Israel’s failure to impose its will on Iran should be treated not as a disaster but as a reality check, exposing the limits of military force and the urgent need to end a politics built on permanent war.

The chorus line, from the right and the “left” (not counting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu): an Israeli defeat, a diplomatic disaster, Trump turned his back on us and Steven Witkoff is a Jewboy. The nation is lamenting a calamity, defeat and a near Holocaust.

The Bennetts immediately jump in and promise a fix. They will restore relations with the United States and bring Israel back to the killing fields to finish the job. That is their only promise on a particularly auspicious day.

But it is neither a disaster nor a Holocaust. In the war with Iran, Israel went through what psychologists call reality testing, during which it was shown the truth. And that could be the most positive development in recent memory if only the country draws the right conclusions. The so-called disaster may turn into a historic opportunity.

In one of its previous........

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