Tag: invasion

IDF Faces a Harsh Reality in Southern Gaza
Health

IDF Faces a Harsh Reality in Southern Gaza

Khan Younis, GazaWhat is happening in southern Gaza—and as important, what isn’t happening—threatens to leave the Middle East violently unstable for years. The battle for Khan Younis is forcing Israel to face a harsh reality: Hamas likely won’t be totally annihilated. And Israel’s two goals, killing Hamas’s leaders and rescuing all the hostages, are coming into contradiction.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
The Peril of Abandoning Ukraine
Business

The Peril of Abandoning Ukraine

With money for Ukraine running out, there is much talk in Congress about the U.S. southern border but scant attention to menacing developments inside Russia. If aid is cut off and Ukraine is forced to accept a Russian victory, the result won’t be peace but Russian preparation for a new war.The war in Ukraine activated the Soviet totalitarian psychological inheritance in Russia, which was partially dormant but never disappeared. Freed of the restraints imposed by Western ties, Russia is more dangerous than it has been since the height of the Cold War. Militarization is being matched by a surge in nationalist fanaticism. Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Don’t Count on Economic Woes to Deter China
Health

Don’t Count on Economic Woes to Deter China

Nov. 28, 2023 12:54 pm ETDuring his September trip to Vietnam, President Biden dismissed a reporter who asked for his thoughts on the threat the Chinese Communist Party poses to Taiwan. “I think China has a difficult economic problem right now,” Mr. Biden said. “I don’t think it’s going to cause China to invade Taiwan. And matter of fact, the opposite—it probably doesn’t have the same capacity that it had before.”Mr. Biden’s response perhaps explains why his administration’s China policy has veered away from competition and toward accommodation. The hope is that Beijing’s economic woes will make it more conciliatory. But that assumption badly misunderstands the power-hungry nature of the Chinese Communist Party and the lessons of history.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All R...
The Real Reason Iran Hates Israel
World

The Real Reason Iran Hates Israel

The Gaza War has led to another debate about what motivates Iran’s ruling elite. Washington has proffered primarily one realist theme: The mullahs wanted to disrupt the diplomacy aimed at Israeli-Saudi normalization, so they helped Hamas unleash a war to awaken the Arab street. Confronted with popular anger, the Arab potentates, they thought, would retreat.But this ignores a fundamental motivation of Iran’s theocracy: anti-Semitism. At least three generations of radical Iranian clerics have viewed Israel as illegitimate, usurping sacred Islamic lands in the name of a pernicious ideology advanced by history’s most devilish and stubborn people. Using the language of French Marxism, they call Israel a Western “colonial-settler state,” and they believe Jews guide American imperialism in the M...
Putin Rewrites History to Justify His Dependence on China
Business

Putin Rewrites History to Justify His Dependence on China

Vladimir Putin has typically presented himself as a Russian nationalist, so his recent foray into the Middle Ages must have surprised his supporters. In a speech on Nov. 3, Mr. Putin lauded the Mongol rulers of the Golden Horde, the successor state to Genghis Khan’s empire, for saving Russian lands from Western influences. Until now, Russians saw the 2½ centuries of Mongol rule as a period of national humiliation, a yoke that arrested the country’s development and accounted for its perennial backwardness. In a dramatic reversal, Mr. Putin spun a new narrative to justify wrenching Russia away from Western values and toward a brutal autocratic rule. Throughout his 24 years in power, Mr. Putin developed a large imperial wardrobe, donning the mantles of various Russian rulers as it suited the...
Only the U.S. Can Restore World Order
Business

Only the U.S. Can Restore World Order

Chaos is spreading throughout the world as a direct consequence of America’s failure to deter Russia, Iran and China. The balance of power in key regions is faltering, leading to instability and global disorder. Like it or not, the U.S. is the only force that can restore equilibrium.In a global conflict, as the Yale political scientist Nicholas Spykman (1893-1943) observed, success or failure in one region has “immediate and determining effect on the others.” Spykman emphasized the importance of preventing the rise of hegemonic powers whose “principles and ideals are opposed to the whole course of Western civilization.” This effort to check power in key regions of the world has been a mainstay of American foreign policy since the Cold War. Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All...