Last week, Washington imposed sanctions on two Iranian intelligence officers in connection with the disappearance, and probable death, of the former FBI agent Robert Levinson, who vanished in the Islamic Republic under suspicious circumstances. The editors of the New York Daily News write:

It was in March 2007 when the then-retired FBI agent vanished shortly after arriving on the island of Kish to work on an unauthorized CIA contract. For many years, the U.S. government said he was working as a private investigator and was “not a U.S. government employee,” while the Iranians disavowed any role in his disappearance.

But last year, a UN agency revealed that Tehran had just admitted that “Mr. Robert Alan Levinson has an ongoing case in the Public Prosecution and Revolutionary Court of Tehran”—their first indication that he was in fact in custody.

Why this secretive government would issue blanket denials for years, then suddenly let slip that he was in fact being held, is anyone’s guess. What is beyond dispute is that Iran holds at least five Americans, hiding them from their families while subjecting them to the mercy of a brutal and Kafkaesque justice system.

As Joe Biden entertains a thaw with Tehran, including on the international nuclear deal, he must stand up for our fellow countrymen swallowed up in the mullahs’ maw.

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.