In the aftermath of the recent nuclear agreement, Hamas now stands poised to get more support from both the Islamic Republic and its rival, Saudi Arabia. Khaled Abu Toameh writes:

Emboldened by the deal, Hamas is now seeking to reap its fruits by tightening its grip on the Gaza Strip with the help of Iran. This, of course, is bad news for Hamas’s rivals in the Palestinian arena, [especially] the Palestinian Authority, as well as all those who still believe in the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians.

The nuclear deal has also driven Saudi Arabia and other Sunni Muslim countries to restore their relations with Hamas. Their goal is to entice Hamas and its patrons in the Muslim Brotherhood to become part of an anti-Iran Sunni coalition in the Arab world. . . .

According to Palestinian sources in the Gaza Strip, the Iranians have already resumed their aid to Hamas’s military wing. Relations between Iran and Hamas were strained four years ago, after Hamas refused to support Iran’s ally, Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, in his fight against rebel groups. Hamas officials are now hoping that the nuclear deal and the lifting of sanctions imposed on Iran will lead to a dramatic increase in Tehran’s support for terror groups in the region.

Analyzing the recent direct Iranian attack on Israel, and Israel’s security situation more generally, Michael Oren looks to the 2015 agreement to restrain Iran’s nuclear program. That, and President Biden’s efforts to resurrect the deal after Donald Trump left it, are in his view the source of the current crisis:

Of the original motivations for the deal—blocking Iran’s path to the bomb and transforming Iran into a peaceful nation—neither remained. All Biden was left with was the ability to kick the can down the road and to uphold Barack Obama’s singular foreign-policy achievement.

In order to achieve that result, the administration has repeatedly refused to punish Iran for its malign actions:

Historians will survey this inexplicable record and wonder how the United States not only allowed Iran repeatedly to assault its citizens, soldiers, and allies but consistently rewarded it for doing so. They may well conclude that in a desperate effort to avoid getting dragged into a regional Middle Eastern war, the U.S. might well have precipitated one.

While America’s friends in the Middle East, especially Israel, have every reason to feel grateful for the vital assistance they received in intercepting Iran’s missile and drone onslaught, they might also ask what the U.S. can now do differently to deter Iran from further aggression. . . . Tehran will see this weekend’s direct attack on Israel as a victory—their own—for their ability to continue threatening Israel and destabilizing the Middle East with impunity.

Israel, of course, must respond differently. Our target cannot simply be the Iranian proxies that surround our country and that have waged war on us since October 7, but, as the Saudis call it, “the head of the snake.”