Last month, a terrorist attack occurred in the Jordanian city of Karak, leaving fifteen dead. It now seems that the perpetrators belonged to a cell of Islamic State; in the subsequent crackdown, Jordan uncovered a fairly extensive network affiliated with that organization. Yoni ben Menachem writes:

Islamic State sleeper cells could infiltrate Jordan to carry out terror attacks or attack the Jordanian border guard. The two refugee camps on the Syrian-Jordanian border, al-Hadalat and al-Rukban, which harbor 100,000 people, offer a convenient haven and staging ground for attacks against Jordan.. . . .

[In a rare interview,] General Mahmoud Freihat [the chief of staff of the Jordanian military] said that Jordan sometimes communicates with Bashar al-Assad’s regime via “liaison officers,” and that there have been talks on moving the two [refugee] camps several kilometers into Syrian territory. . . . The Jordanian chief of staff sees another danger . . . emanating from Islamic State in the form of the Khaled bin al-Walid Brigades, which has an Islamic State orientation and is operating only one kilometer from the Jordanian-Syrian border. According to General Freihat, the organization is equipped with tanks and heavy weapons. . . .

Jordan has long been supplying light weapons to the Bedouin tribes in southern Syria so that they can form a buffer zone and fight Islamic State forces and other jihadist organizations. Jordan is now signaling to Syria that it is prepared to cooperate with it in the war on Islamic State despite its disapproval of Syria’s close ties with Iran.

For some time, opponents of U.S support for Israel have been urging the White House to end the war in Gaza, or simply calling for a ceasefire. Douglas Feith and Lewis Libby consider what such a result would actually entail:

Ending the war immediately would allow Hamas to survive and retain military and governing power. Leaving it in the area containing the Sinai-Gaza smuggling routes would ensure that Hamas can rearm. This is why Hamas leaders now plead for a ceasefire. A ceasefire will provide some relief for Gazans today, but a prolonged ceasefire will preserve Hamas’s bloody oppression of Gaza and make future wars with Israel inevitable.

For most Gazans, even when there is no hot war, Hamas’s dictatorship is a nightmarish tyranny. Hamas rule features the torture and murder of regime opponents, official corruption, extremist indoctrination of children, and misery for the population in general. Hamas diverts foreign aid and other resources from proper uses; instead of improving life for the mass of the people, it uses the funds to fight against Palestinians and Israelis.

Moreover, a Hamas-affiliated website warned Gazans last month against cooperating with Israel in securing and delivering the truckloads of aid flowing into the Strip. It promised to deal with those who do with “an iron fist.” In other words, if Hamas remains in power, it will begin torturing, imprisoning, or murdering those it deems collaborators the moment the war ends. Thereafter, Hamas will begin planning its next attack on Israel:

Hamas’s goals are to overshadow the Palestinian Authority, win control of the West Bank, and establish Hamas leadership over the Palestinian revolution. Hamas’s ultimate aim is to spark a regional war to obliterate Israel and, as Hamas leaders steadfastly maintain, fulfill a Quranic vision of killing all Jews.

Hamas planned for corpses of Palestinian babies and mothers to serve as the mainspring of its October 7 war plan. Hamas calculated it could survive a war against a superior Israeli force and energize enemies of Israel around the world. The key to both aims was arranging for grievous Palestinian civilian losses. . . . That element of Hamas’s war plan is working impressively.