Photo Credit:Middle Eastern map
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In the Middle East, Trump's ascent means the friends of Israel and enemies of Iran can move forward to counter the mullah regime.Few people I know trust our government to be truthful.
Perhaps the greatest lie of consequence is an executive-level decision by our country’s leaders to hide Iran’s non-stop efforts to develop a nuclear weapon, the means to deliver it, and its operational uses. It is happening yet all we hear is silence.
Why have Democratic presidents continually protected Iranians this century?
Why did the Biden administration publicly support Israel while effectively knifing it in the back on the world stage and remaining silent as other nations joined in supporting terrorists over America’s greatest ally?
The Middle East will converge into two distinct spheres of influence under a new Trump regime, one led by America and the other led by religious and ideological tyrants.
The reality of daily life in five countries reveals the inherent instability.
• Israel — pluralistic, modern, growing, and militarily the strongest single actor in the region by a wide margin.
• Iran — backward-looking, militarily weak, economically shrinking, unstable in population, and led by religious zealots that reject Western values and sow false narratives that are widely believed.
• Syria — with the overthrow of Assad, a tribal country that will either swing to be just another Jihadist nation or break the mold and move to become a more pluralistic and stable country.
• Saudi Arabia — a country with a tortured history that would seem to favor the worst elements of Jihadism but under the titular leadership of Mohammed bin Salman, nevertheless charting a path much more akin to Switzerland than traditional Muslim caliphates have in the past.
• The UAE — another country with deep resources and an interest in creating a modern version of Islam that is more secular and less strident. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum works closely with other moderate Gulf States that envision the Middle East as the hub of a modern world where commerce is valued more than religious domination.
Saudi Arabia, Israel, the UAE, and other Gulf States have worked with Israel for more than 25 years against the threat posed by Iran within the region and the more significant and violent conflict that Iran believes must come for their version of Islam to survive.
Sometimes, quietly, while at other times more openly, one Arab nation after another has developed military, intelligence, and economic ties with Israel.
Sharing an understanding that on the day that Iran goes for broke and reveals its nuclear capabilities, their populations will have already reaped the benefits of a strong connection to the West and will officially announce their military, political, and economic alliances with Israel and the West; it has already begun, isolating Iran and preventing it from playing one country off against another.
The Abraham Accords are more than just political normalization; they represent only the first of several steps.
The Accords signal an intent to join the 21st century, including peace in the region and with Israel. The events of the past 450-plus days have shown Israel’s strength, underscoring Iran’s weakness. Applying a little additional pressure each day and doing what must be done to Iran to contain them is now politically acceptable and inevitable after the fall of the Biden regime.
Expect:
1. A region-wide understanding that Iran must not be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons at any cost. These are already made much easier by Israel’s recent counterattacks.
2. Sectarian and internecine violence no longer serves the interests of most of the ruling powers that needed a bogeyman (Israel) as an excuse for the failure of their countries’ abysmal standards of living and political excesses, especially among the non-oil- and natural gas-producing nations.
3. Middle Eastern leaders have been some of the most politically astute for generations. Oil will diminish in importance over the next 100 years.
China, Russia, and the U.S. will increasingly court Middle Eastern nations with huge sovereign wealth funds to their sides.
Communist China is a dangerous long-term play; Russia has a history of unreliability and duplicity.
Only the United States aligns with many of the imperatives major Middle East countries require. There is a certain inevitability that only a stable, rule-of-law country like the United States can provide.
We frequently allude to the notion that nothing is as powerful as an idea whose time has come.
While many Middle Easterners live subsistence-level lives, a growing number have risen out of poverty, and many leaders in the region have begun to realize that they cannot compartmentalize their nations against the chaos, destruction, and evil that moves across borders like a swarm of locusts.
The time has arrived that this region desires to join the rest of the developed and developing world and get past its sectarian roots.
The major impediment to this is Iran. Qatar, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia, among several Middle Eastern nations, placated Iran, the Palestinians, and other sects as a means of buying off the plague of sectarianism.
It has not worked, and the price they have paid for partial peace has seen too many of their nations fall behind other regional cohorts. With the inevitability of oil and gas depleting over time, more leaders are seeing the necessity of finding a different, peaceful, and permanent integration with the West.
The Palestinian question must be resolved and removed from the stranglehold it has on the region. This may be Trump’s single most important foreign policy challenge.
We often hear that this or that could have been prevented if we had the benefit of hindsight. We know that Iran’s malign intent threatens not just Israel but that of the world. We have been warned; what we do with that thought should be ringing in our ears.
God bless America.
Allan J. Feifer is a patriot, author, businessman, thinker, and strategist. Read more about Allan, his background, and his ideas to create a better tomorrow at www.1plus1equals2.com.
Image: Library of Congress, via Picryl // public domain
