The death this weekend of three American servicemen struck by drones at a base in Jordan near the Syrian border is a tragedy.
They are the latest victims in a renewed war that began with Hamas’s brutal assault on Israeli kibbutzim, military bases, and a rock concert on Oct. 7, 2023, leading to a catastrophic Israeli retaliation against Palestinians in Gaza that has killed more than 26,000 people, most of them civilians, and also led to the deaths of more than 200 Israeli soldiers. The fighting has slowly metastasized into a multi-front conflict including Iran-backed militias known collectively as the “Axis of Resistance” showing their solidarity with the Palestinians primarily by attacking U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria, which are easier for these groups to hit than Israel.
Until Jan. 27, 2024, the attacks had not been lethal for Americans. But there had been a number of close calls, and the U.S. had retaliated. On Jan. 4, a U.S. drone killed a leader of Harakat al Nujaba, one of the Iran-backed Iraqi groups blamed for targeting U.S. servicemen. Israel, meanwhile, has traded deadly rocket fire with Hezbollah in Lebanon, killed a top Hamas official in Hezbollah’s stronghold of south Beirut and assassinated senior Iranian military commanders in Syria.
If that wasn’t enough, the Yemeni Houthis have targeted commercial shipping in the Red Sea, provoking retaliatory strikes by the U.S. and Britain on the Yemeni homeland and threatening a fragile cease-fire in that war-ravaged country.
Iran, at the same time, has suffered more than 100 deaths in terrorist attacks blamed on Sunni fundamentalist militants and ethnic separatists, leading to a bizarre and unprecedented exchange of missile fire between Iran and Pakistan as well as Iranian strikes on Iraqi Kurdistan.
Much of the conflict outside the Israel/Gaza theater resembles a bloody billiards game in which bank shots meant to hit certain targets wind up killing others. The 2,500 Americans in Iraq and about 900 U.S. servicemen in Syria are particularly vulnerable to drone and missile attacks from Iran-backed groups.
The latest deaths occurred as U.S. CIA director William Burns was in Paris trying to negotiate a one or two-month cease-fire between Israel and Hamas that would allow for the release of about 100 Israeli hostages still in Gaza, freedom for some of the thousands of Palestinian prisoners Israel is holding and the provision of urgently needed humanitarian relief for Gazans, some 500,000 of whom are said to be on the brink of famine.
The Biden administration should redouble efforts to reach a ceasefire even as it plans to avenge the U.S. soldiers. The U.S. should also be reaching out directly or indirectly to Iran to tell it to exercise whatever influence it can bring to bear on Iraqi militias to stop targeting Americans whose mission is in line with Iran’s own interests: namely preventing a resurgence of the Islamic State group blamed, most recently, for the terrorist attack on the Iranian city of Kerman. Indeed, the U.S. reportedly warned in Iran in advance that ISIS planned to strike the Jan. 3 commemoration for senior Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani, himself killed by a U.S. drone strike in 2020 in a prior period of U.S.-Iran tensions. Unfortunately, Iran appears more interested in driving the Americans out of the region than in containing ISIS.
The U.S. has more influence with Israel, which continues to pummel Gaza in a campaign that despite its horrendous death toll and grievous impact on Palestinian infrastructure, has reportedly only destroyed a small fraction of Hamas fighters and tunnels and has actually made the terrorist group more popular in the other Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory, the West Bank, and in the wider Muslim world. Until the war stops, the hostages are released, and the urgent humanitarian needs in Palestine begin to be met, it will be difficult if not impossible to prevent the regional conflict from escalating further or to begin to address root causes.
Israel is already facing unprecedented international condemnation for the egregious toll caused by its military operations in Gaza. On Jan. 26, the International Court of Justice, the world’s highest judicial authority, stopped short of demanding an immediate cease-fire but ordered Israel to do everything it could to minimize further death and destruction in Gaza. The court is weighing whether to find Israel guilty of committing genocide.
In its 75-year history as a modern state, Israel has never been so isolated internationally and the U.S., as its chief supporter, is becoming increasingly isolated as well. Even within the U.S., support for Israel is eroding, particularly among a younger generation for whom Israeli oppression of Palestinians – not Israel’s early struggles or the Nazi Holocaust that preceded Israel’s birth – is their only frame of reference.
Wars in the Middle East are frighteningly easy to start and notoriously difficult to end. Nearly four months into this phase of the conflict, however, more than enough people have died on all sides. It is past time to get a ceasefire and begin the long and difficult process of reconstruction, negotiations, and political change. The region and the world at large cannot afford a wider war.
Barbara Slavin is a distinguished fellow at the Stimson Center and the editor of the Middle East Perspectives blog. She tweets @BarbaraSlavin1.
