The radical left likes to lecture America about “teachable moments,” and the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar certainly qualifies.
But its lessons are not the kind the left enjoys.
To start with, Israel’s elimination of the terror mastermind reveals that Joe Biden’s long string of foreign policy failures remains undisturbed by success.
The law of averages holds that sooner or later the big guy will get something right, but, fortunately for the rest of us, his tenure is almost up.
Like so many others who have spent their entire lives in Washington, Biden is often wrong but never in doubt.
A further lesson is that neither he nor Vice President Kamala Harris is capable of leading a successful war against terrorists.
They don’t understand the nature of the enemy and refuse to learn.
Risk averse to a fault, they have rendered America’s awesome military power toothless because our adversaries know they will do anything to avoid using it.
Afghanistan remains Exhibit A.
Biden and Harris underscored their unfitness by repeatedly demanding that Israel not invade Rafah, the city where Sinwar was killed Thursday.
They warned it would be a mistake and turn the city into a slaughterhouse for civilians.
Their counsel, often delivered publicly so as to pressure Israel and appease the antisemites Democrats are courting for November, included threats to halt or delay military aid to America’s most important regional ally.
Power matters
This is what passes for wisdom in much of the western world, and naturally Europe lined up behind the folly.
The United Nations, which operates as if it still subscribes to its infamous decree that “Zionism is racism,” was only too happy to echo Biden’s mistake.
The good news, of course, is that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu didn’t obey their nonsense.
If he had, Sinwar would still be alive and directing what remains of his armed fighters.
He also would be calling the shots on what to do about the hostages and a potential cease-fire.
And therein lies the real teachable moment: Terrorists, dictators and autocrats respect and fear only those who have power and a willingness to use it.
They see groveling and desperate pleas for peace as invitations to attack.
Never is that more obvious than with the enemies trying to eliminate Israel.
The Jewish state is a tiny country, surrounded by Arab nations, and yet its enemies insist it must be destroyed.
To those who remain committed to that cause 76 years after modern Israel’s birth, there is no olive branch, no sweet inducements sufficient to get them to lay down their guns and bombs.
Even the offers for a separate Palestinian state were rejected because that would mean recognizing Israel and accepting its right to exist on its ancient homelands.
Although Israelis are deeply divided politically, they have survived — and thrived — because they are united around the fundamental realization that they have no other place to go.
The Oct. 7 invasion, the deadliest day for Jews since the end of the Holocaust, hardened that understanding.
So, too, did the outrageous displays of antisemitism in America, London and much of Europe.
Apparently it hasn’t yet dawned on those young college Democrats that Gaza was a self-governed Palestinian state that Hamas turned into a gangster-run terrorism state.
Much of it is now rubble because evil men like Sinwar could not abide living next to Jews.
The depths of his depravity are unfathomable.
In prison for more than two decades after killing four Palestinians he viewed as Israeli collaborators and two Israeli soldiers, Sinwar developed a brain tumor.
Israeli doctors removed it, saving his life — and yet he proved to be savagely ungrateful by orchestrating numerous terror attacks, culminating with the Oct. 7 massacre of more than 1,200 people.
Released from prison in 2011 as part of a lopsided exchange program, Sinwar often said the two-state solution was never going to be acceptable because Israel had no right to exist.
‘War is not over’
His death, then, is a just cause for celebration.
But if you thought being so embarrassingly wrong would humble the White House bumblers, think again.
No sooner had Sinwar been identified than the daffy Dem duo reverted to their calls for Israel to stop the war.
“It is time for this war to end,” Biden said on Thursday in Berlin.
He said he called Netanyahu and told him to “move on,” whatever that means.
Harris fell back on her talking points, too, saying “it is time for the day after to begin,” meaning the war should now end.
In other words, they learned nothing about how Israel should prosecute the war against Hamas, Hezbollah and ultimately Iran —even though those three are also sworn enemies of America.
Their desperation is especially strong now because Biden and Harris want to declare peace in hopes it would help them in the election, even if it’s merely a prelude to the next war.
Netanyahu remains clear-eyed: “This war is not over,” he responded to the pleas for immediate cease-fire after the killing of Sinwar.
If anything, he was understandably more determined after Hezbollah aimed a drone at his house.
It failed and there were no injuries.
The fact is that, with Hamas still holding nearly 100 hostages in Gaza, two-thirds of whom are thought to be alive, and its armed goons looting humanitarian aid and killing Israeli soldiers, peace is not close to breaking out.
So, too, with Hezbollah, which continues to fire rockets into Israeli cities and towns, making it impossible for 60,000 Israelis to return to their towns along the border with Lebanon.
‘Peace at any price’
Because Iran is ultimately calling the shots, Israel’s next big decision is how it responds to the mullahs’ direct missile attacks —and Biden is already imposing restraints.
He reportedly extracted a promise from Netanyahu that the response will not include attacks on Iran’s oil fields or nuclear facilities.
But that would effectively leave Iran free to keep collecting billions from oil sales and free to finish building a nuke and the missile to deliver it.
After that, Israel would be at the mercy of its sworn enemy, which is why I suspect Netanyahu will not accept that outcome.
Despite Biden’s demands, he has often said Israel cannot allow Iran to get a nuke, and there is no reason to believe he has changed his mind now.
Although it’s impossible to predict how this crisis ends, we can be sure it will end badly if Biden and Harris dictate Israel’s actions.
They are the embodiment of the “peace at any price” crowd, and their ideas on foreign policy are no more reliable than tan their ideas about to build a booming economy and how to secure the border.
They have failed America in virtually everything they touched, so let us hope their departure comes before they can do any more damage at home or to Israel.
