Last Friday's summit meeting in Alaska was short on substance but long on symbolism.

For example, following the talks, Russian President Vladmir Putin laid flowers on the graves of Soviet World War II servicemen at Fort Richardson National Cemetery.

He was attempting to convey that since the U.S. and Russia were allies in the greatest conflict of the 20^th century, surely they can be friends in the current era.

But here's a pesky historical reminder: In 1939, Communist dictator Josef Stalin made a 10-year non-aggression pact with Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler to divide Eastern Europe between them. On June 22, 1941, to Stalin's shock, Hitler invaded Russia.

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At a UN Security Council meeting on Sunday, U.S. Amb. Dorothy Shea offered an indisputable observation about the ongoing conflict in Gaza: "This war could end today if Hamas would let the hostages and all of Gaza go free."

France, Britain, and Germany, as stalwart American allies, backed her up.

I wish that were true.

In fact, the envoys from these three countries condemned Israel's plan to take on the Hamas forces still controlling Gaza City, asserting that such action will "worsen an already catastrophic situation."

So, they proposed an alternative approach.

I wish that were true, too

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President Trump is now seeing Vladimir Putin through clearer eyes. I suspect Melania deserves much of the credit.

As Mr. Trump has recounted, after phone conversations with Russia's longtime ruler, he'd tell the First Lady: "You know, I spoke to Vladimir today, we had a wonderful conversation." And she'd reply: "Oh really? Another city was just hit."

Among the Ukrainian cities Mr. Putin has hit with missiles and drones after such conversations: Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, and Odesa. Among Mr. Putin's targets: kindergartens, hospitals, schools, and residential apartment buildings.

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The Arab Spring was the media's name for a wave of protests – some peaceful, some violent – against various Middle Eastern dictatorships between 2010 and 2012.

Demonstrations against Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad began in 2011. With unbridled brutality, he attempted to suppress them.

In what soon became a full-blown civil war, Mr. Assad slaughtered an estimated 600,000 Syrians and displaced more than 13 million.

Participating in these crimes were Hezbollah, Tehran's Lebanon-based proxy, and forces deployed by Vladimir Putin, Russia's longtime ruler.

The fall of the Assad regime last December was an unintended consequence of the war that Hamas, another Tehran proxy, launched against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

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"You don't make peace with friends. You make it with very unsavory enemies."

That aphorism, attributed to former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, has always struck me as more hopeful than convincing.

Americans didn't make peace with the Nazis. We made peace with those we permitted to hold power in Germany after we decisively defeated the Nazis.

Today, there is no conceivable way that Israel can make peace with Hamas, a military wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, and a Tehran-backed terrorist organization committed to jihad, the annihilation of Israel, and the genocide of Israelis.

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