Biden's Middle East blunder

 Jeff Dunetz:

On September 13, 2020 twenty-two months ago  President Trump announced the first of the Abraham Accords deals. The UAE agreed to recognize Israel, exchange diplomats, and begin economic cooperation. Over the next four months,  Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan were added to the list of countries making peace with the Jewish State, and we were told that other countries wanted to hop on the peace train.

Despite what he has said as he was about to depart for the Middle East the Biden Administration destroyed any chance of expanding the Abraham Accords because he rejected all the strategies that enabled the accords. Instead, he’s returned to the decades-long land-for-peace strategy that failed for Presidents of both the Republican and Democratic Parties,

The Abraham Accord negotiations were successful because of “out of the box” thinking. Biden and his team (many with an anti-Israel history) has crawled back into the box.

The Abraham Accords moderated by Trump and his team took a totally different approach. Instead of pushing Israel into an unsuccessful “land for peace” deal, they demanded all involved accept “peace for peace.” The supposed peace experts of previous administrations had always bloviated that no Arab country would ever formalize ties with Israel before a Palestinian state was created—the Trump team proved them wrong.

The Abraham Accords were the result of a multi-step strategy that most (especially Biden and his team) still don’t understand.

Step One: In January 2020, the Trump team introduced the “deal of the century,” A plan designed to make peace between Israel and the Palestinians. But it was more than a peace plan because, in a way, it “set up” the Palestinians. Trump understood the deal would have one of two results:

• The Palestinians will work with the administration and eventually adopt the plan (with changes), resulting in peace.
• The Palestinians will choose to not even participate in the creation of a deal. The patience of moderate Arab states, already strained because of the Palestinians’ refusal to compromise in previous deals would have their patience strained even further if Abbas declined to work with Trump on a peace proposal. This would create an opening for the U.S.to make peace deals with individual countries.

Trump correctly understood the moderate Arab States were tired of the Palestinians’ refusal to even try to make peace. They were tired of carrying the Palestinians— many of the moderate states were already dealing with Israel behind the scenes. Biden is trying to push the two-state solution as a first step.

Step Two:  Some Arab countries that were working with Israel behind the scenes were Sunni Muslim states such as the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan, and even the Saudis; They were working with Israel (quietly) because they believed that Shia Muslim Iran was an existential threat. By pulling out of the Iran nuke deal (the JCPOA) and pressuring Iran with increased sanctions. Trump proved to the Sunni countries that, unlike Obama, he had their backs against Iran.

Biden promised to go back into the JCPOA and normalize relations with Iran  He filled his foreign policy team  with people who helped to negotiate the deal under Obama. Thus he removed one of the incentives for the Sunni states to make peace with Israel. And his overtures to Iran angered many of our Sunni allies.

When he meets with Saudi crown prince,  Mohammed bin Salman later this week he will have to answer for calling Saudi Arabia a pariah state during his campaign for President. He will also face the wrath of Salman for his attempt to reenter a flawed nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia’s biggest enemy, Iran.

Step Three: Before the Abraham Accord deals, Jerusalem had to be recognized as Israel’s capital for the sake of making a deal. Thus following a law passed when Bill Clinton was President Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moved the U.S. embassy there. What this move accomplished was to take the religious component out of the equation. The Arab States who made peace would not be conceding what the Muslim’s third holiest city to Israel. It was a done deal.

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There is more.

Dunetz also points out that Trump's energy policy reduced the leverage of the Arab producers.  It is clear that Trump's policy was a good deal for everyone but the Iranian genocidal religious bigots that Biden has tried to cut a deal with.  Biden's Middle East policies are as idiotic as his energy policies.  Neither makes any sense.  They are both a step back to the failed policies of the past.