When you read the title of an article that says: “Biden Doesn't Need a New Middle East Policy,” followed by a subtitle that says: “The Trump Administration Got the Region Right,” you think that maybe this is meant to mock the current situation, or maybe there is a misunderstanding somewhere, because you know it isn't so.
We're talking about an article
that James F. Jeffrey wrote under that title and subtitle, and had it published
on January 15, 2021 in Foreign Policy. There can be no doubt that the title and
subtitle were written by someone other than the author of the article who could
not be of such split personality as to say one thing and highlight another
thing. So, here is an abbreviated version of what Jeffrey actually said:
“Trump made clear he would
support Israeli and Turkish actions against Iran and would rely on the Gulf
states to stand up to Tehran. The US would complement these efforts, selling
weapons. The administration was generally cautious about using military power.
The administration also made clear that it would openly back Israel when it
came to Palestinian issues. The jury is still out on whether the policy worked.
The result is a stalemate. Absent a negotiated solution, the messy war of
attrition will likely continue. Turkey's opposition to America's Syrian-Kurdish
partner in the northeast complicated the relationship. Over the last four
years, Trump scored two major successes in the Middle East––the Abraham Accords
and the destruction of ISIS's territorial caliphate in Iraq and Syria. Trump
did not solve the Iranian nuclear challenge. By recent Middle East standards
all this together is a respectable policy outcome”.
Nothing in that performance
warrants the description attributed to it by the title and subtitle of the
article. Yes, James Jeffrey is proud of the small accomplishments that were
scored having been a member of the team that worked on these matters, otherwise
Jeffrey made no fantastic claim. He does have his own prejudices, however, one
being that he considers an accomplishment, Trump siding openly with Israel
against the Palestinians on matters relating to Palestine.
A common misrepresentation
James Jeffrey has repeated, is that of America defeating ISIS in Syria. This is
patently false because the truth is that Assad's ground forces backed by
Russia's air force were the ones that destroyed ISIS in Syria. In fact, they
did it despite the reality that ISIS and the other terror groups which came
from around the world, were armed and financed by America and its allies.
This being one of the two
major successes James Jeffrey says were scored by Donald Trump over his
four-year tenure as President of the United States, let's look at the other
claim. It is the so-called Abraham Accords. We must be careful now because
history will not be fooled as to what happened in this case. Here is what
really happened:
Donald Trump told Jared
Kushner to sit with Benjamin Netanyahu and write the plan that will satisfy the
latter's limitless greed. Kushner did exactly that, and when their demonic
scheme was presented to the Arabs, it was dead on arrival. Some people called
the scheme more stinky than a used toilet paper, but as Ahmadinejad would say
it, this was like the cloth in which you blow your nose.
Having tried and failed,
Donald Trump gave up on this project, and so did Jared Kushner that had no idea
how to approach a task of this kind to begin with. As to Netanyahu, he wrung
his hands with glee because maintaining the status quo is what he wanted all
along. But then it happened that the polls in America started showing that
Donald Trump was slipping, and that he could lose the bid to get reelected
President of the United States. A panicky Trump got on the phone and told
Netanyahu to accept the Arab Initiative that has been on the table for nearly
two decades, or else.
Netanyahu had no choice but to
do what he is known doing shamelessly: he spoke from both sides of his mouth.
He said yes from one side of the mouth, and said maybe from the other side. A
number of Arab countries told him to start giving the Palestinians their
country back, and Netanyahu said he wanted time to work things with his
partners. The Arabs said they don't have an eternity, and Netanyahu said he has
the wild card known as the joker. The Arabs asked, “what is that?” and
Netanyahu said: Watch me.
Upon this, Netanyahu played
the wild card for the fourth time in a row. He did it by calling for a
so-called election because it is the trick that's supposed to make him look
democratic, hip and chic without having to demonstrate any level of
intellectual honesty.
So, this is the legacy that
Donald Trump is leaving behind for future historians to look at and marvel at
the American disarray that has been plaguing our time.
Also, without allowing for the possibility that James Jeffrey might have been mocking the so-called accomplishments of Donald Trump, this will be the history that future students will look at and wonder: Why the hell do we have to waste time studying this sort of nonsense?