Can PEN survive Gaza, EPA driving for power outages and other commentary

Speech desk: Can PEN Survive Gaza?

It’s “entirely possible that PEN America may not survive” the assault from pro-Hamas activists, including the forced cancellation of a festival, over claims the free-speech group is too pro-Israel, reports The Atlantic’s Gal Beckerman. “Can an organization that sees itself as above politics, that sees itself straightforwardly as a support system for an open society, be allowed to exist anymore?” Not as long as critics “see it as a channel to express their political views.” Yet it seems dubious that the anti-PEN groups “really appreciate exactly who will be most hurt if they achieve their goal” — people like “like Aatish Taseer, who turned to PEN America at a moment of need” after Narendra Modi canceled his visa over a critical article Taseer wrote in Time. 

From the right: EPA Driving for Power Outages

New regulations from the EPA “will effectively force coal plants to shut down while banning new natural-gas plants,” according to The Wall Street Journal’s editors. One rule “requires that coal plants and new gas-fired plants adopt costly and unproven carbon-capture technology by 2032,” in defiance of the law that allows mandating only

“adequately demonstrated” tech. Along with other issues, this “will discourage the development of new gas-fired plants even as coal plants that currently generate about 16% of the country’s power are forced to retire” — even as “demand for power is surging amid new manufacturing needs and an artificial intelligence boom.” Bottom line: “Americans didn’t face energy rationing in Mr. Biden’s first term, but they might in a second.”

Campus beat: ‘Ignorant Lemmings’ in the Tents

In the “pro-Palestine” college protests, thunders Commentary’s Seth Mandel, “plenty of the followers are, like lots of the protest leaders, bigoted sociopaths. But it is in many ways just as upsetting that the narrative is being set — and that policy is getting changed — by ignorant lemmings.” He flags one pair of NYU protesters: The first admits, “I think the goal is just showing our support for Palestine and demanding that NYU stops — I honestly don’t know all of what NYU’s doing,” then asks another, “Why are we protesting?” only to hear, “I wish I was more educated.” Mourns Mandel: “Get enough of these bobbleheads together and you can scare the president of the United States away from vetoing a UN Security Council resolution on Gaza.” It’s time to “stop excusing the people who plead ignorance as they follow murder-minded grad students.”

Conservative: Biden Will Blink Again

“What will we do about Russian GPS jamming over the Baltic Sea, which is starting to increase the risk of civilian passenger airliner accidents?” asks National Review’s Jim Geraghty. “Nothing,” since President Biden’s “foreign policy instincts . . . are always to avoid anything that could remotely be considered escalatory, hawkish or aggressive by a foe.” “You want to send a signal to the Russians? Unleash US Cyber Command and turn off the Internet access to someplace like Internet Research Agency in St. Petersburg,” or: “Make the lights flicker in Kaliningrad or at that air base in Pskov. Send some proportional nuisance interference to Russian systems.” “The US has the ability to send a wide variety of warning shots,” yet, clearly, “we just don’t have the will.”

Mideast beat: Why Iran’s Targeting US Bases Again

Any deal with Iran to end attacks on US bases in the Mideast “has apparently run its course,” observe Jonathan Sweet & Mark Tot hath The Hill; Iran’s proxies have resumed targeting US assets, believing it’s “safer to go after U.S. targets than Israeli targets” — since “Israel strikes back.” Says Israel’s defense minister: “Half of the Hezbollah commanders in southern Lebanon have been eliminated.” By contrast, note Sweet & Toth, President Biden’s “ ‘don’t’ has not deterred anything.” Tehran’s war “isn’t about Palestine” anyway, but about . . . dominating the region. It’s doing all it can divide the U.S. and Israel,” and its front lines have expanded to US universities. Khameini even tweeted a picture of a Hezbollah flag being waved in New York, likely thinking “I did that.”

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board