American Deaths Add More Reasons to End the Gaza War Now
By Barbara Slavin
Middle East & North Africa
The death this weekend of three American servicemen struck by drones at a base in Jordan near the Syrian border is a tragedy.
They are the latest victims in a renewed war that began with Hamas’s brutal assault on Israeli kibbutzim, military bases, and a rock concert on Oct. 7, 2023, leading to a catastrophic Israeli retaliation against Palestinians in Gaza that has killed more than 26,000 people, most of them civilians, and also led to the deaths of more than 200 Israeli soldiers. The fighting has slowly metastasized into a multi-front conflict including Iran-backed militias known collectively as the “Axis of Resistance” showing their solidarity with the Palestinians primarily by attacking U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria, which are easier for these groups to hit than Israel.
Until Jan. 27, 2024, the attacks had not been lethal for Americans. But there had been a number of close calls, and the U.S. had retaliated. On Jan. 4, a U.S. drone killed a leader of Harakat al Nujaba, one of the Iran-backed Iraqi groups blamed for targeting U.S. servicemen. Israel, meanwhile, has traded deadly rocket fire with Hezbollah in Lebanon, killed a top Hamas official in Hezbollah’s stronghold of south Beirut and assassinated senior Iranian military commanders in Syria.
If that wasn’t enough, the Yemeni Houthis have targeted commercial shipping in the Red Sea, provoking retaliatory strikes by the U.S. and Britain on the Yemeni homeland and threatening a fragile cease-fire in that war-ravaged country.
Iran, at the same time, has suffered more than 100 deaths in terrorist attacks blamed on Sunni fundamentalist militants and ethnic separatists, leading to a bizarre and unprecedented exchange of missile fire between Iran and Pakistan as well as Iranian strikes on Iraqi Kurdistan.
Much of the conflict outside the Israel/Gaza theater resembles a bloody billiards game in which bank shots meant to hit certain targets wind up killing others. The 2,500 Americans in Iraq and about 900 U.S. servicemen in Syria are particularly vulnerable to drone and missile attacks from Iran-backed groups.
The latest deaths occurred as U.S. CIA director William Burns was in Paris trying to negotiate a one or two-month cease-fire between Israel and Hamas that would allow for the release of about 100 Israeli hostages still in Gaza, freedom for some of the thousands of Palestinian prisoners Israel is holding and the provision of urgently needed humanitarian relief for Gazans, some 500,000 of whom are said to be on the brink of famine.
The Biden administration should redouble efforts to reach a ceasefire even as it plans to avenge the U.S. soldiers. The U.S. should also be reaching out directly or indirectly to Iran to tell it to exercise whatever influence it can bring to bear on Iraqi militias to stop targeting Americans whose mission is in line with Iran’s own interests: namely preventing a resurgence of the Islamic State group blamed, most recently, for the terrorist attack on the Iranian city of Kerman. Indeed, the U.S. reportedly warned in Iran in advance that ISIS planned to strike the Jan. 3 commemoration for senior Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani, himself killed by a U.S. drone strike in 2020 in a prior period of U.S.-Iran tensions. Unfortunately, Iran appears more interested in driving the Americans out of the region than in containing ISIS.
The U.S. has more influence with Israel, which continues to pummel Gaza in a campaign that despite its horrendous death toll and grievous impact on Palestinian infrastructure, has reportedly only destroyed a small fraction of Hamas fighters and tunnels and has actually made the terrorist group more popular in the other Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory, the West Bank, and in the wider Muslim world. Until the war stops, the hostages are released, and the urgent humanitarian needs in Palestine begin to be met, it will be difficult if not impossible to prevent the regional conflict from escalating further or to begin to address root causes.
Israel is already facing unprecedented international condemnation for the egregious toll caused by its military operations in Gaza. On Jan. 26, the International Court of Justice, the world’s highest judicial authority, stopped short of demanding an immediate cease-fire but ordered Israel to do everything it could to minimize further death and destruction in Gaza. The court is weighing whether to find Israel guilty of committing genocide.
In its 75-year history as a modern state, Israel has never been so isolated internationally and the U.S., as its chief supporter, is becoming increasingly isolated as well. Even within the U.S., support for Israel is eroding, particularly among a younger generation for whom Israeli oppression of Palestinians – not Israel’s early struggles or the Nazi Holocaust that preceded Israel’s birth – is their only frame of reference.
Wars in the Middle East are frighteningly easy to start and notoriously difficult to end. Nearly four months into this phase of the conflict, however, more than enough people have died on all sides. It is past time to get a ceasefire and begin the long and difficult process of reconstruction, negotiations, and political change. The region and the world at large cannot afford a wider war.
Barbara Slavin is a distinguished fellow at the Stimson Center and the editor of the Middle East Perspectives blog. She tweets @BarbaraSlavin1.
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