Since the fall of its capital, Raqqa, in October, and subsequent defeats in eastern Syria, Islamic State (IS) has appeared on the brink of defeat. Yet, in the past two weeks, IS has conducted successful attacks in both the eastern province of Deir Ezzour and on the outskirts of Damascus itself, seizing territory and even an oilfield. Sirwan Kajjo comments:

Since Turkey, a NATO member, launched its Afrin offensive against the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG)—a main U.S. ally in the fight against IS—U.S. officials have been warning that the fighting between two U.S. allies is distracting from the main mission, which is defeating IS. . . . The U.S. State Department is already convinced that the terror group has been rebuilding itself in some places in Syria. . . .

The Turkish-led attack on Afrin has forced more than 2,000 Kurdish and Arab fighters deployed against IS frontlines in eastern Syria to withdraw in order to defend the area. U.S. officials have voiced concerns that such changes in battlefield priorities would take pressure off IS, thus allowing the extremists to regroup and re-strategize their attacking capabilities along the Euphrates River Valley. More Kurdish fighters are expected to pull back from the battle against IS as Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has threatened to invade more Syrian Kurdish-held areas after Afrin. . . .

IS still controls around 5 percent of Syria’s territory, particularly in the east and pockets near Damascus. In the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk in southern Damascus, IS enjoys a rising popularity among local residents. The group also maintains a significant presence near the Israeli border, where it has at least one dangerous affiliate, the Khalid bin al-Walid Army. Around 1,500 IS militants are estimated to be present across Syria, some of them moving about mostly freely as the U.S.-led air campaign has significantly decreased, especially after the liberation of Raqqa.

IS as we knew it may not exist anymore, but it can certainly morph into an insurgency and attempt to reestablish itself in other parts of the Middle East and North Africa, while still using war-ravaged Syria as its command center. . . . The longer the stalemate drags on in Syria, the better it is for IS—and other terrorist groups, for that matter—to feed off the chaos and to continue posing a danger to regional and global security.

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.