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On The Threshold of a Cease Fire
By Sherwin Pomerantz
Prime Minister Netanyahu set out Israel’s redlines for a hostage and Gaza ceasefire deal ahead of a critical Doha summit on the matter scheduled for Wednesday, which will be led by CIA Director William Burns. “Any deal will allow Israel to resume fighting until all of the objectives of the war have been achieved,” the Prime Minister’s Office stated.
In the past, Netanyahu has explained that those goals are the elimination of Hamas and the return of the remaining 120 hostages, who were seized nine months ago during the October 7th massacre. His office reiterated that chief point and four others as mediating countries. Qatar and Egypt together with the United States – have appeared to break the month-long deadlock in the negotiations as talks resumed last weekend. Netanyahu “is continuing to insist on the principles that have already been agreed to by Israel,” the PMO said.
Burns is to meet with the Qatari prime minister and the Israeli and Egyptian intelligence chiefs on Wednesday in Doha, said a source familiar with the issue who asked not to be further identified. An Israeli team is also expected to be in Egypt this week.
The PMO stressed that Israel would stand firm in those talks on the point that “There will be no smuggling of weapons to Hamas from Egypt to the Gaza border” as it laid out its second redline. The third was “there will be no return of thousands of armed terrorists to the northern Gaza Strip.” Fourthly, the PMO said, “Israel will maximize the number of living hostages who will be released from Hamas captivity.”
Lastly, it referred to the three-phased hostage deal unveiled on May 31 by US President Biden and reaffirmed its commitment to it, but provided its understanding of the deal. “The plan that has been agreed to by Israel and which has been welcomed by President [Joe] Biden will allow Israel to return hostages without infringing on the other objectives of the war,” the PMO stated.
It also pushed back at criticism over its military campaign against the remaining Hamas battalions in Rafah, stating that Netanyahu’s “steadfast position against the attempt to halt IDF action in Rafah is what has led Hamas to enter negotiations.”
Hamas last week said it would set aside one of the key stumbling blocks to the deal, which had been its insistence that Israel must agree to a permanent ceasefire and a withdrawal of the IDF from Gaza.
The Israel Defense Forces launched a new operation early Monday morning in southern neighborhoods of Gaza City, following what it said was intelligence showing Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad infrastructure and terror operatives in the area. Palestinian media outlets reported that Israeli ground forces advanced into Gaza City’s Tel al-Hawa neighborhood, following a large wave of airstrikes. Tel al-Hawa is located in the south of Gaza City, close to the Netzarim Corridor, where the military maintains a semi-permanent presence.
Israeli troops were also still battling Hamas in the Shejaiya neighborhood, located in the east of Gaza City.
In a statement on Monday morning, the military said it was also operating at UNRWA’s headquarters, located near the Rimal neighborhood, where the IDF previously found significant Hamas tunnel infrastructure and killed and captured numerous gunmen. The IDF said it had intelligence of new Hamas and Islamic Jihad activity and infrastructure in Gaza City, including weapon caches and detention and interrogation rooms used by the terror groups.
The negotiations that are under way this week, today in Cairo and later in the week in Doha, could result in a cease fire and return of a number of hostages. The sense on the street here is for the government to go for it with the knowledge that any time things start to unravel we can go in and clean up the mess yet again. Yet the Prime Minister seems to be holding out for a full acceptance of his terms by Hamas. In my opinion this is because of pressure being brought by the far-right portion of his coalition who he has to keep happy else the government will fall and we go to new elections.
Any way you analyze that it comes out that the Prime Minister is sacrificing an opportunity to stop the fighting and regain our hostages in order to retain his coalition rather than what might be best for the country. If that turns out to be the case, it is a damning indictment of his leadership. What a terrible place for us to find ourselves.
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Parkinson’s Expert Visited the White House Eight Times in Eight Months
The White House has said that President Biden has no signs of the disease and that there has been no reason to update the most recent testing, which was conducted in February.
Not age, more incapacity.
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Iranian election interpretation:
On Friday, the people of Iran went to the polls and elected the “moderate reformer” candidate Masoud Pezeshkian, defeating Ayatollah Khamenei’s favored candidate, Saeed Jalili, in a race to replace former President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash on May 19th. The election saw a surge in turnout, with 53 per cent of the population voting for him.
