Where’s Iran? While Washington Focuses on Blaming Israel for Mideast Woes, It Practically Ignores the Real Problem, Tehran

As with the Waldo character, one needs to constantly ask where Iran is on America’s radar screen. While every step of Israel’s war on Hamas is analyzed, dissected, second-guessed, and red-lined, discussions about the root cause of all the Mideast upheaval — Tehran — are fast to disappear. President Biden dedicated 622 words to the Gaza war in his State of the Union speech last week. The 38-word paragraph he allotted to Iran was about one of its terrorist proxies, the Houthis. A formerly hot topic, the Islamic Republic’s race to build nuclear weapons, has evaporated into thin air even as the international agency that inspects it warns about its fast advancement. Tehran’s abuses at home went unmentioned in Mr. Biden’s address, as did direct and proxy Iranian attacks on American troops. In his most glaring omission, Mr. Biden failed to connect the dots between the mullahs, the Gaza war, the likely upcoming Israeli defensive war against Hezbollah, and, significantly, the likelihood of an all-out war that could ignite the entire Misdeast and force Americans to wage battle.“I’ve ordered strikes to degrade Houthi capabilities and defend U.S. forces in the region,” Mr. Biden said last Thursday. As yet, however, America has mostly refrained from going after Iranian targets, hitting Houthi sites instead and failing to deter attacks on Red Sea shipping. The Houthis attacked several ships near Yemen shores over the weekend. “Iran’s proxies have attacked Americans in Iraq and Syria over 170 times. We have responded 8 times,” Senator Cotton of Arkansas wrote last week on X. “Iran and its terror groups know President Joe Biden and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin won’t stand up to them.”Beyond the proxies, the Islamic Republic’s leadership hardly pays attention to Washington. On Monday, Moscow announced the launch of a joint naval exercise in the Gulf of Oman alongside the navies of Communist China and Iran, to “work out the safety of maritime economic activity.” Even as Mr. Biden attempts to micromanage Israel’s war in Gaza, Israelis are eying Iran’s maneuvering with growing trepidation. “One scenario Israel is preparing for is an infiltration from the east,” a former Israeli national security adviser, Meir Ben Shabbat, and a researcher at the Misgav institute, Yossi Mansharof, write Monday on Israel’s N12 website, adding the fear is that “Iran-backed Shiite, Iraqi, or Afghani terrorist cells will get in through Jordan from Iraq, aiming to commit an October 7-like attack.”Such an attack would fit well with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ strategy. For years, as America paid scant attention, the IRGC has created a “ring of fire” of proxies around Israel’s borders to attack when convenient for Tehran.On the first day of Islam’s holy month, Israel is beefing up troop presence on the Lebanese, Syrian, Egyptian, and Jordanian borders, fearing Tehran-inspired attacks. “We must prepare for an increase in terror during Ramadan,” the defense minister, Yoav Gallant, told elite IDF troops in the West Bank Monday. “Iran is working to up the severity of attacks by smuggling in many weapons” of a “high quality.”Yet, as of Monday, Washington had issued no direct threat to the Islamic Republic. No red lines were drawn, and Mr. Biden did not even offer a new diplomatic initiative in an attempt to blunt Tehran’s aggression. In contrast, as Mr. Biden sets out on the campaign trail, he has a lot to say about Israel.“It is a red line,” Mr. Biden told MSNBC over the weekend, warning against an IDF attack on Rafah, which could end the war by eliminating the Hamas leadership. He also threatened to deny Israel offensive weapons. His red line, Mr. Biden said, does not mean he’d stop sending defensive arms to the Israelis, who need the “Iron Dome to protect them.” In reality, even that system is now threatened by Washington’s International Trade Court, which recently issued sanctions against an Israeli company, Finkelstein Metals. The small family-owned firm in northern Israel produces brass, bronze, and copper alloy for the Israeli defense industry, including essential supplies for the Iron Dome system.The administration mostly refrains from praising the throngs of anti-regime Iranians who marked a record low participation level in the March 1 sham election — even after the mullahs urged them to vote. Yet, it has plenty to say about Israel’s internal politics. Rather than Supreme Leader Khamenei, it’s Prime Minister Netnanyahu who is portrayed as a major stumbling block to Mideast peace. “It’s important to distinguish and to not conflate the Israeli government with the Israeli people,” Vice President Harris said last week, notwithstanding the fact that Israeli governments get elected by the people more often than in most democracies. The Gaza war is raising passions, and in an election year Mr. Biden is attempting a delicate dance between supporters of Israel and fans of Hamas living in Michigan and elsewhere. Meanwhile, even as Washington fails to focus on the instigator of all Mideast wars, it is Iran that could hurt America — and dim Mr. Biden’s re-election prospects.

Where’s Iran? While Washington Focuses on Blaming Israel for Mideast Woes, It Practically Ignores the Real Problem, Tehran

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