Misunderstanding the Middle East
What is Trump doing?
The question must be asked.
After enduring perhaps the most vicious, mendacious, craven American “president” in history (and the company is crowded with the likes of Obama, LBJ, etc.), our country and our allies like Israel are thrilled that Donald Trump overcame all odds and won the presidency again. Thank God, literally.
And it is also worth noting that we have to give a new president some time before we do a postmortem on his efforts.
Yet the President’s Middle East policy is a little confusing right now. I actually think he doesn’t thoroughly understand the region, and some of his advisors are, unfortunately, a warmed-over version of the dolts that served Clinton, the Bush family, and Obama. Really, all the way back to Truman and Roosevelt.
For decades, we’ve had foreign policy “experts” that are expert from Cambridge or Harvard. Policy wonks and theoretical political science junkies. Jack Kennedy is probably the only modern president that visited Israel long before he became president. So did his brother, Bobby. JFK visited Palestine in 1939 and wrote long letters back home with his impressions. He was generally very supportive of the Jewish state once he entered the Oval Office.
Trump is no doubt sincere in his warm views of Israel and Jews. He is genuine.
And his bold policy proposals (such as the very correct concept of moving the Arabs out of the Gaza Strip) are stunning in their brilliance. It has been obvious to everyone for decades that Oslo was a devilish proposal that only led to the murder of more Jews. The new American policy is as different from the evil Biden Regime as it could get. The U.S. is virtually giving Israel a greenlight to do whatever they want, including attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities. That should have happened long ago but it isn’t too late.
But by my count, Trump has now threatened Hamas with destruction four times. Each ultimatum that passes sends a signal to the primitive-thinking terrorists.
Much of the problem is that he is not on the same page regarding the hostages. In this I have to side with Trump. Jewish value of human life is extraordinarily high. But it is handicapping Israel’s ability to totally destroy Hamas, which is necessary.
Benjamin Netanyahu is the consummate politician. I believe he’s a Zionist, but he’s also a pragmatic one. His chief accomplishment in the last 30 years is pushing-off a Palestinian state. He is himself held hostage right now though by leftist forces in his own country, along with the families of the hostages. The West for a long time has fought wars not to win them, but to contain the enemy. It doesn’t work. It is kicking the can down the road.
Trump seems to be fairly open about giving Israel every greenlight imaginable. Yet Israel is hesitating to go finish-off Hamas. If there are 59 hostages left, with perhaps half of them alive, Hamas is allowed to control the narrative. It is incredible to me that Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, is sitting down with Hamas in Qatar. This is unconscionable.
It doesn’t help that political commentators like Tucker Carlson are apologists for Qatar. There is an anti-Israel element within the Trump orbit (there always is in Washington, regardless of the administration). While the Man is a white knight, there are always others in the Deep State that hate Jews and hate Israel for existing.
Every week now, we are hearing that Hamas doesn’t have long to live. We can pray for an Entebbe-style hostage rescue, but the first priority must be totally eradicating the enemy. Trump’s promise to bring hell on them must be implemented.
Problems in the ME are mushrooming. Syria is now taken over by jihadists. Jordan and Egypt are pushing-back against Trump’s plan to relocate Arabs out of Gaza. Notice just a few bullet points from the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center:
- Iran condemned the continued Israeli attacks in Syria and called for international intervention to stop Israel’s activity. Israel’s threats to retaliate in the event of an attack by the Syrian regime on the Druze aroused interest from the Iranian media, which accused Israel of trying to divide the Syrian state for its own interests.
- The Houthis threatened that if fighting between Hamas and Israel in the Gaza Strip resumed, they would resume attacking Israel and also threatened to strike American bases in the Middle East. The US administration officially added the Houthis to the list of terrorist organizations.
- The pro-Iranian militias in Iraq refused the Baghdad government’s proposals to disarm and merge with the security forces.
Wow! That’s just right now. Trump has his work cut out for him. A huge help going forward would be to follow-through on threats.
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