Pezeshkian, a 69 year old former heart surgeon , has promised to “open up to the West”, and to “bring new hope for diplomacy with Iran.” However, he has said, “With the one exception of Israel.”
What are the implications for the Iranian nuclear program? How will this effect the proxy war that Iran has been waging against the state of Israel, using Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis? How much autonomy will he actually have from Ayatollah Khameini? How much autonomy from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps will Mr. Pezeshkian actually have? Will Mr. Pezeshkian upend the Islamic Republic’s relationship with Russia, China and North Korea?
Is Mr. Pezeshkian simply a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” vetted by the Iranian Guardian Council, or an actual reformer?
Here to answer those questions and more is Benham Ben Taleblu.
About this speaker: Behnam Ben Taleblu is a senior fellow at FDD where he focuses on Iranian security and political issues. Behnam previously served as a research fellow and senior Iran analyst at FDD. Prior to his time at FDD, Behnam worked on non-proliferation issues at an arms control think-tank in Washington. Leveraging his subject-matter expertise and native Farsi skills, Behnam has closely tracked a wide range of Iran-related topics including: nuclear non-proliferation, ballistic missiles, sanctions, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the foreign and security policy of the Islamic Republic, and internal Iranian politics. Frequently called upon to brief journalists, congressional staff, and other Washington-audiences, Behnam has also testified before the U.S. Congress and Canadian Parliament.
His analysis has been quoted in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Fox News, The Associated Press, and Agence France-Presse, among others. Additionally, he has contributed to or co-authored articles for Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Fox News, The Hill, War on the Rocks, The National Interest, and U.S. News & World Report. Behnam has appeared on a variety of broadcast programs, including BBC News, Fox News, CBS Interactive, C-SPAN, and Defense News. Behnam earned his MA in International Relations from The University of Chicago, and his BA in International Affairs and Middle East Studies from The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs.
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Is there an answer?
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Is God an anti-Semite? - opinion
Since there is no good reason not to like us, is God’s disfavor toward the Jews something akin to the United Nations or the European Union, which just despise us irrationally?
By Rabbi Shmuley.
Traveling in Normandy for the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings, I chanced upon many Israelis in Paris who saw my yarmulke and walked over to say hello.
Not a single one wore a kippah but baseball caps. “Europa malei b’anti-Shemim – Europe is filled with anti-Semites.” So what? I asked. The one thing no one would call Israelis are cowards. “You guys are brave enough to fight Hamas but you’re too scared to go to the Louvre with a yarmulke?”
“For 2,000 years, Jews have been murdered in Europe. They’re all anti-Semites.”
For all the courage that Israelis exhibit – and there is no braver nation on earth – they still live in a Jewish bubble in the Middle East and when they venture out to a continent that they are convinced detests Jews, they want to avoid confrontation.
But what proves that Europe is antis-Semitic? Why, they have been murdering Jews for 2,000 years, right?
People demonstrate in solidarity with Israel and against antisemitism, in Berlin (credit: Christian Mang/Reuters)People demonstrate in solidarity with Israel and against antisemitism, in Berlin (credit: Christian Mang/Reuters)
By the same token, might we say, God forbid, that the Creator is none too fond of Jews as well? After all, isn’t He the one who allowed Jews to be murdered for two millennia?
Let me be clear. I do not believe in God. Rather, I am certain there is a God. I am certain that God is the Creator of heaven and earth, Master of the Universe, and Controller of all history. Maimonides said there is no commandment to believe in God but to know that God exists.
Questioning not our faith, but if our God likes us
I do know. It is a mathematical certainty. And October 7 did not shake my faith in God even one iota. But what it did do is make me question whether God likes Jews.
What does God want from us Jews? Why is it that He has seemingly broken so many promises to us? He says He loves us. Yet he allows us to be gang-raped, beheaded, disemboweled, slaughtered, and cremated. Might the Europeans not make the same argument? We love you to death!
Yes, He promised an ingathering of the exiles, and while the Messiah has not yet come, with the miraculous State of Israel, that has largely occurred. But October 7 shattered the founding principle of a Jewish state, namely, that once Jews are in their land, protected by their army, there would never again be mass murder of Jews or anything resembling a holocaust.
We waited for Israel for 2,000 years. Did God have to shatter the promise of security in our land so decisively?
Many argue that God has a plan and good things are going to emerge from October 7. Nissim Louk, the father of martyred Shani, said in our public discussion in New York, where I dedicated a Torah to my mother and his daughter’s sacred memory, that “Shani” means change, and “great and positive change will result from this massacre.” Nissim is a man of great faith. But whatever good may come of that horrible day, did it have to arise only as a consequence of his daughter being publicly defiled by monsters?
I cannot tell you how many thousands of people have told me that God had a great plan for the Holocaust.
Seriously? You mean, in some celestial sphere, far beyond our limited understanding, the gassing of one million children is somehow a good thing?
Did Israel get what it deserved?
Others say Israel deserved what it got on October 7 because of the irrational hatred Israelis harbor for one another. But Americans hate each other just as much, but women in Manhattan were not punished, God forbid, with gang-rape at a Central Park concert.
And to those who say that we Jews are sinful and don’t keep the Torah, give me a break. There is no nation on earth so faithful as the Jews. Even after Auschwitz, we continue to put on tefillin, eat kosher, and send our kids to Jewish day schools. No nation on earth has even approximated the loyalty of the Jews to God even when it seems He does not reciprocate.
Which brings me back to my original question. Is God an anti-Semite? Since there is no good reason not to like us, is God’s disfavor toward the Jews something akin to the United Nations or the European Union, which just despise us irrationally?
And while I understand the amorality of the UN and the laughingstock it has become with countries like North Korea and Russia on its Human Rights Council, the same cannot be said of God, who is the source of all morality. Must He Himself not act morally?
Abraham said to God, “Will the Judge of the whole earth not Himself practice justice?” Moses went even further, threatening God to abandon the Torah completely if God exterminated the Jews. “If You annihilate them, I beseech You, remove my name from the book You have written.”
I have no idea what God is up to with the global resurgence of antisemitism. Yes, humanity has freedom of choice, and those who choose to hate the Jews – like the maggot mullahs of Iran – are culpable for their hatred. But if God did not will it, even amid their attempts at murdering Jews, they would not be able to harm a hair on a baby in Nir Oz or Sderot.
Why has God allowed all this garbage to come back? Were six million Jewish martyrs not enough?
Next week is the 30th anniversary of the death of the Rebbe. In one of his last public addresses, the Rebbe spoke of the rape and murder of a young mother in Crown Heights. He looked up at the heavens and sparred with God before a global audience of listeners. “Zechutz korbanos?” “Lord, do you need more sacrifices? “Ad matai?” Will it ever be enough?
In Deuteronomy, Moses famously says, “the hidden things are for God. But the revealed things are for us and our children.” After October 7, I have no idea what God is up to. With two sons at war in Israel, I shake and shudder, mourn and grieve for every murdered IDF hero. Must another few thousand 20-year-old Jewish boys die before God’s thirst is quenched?
But none of that is my business. My job is to protest God’s seeming inaction, demand that He show himself in history – as He did on the day that four hostages were rescued and when the demonic president of Iran was roasted in a helicopter crash – and finally protect his people.
Is God an antisemite? My role is not to answer that question but to pray to him defiantly that He ceases giving any party even a hint that this may be so.
I don’t understand why the world hates Jews. But my job is not to understand but to fight, to explain, to debate, and to win. My job is to be an Israelite, “he who wrestles with God.” My role is to keep the Sabbath whenever God seemingly allows it to be violated, as on October 7. My job is to honor my wife and respect women even when God seemingly allows monsters to violate women. My six daughters’ mission is to light the Sabbath candles and dispel the darkness even when God seemingly extinguishes hope as He did on October 7. And my job is to fight for Israel and support the IDF even when God seemingly allows their lives to slip through His fingers.
No, God is not an anti-Semite. The very fact that the Jewish people still exist proves it. But it’s high time that he started showing His love rather than just talking about it.
The writer is the international best-selling author of the newly published guide to fighting back for Israel, The Israel Warrior. Follow him on Instagram and Twitter @RabbiShmuley.
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Has Kessler ignored the toothpaste out of the tube?
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Beating American Defeatism
The U.S. enables innovation, while the rest of the world is mired in statism.
