Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz revealed details about the largest Israel Defense Force (IDF) drill in recent years last week. The drill included simulated airstrikes on Iran and a simulated multi-front war against Iran-backed proxies in Syria, Lebanon, and Gaza. The message was unmistakable: The Israeli government is weighing its military options, and the military is readying for whatever the government decides. Iran should be worried.

Right now, however, all eyes are on Syria. The war in Ukraine has prompted Russia to redeploy some forces and hardware out of Syria, where it has been buttressing the embattled regime of Bashar al-Assad. As the Russians depart, the Iranians want to fill the void.

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In between dodging assassination attempts, inspiring his people to fight back against invading Russian forces, and conversing with world leaders, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky took time out to address the Knesset on March 20. Zelensky, a Jew, likened the plight of his people to the Holocaust. He chided the Israelis for not doing enough to help his country. "One can ask for a long time why we can't accept weapons from you or why Israel didn't impose sanctions against Russia, why you are not putting pressure on Russian business," Zelensky said.

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President Joe Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, cautioned his Russian counterpart last week that "any possible Russian decision to use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine" would have "consequences."

This White House lacks any credibility to issue such a threat — as our Middle East allies well know.

The last time a US president attempted to dissuade a despot from deploying chemical weapons in a bloody conflict was 2013, when Sullivan's former boss, President Barack Obama, warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that attacking the Syrian people with chemical weapons amounted to a "red line" that if crossed would result in "enormous consequences."

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"It's time to end this forever war" — those were President Biden's words as he issued the order for U.S. troops to withdraw from Afghanistan. America's chaotic withdrawal certainly fulfilled a campaign promise, but it was foreign policy malpractice. The poorly executed exit, the rapid Taliban takeover, and Washington's abandonment of its longtime allies to the fate of jihadist death squads was like blood in the water for cynical autocrats, revisionist powers, and rogue regimes.

Look no further than Ukraine: Vladimir Putin understood that American retrenchment amounted to lack of appetite for confrontation.

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The Russian war of aggression in Ukraine has significantly encumbered the Biden administration's drive to reach a renewed Iran nuclear deal. Seeing an opportunity to build leverage against the United States and Europe as they impose sanctions on Russia, Vladimir Putin threw a grenade into the Iran talks taking place in Vienna. The Russian strongman demanded a "white channel" with Tehran to circumvent international sanctions. This was apparently a bridge too far for U.S. diplomats, who had until that point seemed willing to cave on any and every Iranian demand to seal a deal.

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