OPINION:
Both the U.S. and Canada claim a tiny, barren island off the coast of Maine. If Washington and Ottawa wanted to settle the long-simmering dispute over Machias Seal Island, they could send diplomats to sit down and come up with a compromise or maybe even a win-win solution.
That’s how diplomacy works between civilized nations.
But that’s not how diplomacy works between civilized nations and terrorist organizations such as Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthi rebels of Yemen or their patron, Iran.
Nor is it how diplomacy works with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin or the communist ruler of China, Xi Jinping.
All the above will sign treaties and cut deals, but only a fool believes their word is their bond.
Here are three examples.
The Sino-British Joint Declaration promised that the people of Hong Kong, which was handed over by the United Kingdom to China in 1997, would retain their freedoms until 2047. Mr. Xi broke that promise in 2020.
In the Budapest Memorandum of 1994, Russia committed to “refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine.” Mr. Putin’s forces invaded Ukraine for the first time in 2014. He has been waging a war of conquest there since Feb. 24, 2022.
As an original signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, considered the most important global treaty on the world’s deadliest weapon, Iran committed to refrain from acquiring nuclear weapons. Yet Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is closer than ever to developing nukes and missiles that can deliver them to targets anywhere in the world.
Why is it so difficult for some people — not least those in the White House and State Department — to see a pattern here?
George Shultz, secretary of state under President Reagan, did get it, and he explained it succinctly: “Negotiations are a euphemism for capitulation if the shadow of power is not cast across the bargaining table.”
In other words, behind American diplomats must be military and political leaders with the capabilities and will to inflict serious consequences. The alternative is appeasement, which aggressors will always find provocative.
Theodore Roosevelt also understood this dynamic. To achieve foreign policy successes, he said that Americans should “speak softly and carry a big stick.”
Do you know who else didn’t harbor the delusion that diplomacy is an end rather than a means? Zhou Enlai, premier of China from 1954 to 1976. “All diplomacy is a continuation of war by other means,” he instructed his comrades.
For nearly a year, President Biden’s envoys have been negotiating through untrustworthy intermediaries with Hamas and Hezbollah. The former is holding civilian hostages, including Americans. The latter has killed more Americans than any other terrorist group except al Qaeda.
As should be obvious by now, the leaders of these terrorist groups have no interest in diplomatic solutions. Their goal is genocide — the annihilation of Israel. They say so clearly and proudly.
Nevertheless, Secretary of State Antony Blinken keeps telling Israelis: “Progress must be made through diplomacy.”
He appears to forget that, where Hezbollah is concerned, a “diplomatic solution” was put in place in 2006. That’s when the last major war between Hezbollah and Israel was halted by U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701. It required that Israel cease firing at Hezbollah in exchange for Hezbollah removing its forces and missiles from southern Lebanon and, what’s more, disarming.
Lebanese troops and the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon have never enforced Resolution 1701. They’ve never even tried.
Instead, they have watched with bovine passivity as Hezbollah imported weapons and other munitions from Iran and deployed them in Lebanese homes, schools, hospitals and mosques.
On Oct. 8, the day after Hamas terrorists attacked Israel from the Gaza Strip and before Israel responded militarily, Hezbollah began firing missiles at Israel’s northern territories, destroying villages, homes and farms, killing children and displacing tens of thousands of Israelis — essentially shrinking Israel.
Last week, Israel struck back hard, destroying Hezbollah’s subterranean headquarters in Beirut, where longtime Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was meeting with his high command.
Their deaths set off celebrations in Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia and other countries long targeted by Hezbollah and Iran’s other foreign legions. Most mainstream media ignored the cheering crowds, probably because their jubilation contradicted the fashionable narrative of Israel as a pariah.
On Saturday, President Biden said his “aim is to de-escalate the ongoing conflicts in both Gaza and Lebanon through diplomatic means.” He called for a cease-fire, which would, of course, give Hezbollah time to regroup, rearm and revive.
A few days earlier, Mr. Biden gave his last speech at the U.N., asserting that his foreign policies have been enormously successful. Not even Hunter Biden could find that credible.
But there’s still time for a course correction. In his U.N. speech, the president also vowed that “Iran will never, ever obtain a nuclear weapon.” Two years ago, he pledged “never to allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon” and to “use all elements of its national power to ensure that outcome.”
His predecessors, Republican and Democratic, have made similar promises.
He could accomplish this mission between now and Jan. 20.
What a legacy that would leave.
What a lesson that would be for both America’s enemies and friends.
What a speech he could give.
• Clifford D. May is founder and president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) and a columnist for The Washington Times.
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