By Andy Kessler
After the Fourth of July fireworks, someone always pipes up, “Not as good as last year.” Defeatists say the same thing about the U.S. Yes, I mean those protesters bleating about U.S. complicity in genocide, racist highways, colonizing oppression and a pending climate Armageddon—our Omni cause flaws.
American exceptionalism, the thinking goes, is over. China controls the key ingredients of our antibiotics and penicillin while it’s dumping U.S. dollars and buying gold. Russia is rebuilding its Soviet footprint. Meanwhile, 51 million of us watched a debate between two cranky old men arguing over their golf handicaps. The New York Times style guide seemingly requires “the end of democracy” for every Trump mention.
Should you buy property in Costa Rica? If you like bananas, sure. Otherwise, no way. Fuhgeddaboudit. Despite—or perhaps because of—our political dysfunction, the U.S. still rules.
Technology is the driver of global growth. Six U.S.-based technology companies are worth more than $1 trillion. Actually, U.S. stocks make up almost 70% of the MSCI World Index, a proxy for global equities. That’s no accident. The U.S. enables innovation, while the rest of the world, with a few exceptions such as TSMC, ASML and Novo Nordisk, is mired in statism. Japan was an exception until industrial policy misdirected its economy.
Despite China’s juggling, the dollar is, and will remain, the reserve currency. Try visiting Costa Rica with Chinese renminbi. Or bitcoin. China is our factory floor, though it’s now contracting. I’m convinced manufacturing will eventually move to India, once they sort out the socialist mess the British left them. I would hurry that up.
The U.S. is oil independent. Thank you, horizontal fracking. With the Biden administration’s ban on liquefied natural gas lifted, we could export enough LNG to Europe and Japan to make them independent of Russia and the Middle East as well.
We lead in pharmaceuticals. And we have the best weapons and military. Our movies and TV shows, even larded with social lecturing, are world hits. And we’re outproducing. From 2010 to 2023, the cumulative economic growth in the U.S. was 34% vs. 21% for the European Union.
Why? Simple: Capital flows to where it’s treated best. Like entrepreneurs, capital looks for opportunity, merit and upside. Democracy is the political system of choice because it best enables capitalism. Generative AI and large language models require boodles of capital and our markets obliged, sending Nvidia to the moon, for now.
Yes, we have some European-like overregulation, but our economic system is a sandbox of progress, meaning anyone with talent can come in and play, raise capital and build castles. Elsewhere, the so-called elite drive the economy, often into the ground. A party member’s son gets capital instead of a worthy entrepreneur. Here, Hunter is the exception, not the rule.
Sure, the U.S. isn’t a pure, free-market capitalist system. That will never exist. Democracy, like the mob, often requires payoffs to grease the skids, to buy votes. But cronyism kills. Government projects end up like California’s high-speed rail. But that’s a burden for mature industries, not innovators.
To beat American defeatism, let that sandbox flourish. Don’t pick winners and losers. Industrial policy preached by the likes of Jake Sullivan (green, union) or Peter Navarro (trade, tariffs) are payoffs, not capital-attracting, progress-inducing innovations.
Unlike other political systems, democracy and capitalism are magnets for capital. Monarchy failed. National socialism, fascism, communism, even lighter forms of Marxism have all failed. Socialism is on its last legs in India and much of Europe. And whatever you want to call China’s political system—perhaps authoritarian crony capitalism—is circling. In 2022, China’s purchasing power parity GDP per capita at $21,476 was 72nd in the world, right behind Mexico. The U.S. was eighth at $76,399. Wake me up when they get closer.
So whine all you want about America’s decline as you drive your Tesla to Whole Foods to buy overpriced free-range strawberries whimpering about corporate greed. You’re wrong. Warts and all, the U.S. is stronger than ever. This despite having no capitalism-friendly presidents since Ronald Reagan, well maybe since George H.W. Bush before he reneged on his “read my lips, no new taxes” pledge.
Thankfully, innovation has been stronger than any administration, but there are no guarantees. Policy affects growth. Heaping on tax and regulatory burdens causes strong growth to turn weak. We need to give D.C. something to focus on that can’t damage the rest of us. Golf handicaps? So much technology is out in the open for politicians to harm. Elon Musk belches and the world reacts. Big Tech gets threatened with breakups. Innovators are best if left alone.
Fortunately, it’s the innovation sandboxes hidden in the shadows, where entrepreneurs are perfecting cool new technologies, that drive progress. AI is only the latest. Watch for them to rise from between the cracks, like fireworks. And better than last year.
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On this I totally agree.
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Trump’s New Running Mate Imperative
The need for stability and experience should eliminate the young MAGA-in-a-hurry types like Sen. J.D. Vance or Members of the House.
By The Editorial Board
President Biden’s decline and the Democratic Party’s turmoil have remade the dynamics of the election in a way that makes Donald Trump the favorite. The chaos also presents Mr. Trump with an opening to persuade more voters that he’s the safer choice, especially with his decision on a running mate.
As the GOP convention nears, and voters focus on the election, the race remains closer than it should be given Mr. Biden’s infirmities. Swing voters still worry about Mr. Trump and the possibility of four more years of turmoil. The former President can help his campaign, and the country, by projecting stability and calm.
We know many readers will think this is impossible, and maybe it is. Yet he showed admirable restraint after the debate last week, letting Democrats implode, until his profane golf-cart outburst.
The opportunity is there to present a reassuring alternative if Mr. Trump wants to take it. And he has a timely opening to send that message with his vice presidential choice in the next week. Now leading in the polls, he doesn’t need an attack-dog VP or someone to rally his core voters. He needs a choice who shows mature judgment and has the ability to appeal to anxious and undecided voters.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin would bring governing experience in a swing state that may be competitive this year. He has business experience and would speak to suburban voters. Mr. Youngkin hasn’t been on Mr. Trump’s short list, but the race has fundamentally changed since the debate. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has a reputation for competence and broad foreign-policy experience.
Of those on the mooted short list, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum also brings executive experience and a history of business success and knowledge about the economy. Marco Rubio is a more familiar national figure, but as a Senator he has no executive experience and his past criticism of Mr. Trump will play in a loop on TV ads and social media.
The need for stability and experience should eliminate the young MAGA-in-a-hurry types like Sen. J.D. Vance or Members of the House. They lack experience and wouldn’t be a reassuring contrast to Vice President Kamala Harris.
Republicans are understandably giddy about the Democratic troubles, but the country remains closely divided, and the election is a long way from over. Democrats may find a way to nominate a more formidable candidate than Mr. Biden, and they are likely to unite behind whoever it is. Mr. Trump needs a running mate who causes voters to stop and say: Yes, that person could be a good President.
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Democrats don't give a damn about education and most particularly when it comes to black kids.+++
New York Sells Out Children Again
Gov. Kathy Hochul reverses teacher tenure and accountability reforms as a payoff to the teachers unions.
By The Editorial Board
This being an election year, Democrats are looking to reward their union allies. Look no further than New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who recently signed a bill repealing hard-won school reforms. The new law reverses changes to teacher tenure and evaluations that were negotiated in 2015 between former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Republicans who then controlled the state Senate.
“Members are celebrating a victory that will transform classrooms,” New York State United Teachers president Melinda Person crowed. She’s right the new law will be transformative, though not in a good way.
It repeals a mandate that districts consider student performance in teacher evaluations. Districts were also allowed to use expedited procedures to remove tenured teachers who received two consecutive “ineffective” ratings and were required to do so for those who rated poorly three years in a row.
Now, local districts and unions will be allowed to bargain collectively over performance reviews, which no longer will have to take into account student performance. This means fewer teachers will get bad marks, and those who do won’t face the threat of removal. Ms. Hochul has reversed one of Mr. Cuomo’s few achievements. Why isn’t he screaming, since he still has ambitions to return to politics, perhaps in a run for New York City mayor?
Ms. Person said the law “is about restoring the daily joy of teaching and learning” and “evaluating our educators like the professionals they are.” No. The intent is to protect union members, especially the worst performing. Most professionals in any field are evaluated, paid and promoted based on some quantitative performance measures. But the unions want no accountability, and their political friends agree in return for money and endorsements.
Unions paid no price for keeping schools closed during the pandemic. Democrats in Albany instead rewarded them by giving schools more money despite falling enrollment. In 2022, only 28% of fourth graders in New York scored proficient or higher in math on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, down from 37% in 2019.
