. Biden's approach has been to prevent regional escalation. That may sound sensible on the surface, but it has meant trying to limit Israel's war to a purely defensive one against Iran's proxies - one at a time - while preventing Israel from taking the fight to Iran, the patron of those proxies. It goes back to President Obama's policy of respecting Iran's regional ambitions. It turns out that another regional power - Israel - was able to extinguish much of Iran's vaunted "ring of fire," despite the warnings, arm-twisting, and weapon-shipment delays from the Biden administration. The Israelis did not have to "share" the region with a regime intent on dominating it. While the Washington foreign policy establishment had persuaded itself of the futility of fighting a regime dedicated to the destruction of the Jewish state, Israel could not afford that illusion. It demonstrated the fragility of Iran's imperium and the delusions about that imperium.
2024-12-10 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive