The Wall Street Journal exclusively and convincingly reported on Sunday that Iran helped plot the ongoing military attack against Israel “over several weeks.” The facts of the Journal’s report utterly undercut Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s assertion over the weekend that there is no direct evidence of Iranian complicity in Hamas’s attack on Israel.

His denial is no longer plausible. It should by now be clear that U.S. foreign policy toward Iran needs a thorough reassessment.

The current policy is based on wishful thinking and false assumptions about Iran’s long-term involvement with Hamas, Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The Iranian-directed attack on Israel is part of a global plan intended to undermine U.S. national security by diminishing our most important ally in the region and sending a chilling message to partners worldwide that America is stumbling in the geopolitical landscape.

Events should induce President Biden, the State Department and all U.S. agencies to abandon the conviction that Iran is reformable. Iran cannot be appeased with monetary gifts, sanctions relief or nuclear concessions. In fact, all of these gestures have been and are counterproductive. In fact, the carrot-and-stick approach used since 2009 has been an all-around failure.

Unbeknownst to most Americans, the Biden administration has chosen only to partially enforce American sanctions against Iran.  This has allowed Iran to prosper through oil shipments to China in the naive hope that this will make Iran more willing to pause development of nuclear weapons. You can connect the dots from U.S. sanctions largesse and relief to Iranian monetary support of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah.

Not only must maximum sanctions be enforced, but America and the West need secondary sanctions against nations that circumvent them. Those who say that sanctions don’t work never tell you that we have not fully enforced them. They also make the mistake of using an impatient Western timeline to judge success.

As for U.S. policy concerning the Israeli situation in the south with Hamas, an American-designated terrorist organization, Biden’s initial unconditional rhetorical support must translate to long-term support of a sustained Israeli operation, particularly when the anti-Israel wing in Congress raises its voice to advocate for a ceasefire before Israel can accomplish its goals.

American goals should be aligned with Israel’s regarding Hamas and, more importantly, the Iranian puppet-masters behind it. President Barack Obama tried creating “daylight” between the U.S. and Israel, to endear ourselves to the Iranian dictatorship. The results of this experiment should by now be clear enough.

Unfortunately, educating a polarized America about the true nature of Hamas and why there is a war today is incredibly difficult. For example, a New York Times article referred to a “blockaded” Gaza without context, due to its editorial bent. When Israel left 100 percent of Gaza in 2005, the Palestinians could have chosen to become Hong Kong on the Mediterranean, with open borders and relations with Israel. Instead, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas chose terrorism and poverty.

That is why, for reference, the Times chooses not to educate readers with quotes from the Hamas Charter, a blatantly anti-Semitic document calling for the destruction of the Jewish state. From the beginning, The Times conflated Israeli civilian casualties with Palestinian terrorist totals, deliberately obscuring the facts of the conflict.

Can the administration swim against the tide, when the war becomes confusing and parties revert to their echo chambers? The truth is the first casualty of war, and already, parties are taking advantage of the fog of war to advance agendas.

Elliot Abrams’s advice in National Review offers a much better path. “It would be far better to see Republicans and Democrats realize and say the obvious: The world is a very dangerous place, and when our friends and allies are attacked, we will have their backs. That’s the message we want Hamas, Hezbollah, their backers in Iran, and their partners in Russia and China to receive.”

The only question now is whether Biden and Blinken can rise to the challenge, overcome partisan interests and entrenched thinking and reassess the U.S. relationship with Iran in a rational and fact-based manner.

Source : The Hill

The post Will the Iranian-Orchestrated Attack Against Israel Change Biden’s Iran Policy? appeared first on Policy Print.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is calling for new severe sanctions against Iran in response to attacks carried out by Hamas fighters against Israeli civilians over the weekend.   

U.S. deputy national security adviser Jonathan Finer said early Monday that Iran was “broadly complicit” in the Hamas attack on Israel over the weekend, and a spokesman for Hamas told the BBC Monday that Hamas had received support from Iran to conduct the attacks, which caught Israel Defense Forces off guard. 

McConnell, in a Wall Street Journal op-ed published Monday afternoon, called on Western allies to “reimpose extensive multilateral sanctions on Tehran.”

Specifically, he called on the United States and allies to deny Iranian planes the right to fly over their territory and to “impound the shipping vessels Iran uses to circumvent sanctions.” 

He also urged the United States and its allies to close Iranian banks with access to the West and “cease the Iranian operations of European businesses.” 

The call for harsh new sanctions was one of four steps McConnell urged in response to the terror attacks outside the Gaza Strip that have claimed the lives of hundreds of Israelis.  

McConnell said the Biden administration and members of Congress need to call out Hamas and its supporters directly and stay away from neutral language urging “both sides” to de-escalate the situation.  

And he said the administration needs to move quickly to provide military aid and intelligence to Israel’s defense forces to “target and destroy” Hamas militants, whom he denounced as “savages” responsible for killing women, children and the elderly. 

He said the administration should stop trying to cut the defense budget and urged Congress to pass an emergency defense spending supplemental to assist Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan.  

And he said the United States should put more focus on the threat posed by Iran, which he called “the world’s most active state sponsor of terror.” 

“The world has once again seen the face of evil. Those blessed to live in the democratic West must understand that this barbarism, like that we have witnessed in Russia’s war against Ukraine, threatens all of us. And the civilized world must offer Israel more than rhetorical solidarity,” he wrote in the op-ed published Monday afternoon.  

He argued that political leaders and policymakers should “distinguish between the aggressor and the victim” and warned against “calls for ‘both sides’ to de-escalate.” 

“Israel deserves the time and space to defend itself,” he wrote.  

The Republican leader repeated his call for Congress to pass an emergency spending package, which House Republicans stripped out of a government funding stopgap last month. 

“Congress has the opportunity this fall to provide emergency appropriations to the Defense Department so that it can assist partners like Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan, as well as invest in our own military capabilities,” he wrote.  

He said such a package should “include significant replenishment funding,” which allows the United States to expand and modernize its own weapons inventories and provide funding to expand the production of artillery munitions, missiles and “other essential defense technologies.”

On the subject of Iran, McConnell argued that policymakers need to do more to “recognize the deepening partnership between Tehran and Moscow,” noting the armed drones Iran shipped to Russia to attack Ukraine.

“The West should reimpose extensive multilateral sanctions on Tehran and deny Iranian planes overflight rights. Impound the shipping vessels Iran uses to circumvent sanctions. Close Iranian banks with access to the West, and cease the Iranian operations of European businesses,” he wrote.

“Treat Iranian officials like pariahs and sink Iranian naval boats that threaten international shipping,” the GOP leader added.  

Source : The Hill

The post McConnell Calls for Allies to Impose New Severe Sanctions Against Iran appeared first on Policy Print.