Biden’s ‘Don’t’ Diplomacy

Will Biden’s famous “don’t” work better in deterring Israel than in deterring Israel’s enemies? In a call to Prime Minister Netanyahu, the president reportedly said “you got a win, take the win.” The idea that not losing is a victory guides Mr. Biden’s war strategies in Ukraine and at Gaza. He now declares that America would have no role in any military response to an unprecedented Iranian attack of more than 300 projectiles. That is, at least to us, shocking. We get that Israel might have its own calculus. Reports from Jerusalem indicate that Mr. Netanyahu himself held back on a plan to immediately attack Iran. Just the other week the Economist magazine declared “Israel Alone.” The last 24 hours, though, found America, Britain, France, and, even Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and other Arab countries helping Israel’s astonishing success in intercepting 99 percent of the incoming barrage. That’s no small thing.In lieu of military action, Mr. Biden tacitly promises a return to global pressure on Tehran. The United Nations Security Council is meeting this afternoon on Israel’s request. Will America, France, or Britain pull the plug on the 2015 nuclear deal, invoking the “snapback” mechanism that would trigger international sanctions on Iran? Will Mr. Biden renew the oil embargo that he stopped enforcing in hope of reviving that deal?The reason Arab countries sided with Israel is not a sudden outbreak of philosemitism. No, Iran has long tried to undermine the Hashemite Kingdom and add Jordan to its “ring of fire” around the Jewish state. Riyadh knows that Israeli technological, intelligence, and military prowess are the only viable pushback against Iran’s ambitions. The region’s Arabs could see this morning how Israel intercepted an Iranian missile over Al-Aqsa mosque.The only person Iran injured was a 10-year-old Arab girl. So who is defending whom, and who is attacking Islam’s sacred sites? Iran-backed Hamas launched “Al-Aqsa Flood” in hopes of uniting all of Israel’s enemies. On April 1 Israel killed Mohammed Reza Wahedi and other terrorists near the Iranian embassy at Damascus. At Wahedi’s funeral, Iranian officials boasted of his “strategic role” in planning and executing the October 7 massacre. Will that put paid to the attempts to blame Israel for starting the violence? That claim is as ludicrous as Iran’s suggestion that Israel violated the sanctity of its diplomatic installation. The Islamic Republic, remember, was launched by ransacking the American embassy at Tehran. Israel did not escalate on April 1. Iran did, on October 7. The attack yesterday and today on Israel from Iran broke another taboo with direct attack on Israel from Iranian soil.That the Israelis and their allies managed to fend off the attack with nary a damage is impressive, but a moot point. Israel has the duty to ensure that Iran can never repeat such aggression. Mr. Biden’s “don’t” is unlikely, now or in the long run, to stop Israel from hitting the Iran’s missile factories, its top commanders, or even — or especially — its nuclear installations. With or without Mr. Biden’s backing Iran’s aggression can’t be allowed to go on. Which brings us back to what might be called Mr. Biden’s “‘Don’t’ Diplomacy.” We have long since come to the point in the Middle East where we see a role for diplomacy as only a last resort. The logical priority for America is to avoid, at all costs, standing between Israel and her enemies — or otherwise let light show between Washington and Jerusalem. And to take pride that America and Israel and their allies can appear together in arms.

Biden’s ‘Don’t’ Diplomacy

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