Due to severe birth defects, two-year-old Alta Fixsler has been on a ventilator her entire life, and requires round-the-clock medical care. When her doctors at the Manchester children’s hospital determined that she has “no conscious awareness” and should be removed from life-support, her ḥasidic parents decided to take her either to the U.S. or to Israel, where doctors have offered to treat her. But Britain won’t allow it. Jon Levine writes:

The family has been fighting for Alta in British courts since 2019, and has faced a string of losses as the case slowly wound its way through the legal system. . . . So far, the British government has refused to allow Alta to leave. The issue is not one of red tape, but rather the wish of her current doctors not to see her life extended elsewhere, court papers show.

“It cannot be said to be in Alta’s best interests to be transferred to Israel for life-sustaining treatment to continue,” ruled the Court of Appeal’s Justice Alistair MacDonald in his June decision.

“There is no reason to kill my daughter like this,” [the girl’s father], Abraham Fixsler, told the New York Post. Fixsler, who holds American and Israeli citizenship and is a legal resident of England, said he was encouraged by doctors abroad, who said there may yet be superior treatment options not available to England’s price-conscious socialized healthcare system. The family is currently awaiting a hearing to determine if England’s highest court will hear their case. No date for the hearing has been set.

Senators Charles Schumer, Cory Booker, and Robert Mendendez—along with ten Republican senators and the former president Israeli president Reuven Rivlin—have all attempted to help the Fixslers.

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.”