Washington has recently begun providing the YPG, Syria’s dominant Kurdish militia, with heavy weapons in preparation for its assault on Raqqa, the capital of Islamic State (IS). The YPG, like the Kurdish militias operating in neighboring Iraq, has proved itself a brave and effective fighting force against IS. But, explains Kyle Orton, its Stalinist ideology, repressive governance, and the fact that it is an extension of the PKK—a Kurdish separatist terrorist group based in Turkey—make it an unsuitable U.S. ally:

As the uprising widened in Syria during the summer of 2012, government forces retreated from areas in the north of the country, leaving the [YPG’s political arm] in control. The Assad regime’s intention was to keep the Kurds out of the rebellion [while sowing] dissension among antigovernment groups. Notwithstanding occasional skirmishes with Kurdish fighters, Damascus continues to underwrite the YPG-held areas, even though it opposes any long-term federalist solution for the country. . . .

[S]ince capturing territory in Syria, the YPG has worked to monopolize power, establishing a one-party system that has suppressed Kurdish opponents as well as leaders and activists from other communities. The YPG has arrested hundreds of political prisoners. . . . About 150 people were abducted by the YPG in 2013 alone. . . . The YPG has also engaged in targeted assassinations against Kurdish opposition politicians. . . .

The group has struggled to secure its legitimacy [among Kurds] because it refuses to include other Kurdish voices and remains fundamentally focused on Turkey, seeing Syria merely as a springboard for supporting the PKK’s insurgency against Turkey’s government. This threatening posture has led to a blockade against them and considerable hardship for Syrian Kurds. American support has reinforced these dynamics by empowering the PKK’s military commanders and making local civilian administrators in [Syrian Kurdistan] beholden to them. . . .

More important even than increasing tension with Turkey are the effects on the ground in Syria. Unfortunately, the American-led coalition has tended to play into Islamic State’s hands by displacing the jihadist group with forces viewed by local Sunni Arab populations as alien and sectarian. An American-backed YPG takeover of Raqqa will likely repeat this error, creating anew the conditions that led to the rise of Islamic State.

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.