Views commentary It Was Time for an Administration to Break Foreign-Policy ‘Rules’ F or 20 years, he had sowed terror and confusion throughout the Middle East with impunity. As head of Iran’ s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Qassem Soleimani was the mastermind of the world’ s leading state sponsor of ter- rorism, as well as the second most powerful person with- in that oppressive Islamist theocracy. No matter how much mayhem he spread, he believed that he was untouch- able. And three American administrations run by both Democrats and Republicans validated that belief, forgoing opportunities to kill the man who had the blood of many Americans and countless Syrians, Lebanese, Israelis and others on his hands. But following the orchestration of attacks on American forces in Iraq and the stag- ing of an assault on the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, Soleimani’ s get-out-of-jail free card that he had been given by the interna- tional community and successive American presidents expired. When an American drone killed him along with the leader of Iran’ s Iraqi terrorist auxiliaries, what happened was more than a settling of scores. It proclaimed to the world that the old rules by which Iran had been able to do its worst against the United States, Israel and the West — never to face any consequences — were no longer valid. Much like his moves to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’ s capital and move the U.S. embassy there, Trump’ s authorization of the attack on Soleimani proclaims that he has thrown out the foreign-policy rulebook that had restrained America in the past — rules that wound up shielding bad actors like Soleimani. There’ s no way of knowing how far the Iranian regime will go in order to retali- ate for the major blow they have received. American citizens and assets are now at risk. Yet it is also possible that, as was the case with Trump’ s pro-Israel policies, pre- dictions of the world blowing up over this will be exaggerated. What we do know is that this is likely to prove a crucial moment in the history of the modern Middle East. For 40 years since the Islamic Revolution took place in Iran, the regime has been able to go on pursuing its agenda of regional hegemony via terror and subversion with the West acting as if it could not or would not try to do much about it. Indeed, the guiding principle of the Obama administration’ s foreign policy was an effort to appease and accommodate the Iranians, no matter what they did. President Barack Obama said he hoped the nuclear deal he negotiated with Tehran in 2015 would enable the regime to “get right with the world.” But the ayatollahs didn’ t want that opportunity. What they wanted was the West’ s seal of approval for their nucle- ar program and access to foreign markets to sell the oil that would finance their pet terrorists like the IRGC. the regine bluffed Obama into conceding point after point in the negotiations to where the pact actually guaranteed that Iran would eventually get a nuclear weapon, while at the same time enriching and empowering the regime. And after that, it doubled down on its adventur- ism, laying waste to Syria while consolidat- ing control in Lebanon and attempting to do the same in Iraq. Jonathan Tobin To make a donation to the DETROIT JEWISH NEWS FOUNDATION go to the website www.djnfoundation.org The Detroit Jewish News (USPS 275-520) is published every Thursday at 29200 Northwestern Highway, #110, Southfield, Michigan. Periodical postage paid at Southfield, Michigan, and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: send changes to: Detroit Jewish News, 29200 Northwestern Hwy., #110, Southfield, MI 48034. 8 | JANUARY 16 • 2020 1942 - 2020 Covering and Connecting Jewish Detroit Every Week jn Arthur M. Horwitz Executive Editor/Publisher ahorwitz@renmedia.us F. Kevin Browett Chief Operating Officer kbrowett@renmedia.us | Editorial Associate Editor: Jackie Headapohl jheadapohl@renmedia.us Story Development Editor: Keri Guten Cohen kcohen@renmedia.us Digital Editor: Allison Jacobs ajacobs@renmedia.us Multimedia Reporter: Corrie Colf ccolf@renmedia.us Social Media Coordinator: Chelsie Dzbanski cdzbanski@renmedia.us Editorial Assistant: Sy Manello smanello@renmedia.us Senior Columnist: Danny Raskin dannyraskin2132@gmail.com Contributing Editor: Robert Sklar rsklar@renmedia.us Contributing Editor: David Sachs Contributing Arts Editor: Gail Zimmerman gzimmerman@renmedia.us Contributing Writers: Nate Bloom, Suzanne Chessler, Ben Falik, Louis Finkelman, Stacy Gittleman, Barbara Lewis, Karen Schwartz, Mike Smith, Steve Stein Advertising Sales Vice President of Sales and Business Development: Carol Kruemmer ckruemmer@renmedia.us Sales Manager: Keith Farber kfarber@renmedia.us Account Executives: Kelsey Cocke, Annette Kizy | Business Office Operations Manager: Andrea Gusho agusho@renmedia.us Operations Assistant / Event Coordinator: Ashlee Szabo Circulation: Danielle Smith Billing Coordinator: Pamela Turner | Production By Farago & Associates Manager: Scott Drzewiecki Designers: Jessica Joannides, Kelly Kosek, Michelle Sheridan | Detroit Jewish News Partner: Arthur M. Horwitz ahorwitz@renmedia.us Partner: F. Kevin Browett kbrowett@renmedia.us Partner: Michael H. Steinhardt How to reach us see page 10 continued on page 10