WALL STREET JOURNAL
How Israel Turned the Mideast Around
Barton Swaim
December 13, 2024

…Just as Ukraine wouldn’t have troubled Russia if Russia hadn’t invaded it, Israel wouldn’t have decapitated Hezbollah, ravaged Iran’s air defenses, and destroyed Tehran’s client in Gaza, Hamas, absent the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks. Unlike Ukraine, however, Israel has been at war with America’s foes since its founding in 1948. Critics used to complain about the “Israel lobby” and its supposed ability to bend U.S. policy to its will. A saner case could be made that Israel is constantly doing America’s dirty work at immense cost to itself. Its war against Hamas and Hezbollah isn’t some regional conflict over disputed territory but a battle in a worldwide cold war between an alliance of capitalist democracies—badly led at the moment by the U.S.—and a confederation of socialist anti-American dictatorships. READ MORE