Parents will have to look for charter school alternatives, if the politicians in Albany don’t kill those too.
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There is something ABOUT COMMITMENT AND NUMBERS THAT MAKES SENSE,
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NATO Matters More Than Ever to America’s Role in the World
Washington won’t succeed if it tries to deal alone with the revisionists in Beijing, Moscow and Tehran.
By Dalibor Rohac
As leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization gather this week in Washington to mark the alliance’s 75th anniversary, they must reassert its relevance.
Donald Trump said in the presidential debate last month that without his pressure on European allies to increase defense spending, NATO risked “going out of business.” Mr. Trump’s critics, including many Europeans, say they worry the alliance might unravel if he returns to the White House.
NATO’s primary purpose—“to keep the Soviet Union out,” as its first secretary general Lord Hastings Ismay put it—is as important as ever. For pro-American Eastern Europeans, distrustful of their complacent peers in Germany, France or Spain, Ismay’s second imperative—to keep “the Americans in”—is a matter of survival.
In a report for the American Enterprise Institute, Giselle Donnelly, Iulia Joja and I argue that American leadership in NATO isn’t an act of charity. Peace and security in Europe have always been vital to U.S. interests. Our nation fought two world wars on European soil precisely because we saw domination of Eurasia by our adversaries as unacceptable.
As for Berlin and others not paying their fair share, remember that according to Ismay, NATO’s third purpose was to “keep the Germans down.” The enduring fecklessness of Germany’s political elites is a testament to NATO’s success in solving what in the 1950s loomed large as the “German question.”
Nobody is likely to ask the U.S. to come to the defense of Germany. If a future president Trump decided to tell Chancellor Olaf Scholz that his country had been expelled from the alliance—if that were possible—the geopolitical consequences wouldn’t be catastrophic.
Countries that do need defending, from Finland in the north to Romania in the south, remain committed to the alliance and to their security, spending well above the target 2% of gross domestic product on defense. Many members, including Lithuania and the Czech Republic, share Washington’s concerns about China and the Indo-Pacific.
To stay relevant, NATO must strengthen its deterrent posture on the Eastern flank, which it can do at little cost to the U.S. Poland and the Baltic states should be brought into the alliance’s nuclear-sharing system and Polish F-35 jets should be certified to carry nuclear missiles.
The war in Ukraine is an important test. A Ukrainian defeat would make NATO’s job much harder and much more expensive, placing Russian forces on Poland’s, Slovakia’s, Hungary’s, and Romania’s doorstep and setting in motion a refugee wave without parallel in modern history. The solution isn’t simply to spend more on military assistance to Ukraine. NATO also should remove the myriad restrictions—such as denying important long-range systems to Kyiv and prohibiting targeting Russia’s hinterlands—that force Ukraine to fight the war with one hand tied behind its back. People on both sides of the Atlantic want to see peace. However, the only path to a durable peace lies in securing Ukraine’s future through NATO membership as soon as the war is finished.
This must be part of a wider strategy of rolling back Russia’s influence in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, made all the more important by the threat of Iran and the rise of China. China is integral to the threat to U.S. power in Asia and the Indo-Pacific, the Middle East and Europe. Beijing is investing heavily in Iran’s petrochemical industry, helping bankroll a regime that sponsors Houthi rebels along with terrorist organizations that threaten Israel.
In Georgia, another country that will need NATO membership sooner or later to deter Russia, China just acquired a deep-sea port in Anaklia that will give Beijing a new path to European markets. That is what happens when Washington leaves a friendly country in geopolitical limbo.
Both Mr. Biden’s lethargy and Mr. Trump’s transactional attitude toward NATO are inadequate responses to the challenge that America is facing in the form of a coordinated coalition of revisionists in Beijing, Moscow and Tehran. Business as usual is a recipe for catastrophe, as is the temptation to assess alliances primarily on their ledgers.
The tasks of pushing against Russia in Eastern Europe, Iran in the Middle East and China globally are all connected. Washington can’t succeed if it tries to deal with them in isolation. NATO and the trans-Atlantic relationship are central to America’s role as the world’s leading superpower. It would be a tragedy for Americans if the incumbent or his Republican challenger squandered this asset.
Mr. Rohac is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
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