What’s Up, Doctrine?

The US has approved plans to strike Iranian targets in Syria and Iraq. And in what feels like a turning point, Biden is getting tougher with some Israeli settlers. He “plans to issue an executive order targeting violent Israeli settlers in the West Bank whom he has said have undermined stability in the area.” Are these things connected? Thomas Friedman thinks a new, broad plan is taking shape. NYT (Gift Article): A Biden Doctrine for the Middle East Is Forming. And It’s Big. “The rethinking underway signals an awareness that we can no longer allow Iran to try to drive us out of the region, Israel into extinction and our Arab allies into intimidation by acting through proxies — Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and Shiite militias in Iraq — while Tehran blithely sits back and pays no price. And, simultaneously, it signals an awareness that the U.S. will never have the global legitimacy, the NATO allies and the Arab and Muslim allies it needs to take on Iran in a more aggressive manner unless we stop letting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hold our policy hostage and we start building a credible, legitimate Palestinian Authority that can one day govern Gaza and the West Bank effectively and as a good neighbor to Israel along final borders they would negotiate together.” (This might sound overly optimistic. But what can I say. You watch Hallmark movies. I read Tom Friedman.)