Biden's 'Don't' Strategy
Plus: Starlink saves lives, prescient Norm MacDonald, and more...
Joe Biden's Iran approach: Last night, the Israeli military struck about 200 targets in and around Beirut, including at least one medical building. This was following Tuesday's attack on Israel from Iran, via almost 200 ballistic missiles; Hezbollah, the terrorist group Israel is fighting in Lebanon, is backed by Iran. It remains to be seen what type of response Israel will go with when fighting Iran directly, but in the meantime, the military seems intent on continuing its campaign in Lebanon. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu added yesterday that Israel is engaged in "a tough war against Iran's axis of evil."
President Joe Biden's response to all of this was to publicly signal that he would not support Israel if they decided to strike Iran's nuclear weapons development sites.
Back in April, when Iran and Israel exchanged missile strikes that were largely symbolic, Israel chose to strike near Isfahan, in northern Iran, close to Iran's nuclear facilities. This time around, top Israeli officials are signaling that they're considering a similar approach, though possibly more drastic.
"Israel may respond to Iran's major Tuesday ballistic missile attack by striking strategic infrastructure, such as gas or oil rigs, or by directly targeting Iran's nuclear sites, media reports said on Wednesday, citing Israeli officials," reports The Times of Israel. "Iran has significantly advanced its nuclear program since the Trump administration pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal," reports The Wall Street Journal. "It is the only non-nuclear weapons country to produce 60% enriched uranium and has enough near-weapons-grade nuclear fuel for around three bombs." In other words: Iran is close to having such capacity, and it is in Israel's best interest to attempt to cripple such infrastructure.
"The answer is no," said Biden, when asked if he would support an Israeli response targeted at the nuclear sites. "All seven of us agree that they have a right to respond, but they have to respond proportionally," the president said, referring to the group of seven countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.K., and the U.S.).
This is not so different from the Biden/Harris strategy that's been making the rounds: The policy of simply telling Hezbollah and its Iranian backers "Don't!" As in, "Don't escalate your attacks on Israel." (Just one problem: They keep doing so.)
I'm in total shock that Biden and Harris telling Iran "don't" didn't work pic.twitter.com/2OB9Z4IS5q
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) October 1, 2024
"Netanyahu's government—along with other Israeli leaders—has threatened reprisals against Iran. Yair Lapid, an Israeli opposition leader and former prime minister, said Iran must pay 'a significant and heavy' price, while Naftali Bennett, one of Netanyahu's rivals, called for Israel to 'destroy Iran's nuclear program, its central energy facilities,'" reports Bloomberg.
Domestic politics implications: Perhaps the most awkward thing about the timing is that Biden's handpicked replacement jockeying for the role of president has so very little foreign policy experience. The election between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris looks awfully close, but will Harris' lack of foreign policy experience become an even greater liability over the next month as the situation in the Middle East heats up further?
Nobody knows how this will play out, but some commentators are saying that Iran is no longer positioned to hide behind its proxies, given that Israel has now made a dent in both groups.
"Ironically, it was the threat of reprisals by Hezbollah and, to a lesser extent, Hamas, that was supposed to help dissuade Israel from any direct attack on Iran," notes The Wall Street Journal. "Now, however, Israel's success in degrading the two militant organizations, both considered terrorist groups by the U.S., has set the stage for a potentially bigger hit."
"Hezbollah and Hamas are paralyzed temporarily and Iran is exposed," Bennett tells the Journal. "Right now, they're naked, they don't have the ability to protect themselves. Israel has the greatest opportunity in 50 years to change the face of the Middle East."
Scenes from New York: Who is Mayor Eric Adams' lawyer? Meet Alex Spiro. A sampling: "Spiro is one of the city's most familiar stock characters—a brawling, meticulously groomed, in-your-face attorney whose client list draws from the upper heights of the world's wealthiest and most notorious. Adams, of course, is another kind of New York fixture: the made-for-the-tabloids mayor trailed by corruption allegations. The fact that they found each other amid Adams's historic indictment for bribery and fraud is probably not surprising. Spiro has represented Jay-Z, Mick Jagger, and Alec Baldwin, all to success. But while Spiro's confrontational style has brought him a book of clients that would be the envy of any defense attorney, the Adams case is proving to be wildly unpredictable, and it could humble lawyer and client alike."
QUICK HITS
- "The last four years have turned out to be somewhat of a golden age for organized labor. Workers have won tough organizing campaigns against Volkswagen and Amazon, bold new contracts have secured better wages in dozens of industries, and a labor union-friendly administration has cracked down on wage theft and restrictive employment agreements," writes Lee Fang on Substack. "But the winning streak could face a major test with the International Longshoremen's Association's decision to close many of the country's most important ports."
- Jacobin writer theorizes that normal Americans hate the fact that people can make good money without having earned a college degree. Pretty sure that ain't it, chief:
I think it's probably the "threatening to shut down half the economy" thing that bothers normal Americans https://t.co/1qUtmEAfwQ
— Liz Wolfe (@LizWolfeReason) October 3, 2024
- Why can't vice presidential contender Tim Walz figure out that so-called "hate speech" is perfectly legal?
- Tyler Cowen interviews Kyla Scanlon (guest on Just Asking Questions).
- Speaking of: This episode with Erika Sanzi—critiquing the school curriculum battles, the "book-banning" arguments, and that terrible book, Gender Queer—is getting tons of love. Check it out if you haven't already!
- Always down for some anti–Jones Act posting:
The stupidity of the Jones Act incentivizes companies to do insane things pic.twitter.com/yVkymRXfvL
— Alec Stapp (@AlecStapp) October 2, 2024
- True:
Had the FCC not illegally revoked the SpaceX Starlink award, it would probably have saved lives in North Carolina.
Lawfare costs lives. https://t.co/FF0ugexP2g
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 2, 2024
- It's my newsletter and I can Norm MacDonald if I want to! Enjoy this old clip that made its way across my desk, and this one where he jokes on The View—24 years ago!—about Democrats stealing the election and Bill Clinton murdering people and then they get super mad and tell him to shut up over and over again.
