I have said it before, and I will say it again: in a just world, Donald Trump would have gotten the Nobel Prize for the Abraham Accords.
Unfortunately, we live in a world where Barack Obama got it for merely existing and knowing how to dress well enough to keep a crease in his pants impeccably sharp.
I thought of this again as I watched the attack on Israel by Iran unfold. It seemed clear to me that it wasn’t just the United States, Great Britain, and Israel who were defending the Jewish state while under Iranian attack: it was the entire Arab world as well.
How an American-led effort that was years in the making, and hadn’t been battle-tested, was able to repel Iran’s missile barrage against Israel https://t.co/sQ8lvuCqzK via @WSJ
— David Strom (@DavidStrom) April 15, 2024
Trump understood in a way other policymakers never did that Israel and the Arab world share similar foreign policy interests and that the Arab world understands that mutual good relations would benefit all concerned. The Palestinians have long since used up their victim credits with Arab leaders, and their alliance with Iran–an aggressive non-Arab country–made them nothing less than an enemy of most Middle-Eastern countries.
It is of course true that the “Arab street” is still filled with hostility to Israel, but the same can hardly be said for the people in power across the Arab world, so when Jared Kushner was dispatched to the Middle East to forge a deal he found a receptive audience.
We saw the results this weekend: as Iran attacked Israel, its neighbors quietly came to its aid. It was an easy choice, too.
As hundreds of Iranian drones and missiles winged across the Middle East Saturday night, a defensive line of radars, jet fighters, warships and air-defense batteries from Israel, the U.S. and a half dozen other countries was already activated against the long-feared attack from Iran.
Almost nothing got through to Israel.
The formidable display of collective defense was the culmination of a decades-old but elusive U.S. goal to forge closer military ties between Israel and its longtime Arab adversaries in an effort to counter a growing common threat from Iran.
But the U.S.-led effort to protect Israel in the days and hours before the Iranian attack had to overcome numerous obstacles, including fears by Gulf countries at being seen as coming to Israel’s aid at a time when relations are badly strained by the war in Gaza.
Much of the cooperation Saturday night that led to the shooting down of the Iranian-directed barrage needed to be forged on the fly, and many details about the role played by Saudi Arabia and other key Arab governments are being closely held.
Forged on the fly? Perhaps tactically. But the strategic conditions that made that cooperation possible were created under Donald Trump’s leadership.
Remember when the foreign policy establishment screamed bloody murder because Trump moved our embassy to Israel? It was supposed to be the death knell to whatever role the US had in keeping the Middle East stable.
The opposite happened. As Westerners screamed, Arabs sat down to negotiate. A new security regime was created, and all to the good.
Efforts to build an integrated air-defense system for the region date back decades. After years of false starts and minimal progress, the initiative gained momentum after the 2020 Abraham Accords brokered by the Trump administration, which established formal ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
Two years later, the Pentagon shifted Israel from its European Command to Central Command, which includes the rest of the Middle East, a move that enabled greater military cooperation with Arab governments under U.S. auspices.
“Israel’s move into Centcom was a game changer,” making it easier to share intelligence and provide early warning across countries, said Dana Stroul, who until December was the most senior civilian official at the Pentagon with responsibility for the Middle East.
One of the reasons I have been “soft” on Qatar is that I suspect its relations with Hamas and other extremists is purely tactical and implicitly approved of by the US and Israel. Qatar is a top-tier ally of the US and is a key part of CENTCOM, and now Israel is as well. For all intents and purposes, the two countries work together behind the scenes.
It looks ugly. At times it is ugly. But it pays dividends often enough.
In March 2022, Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie, then the top U.S. commander in the region, convened a secret meeting of top military officials from Israel and Arab countries to explore how they could coordinate against Iran’s growing missile and drone capabilities. The talks, held at Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, marked the first time that such a range of ranking Israeli and Arab officers met under U.S. military auspices to discuss countering Iran.
“The Abraham Accords made the Middle East look different…because we could do things not just under the surface but above it,” a senior Israeli official said. Joining Central Command enabled even more technical cooperation with Arab governments. “That’s what created this alliance,” the official said.
The truth is that Machiavelli rules when it comes to foreign policy, and in the case of the Middle East, the real enemy is Iran.
That’s why Biden’s appeasement policies toward Iran are so bizarre. Iran will never be an ally as long as the Ayatollas are in charge, but its implacable hostility has allowed the US to cobble together an alliance between former enemies and solidify US dominance in the region.
Biden’s attacks on Saudi Arabia have been a disaster, and his appeasement of Iran has empowered it to become an important Russian ally and a thorn in the side of anybody who wants stability and peace. Iran is the author of most violence in the region, yet the US is funding it.
Insane.
The Biden Administration blamed Trump for Iran’s attacks over the weekend, but the truth is that it was Trump’s policies and diplomacy that saved Israel from a devastating defeat. Trump forged the alliances that brought Arab states and Israel together enough to create a coordinated air defense that beat back Iran’s drone strike.
Thank you Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦 for standing with Israel 🇮🇱
Time to formalize the relationship between the countries 🕊️
_ pic.twitter.com/Zucbt1vyFR— Dr. Eli David (@DrEliDavid) April 15, 2024
That Saudi Arabia is willing to admit helping Israel openly is thanks to Trump’s diplomacy. That Iran attacked Israel and sponsors Hamas’ war is thanks to Joe Biden.
Trump was always best on foreign policy and weakest on undermining the deep state. Let’s hope he steps up his game domestically if and when he returns to power.