Fast Takes: Dithering over Putins sabotage, Dems Rx to ice Alaska and other commentary

“The European Union and NATO may not openly be at war with their eastern neighbor, but Putin’s regime is waging” deniable attacks, warns Reason’s J.D.Tuccille.

If “Russia continues to send covert operatives or hire local criminals to burn, bomb, kill, or otherwise sabotage military and industrial targets in Europe as an extension of its war against Ukraine, the western allies are in a quandary”: How “to respond to attacks that are deliberately kept just below the threshold that would trigger an open response”? But “while Europe dithers, the Russians are constantly adjusting their perception of where that threshold lies.”“The Alaska Senate race is a toss-up this year, which is remarkable given how Democrats in Washington keep demonstrating their zeal to stop economic development in the state,” thunders the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board.Despite the oil industry’s economic value, “progressives want Alaska to be a nature preserve for tourism and dog-sled races.” “Trump II has opened more development leases for bidding” than did the Biden team, yet companies are “wary of investing in projects that can be shut down by the next Democratic administration.” Alaska GOP Sen.

Dan Sullivan’s bill “would have prevented leases in the coastal plain oil and gas leasing program from being canceled” regardless of a White House change, while his challenger, Mary Peltola, would vote “to put even more of Alaska’s vast energy resources in a deep political freeze.”“How do you un-recognize a state that never existed in the first place?” snarks Commentary’s Seth Mandel of French President Emmanuel Macron’s new pickle.Last year, when “France officially recognized ‘Palestine’,” Macron & Co.

explicitly linked it to Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas’ promise of new elections — yet last weekend “Abbas once again pulled the football away at the last minute, leaving Macron flat on his back in the mud.” Ha...