President Donald Trump’s visit to the Middle East May 20-23 has revamped US policy in the region and established two main positions: first, that Washington stands behind a coalition of Sunni Arab states allied against an expansionist and subversive Iran and radical Islamist organizations; and second, that the United States will act vigorously to bring about Israeli-Palestinian negotiations on an agreed solution to the historic conflict between the two peoples.
The day Trump was elected, but before the results were known, I wrote in Al-Monitor about a missile attack by Houthi rebels, Iranian proxies, from the Red Sea coast. I ended it on the following note: “Even if the next US administration preserves the nuclear agreement, the United States cannot remain indifferent to the new threat posed by Iran to the freedom of navigation between Asia and the West. Let’s hope that the role the United States assumes in this struggle will be consistent and leading, rather than transitory and marginal.”
Trump left no doubt that he would work to fulfill this modest wish during his visit to Saudi Arabia by unreservedly supporting the alliance of Arab states seeking to repulse the radicals in the Muslim world. In regard to Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, Trump clearly wants to be an honest broker. He is a friend of Israel and is committed to its security, but he does not accept the right wing’s ideological premise of Israel’s biblical right to absolute ownership of the entire Land of Israel. He also does not accept the right’s claim that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas does not want peace and is not a partner for making peace.
For the past five years, I have been urging the establishment of a defense pact between Israel and the Arab states that are as fearful as it is of Iran’s imperialistic policies. Such a pact should be a part of any Israeli-Palestinian agreement. The proposed pact would lend security significance to the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative and make Israel more secure and defensible without controlling another nation.
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