None of what we’re watching unfold in the Middle East right now had to happen. It could have all been avoided, and still could be, even now.

The ethnic cleansing and mass murder in Gaza could end, the Houthi attacks on international shipping could stop, the wider, catastrophic war that day by day gets closer to breaking out in the Middle East could be prevented.

All it would take is doing the one thing that president Joe Biden has refused to do, in the face of all political logic, common sense, and public pressure: support a permanent cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, and use the enormous power and leverage Washington has over the tiny Middle Eastern country to make it stop its war on Gaza.