Still reeling from the effects of COVID-19, Tehran is requesting relief from economic sanctions, although existing sanctions do not prevent the Islamic Republic from obtaining food or medical supplies. Jonathan Schanzer and Bradley Bowman urge the U.S., and other countries, to refuse Iran’s pleas, as it will inevitably use the benefits of sanctions relief to expand its arsenal of precision-guided missiles:

Tehran, along with its violent proxies in Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq, is now working assiduously, even during the coronavirus pandemic, to convert an arsenal of unguided rockets and missiles into smart ones. Unguided rockets often miss their targets. Missile-defense systems can easily knock them out of the sky. But Iran’s new precision-guided missiles can potentially maneuver in flight, evading air defenses. If enough are fired, they can also overwhelm current defenses.

Official sources suggest that Hizballah may be producing a guided missile or more each day, accruing an arsenal measured in the dozens or hundreds. That may not seem like many to readers, . . . but to Israel and its citizens, it could be a matter of life and death.

Combining a barrage of thousands of unguided missiles and rockets with hundreds of precision-guided missiles could enable Hizballah to penetrate Israeli defenses. The result could be a catastrophic attack on Israel’s chemical plant in Haifa or Ben Gurion International Airport with the relative impact of a tactical nuclear or chemical-weapons strike.

Sanctions relief would simply provide the world’s worst state sponsor of terrorism more money to fund its guided-missile project. . . . It’s also important to note that [this] project costs money—tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars. Tehran’s efforts to train engineers, purchase parts, and funnel [these] parts into Lebanon by way of Syria and Iraq all cost money. This is money the regime could have spent on its own people. This was money that the regime now cynically says it doesn’t have in order to fight the virus.

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.