When President Donald Trump took office, he inherited a Middle East that included an ISIS caliphate, an Iran that had recently entered into the infamous Obama Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal, which strengthened it both economically and militarily, and terrorism in Israel that claimed the lives of an average of 20 citizens per year.
The jihadist elements in the Middle East were ascendant and emboldened. Trump took a revolutionary approach to foreign policy. Rather than seeking peace through negotiation and accommodation with one’s adversaries, Trump chose the path of strengthening and rewarding those countries who were friends, both in practice and in potential. The idea is simple. Weaken the bad actors while incentivizing good behavior.
Trump pulled out of the JCPOA and curtailed Iran’s primary source of income through sanctions. One result was that Hamas, Hezbollah, and the other Iranian terror proxies were short on funds. He then went about destroying ISIS and killing Iranian terror chief Qasem Soleimani in a much-publicized targeted hit.
He also signed into law and enforced the Taylor Force Act (TFA), which prevents the US from sending any funds to the Palestinian Authority (PA) as long as it continues to pay the families of terrorist murderers. Israel’s enemies, and America’s, were on their back foot.
An amazing thing happened. Terrorism in Israel almost completely vanished. In 2018, with the passing of the TFA (and its first year of enforcement), terrorist murders in Israel fell to 14, the lowest in five years. In 2019, the year that all US aid to the PA ceased, the number of murder victims fell to 11. In 2020 it fell further to three.
Concurrent with his sanctioning and the weakening of the proponents and funders of jihad, Trump embraced a relationship with the Saudis, delivering his first major foreign policy address in Riyadh early in his presidency. The message was clear. Those states that desire peaceful engagement rather than terror will be rewarded.
The foreign policy establishment was wrong
Confirmation of the success of Trump’s approach was evident in what became the greatest “dog that didn’t bark” story in living memory – the move of the US embassy to Jerusalem. For decades, the unanimous wisdom of foreign policy experts was that moving the embassy would cause a Mideast war and violent riots across the Muslim world.
Trump defied this prevailing “wisdom” and went ahead with the move. And despite decades of shrill warnings, nothing happened. No war. No riots across the Arab world.
If we are looking for the true Arab reaction to the embassy move, let’s remember that the Abraham Accords, which brought a new era of peace and partnership to the Middle East, were negotiated and implemented after the opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem. The most significant effect of the embassy move was that it exposed the fact that decades of consensus among foreign policy elites was just plain wrong. Rather than sparking a regional war, the move of the US embassy to Jerusalem was critical to ushering in a new era of peace across the region.
Two months after taking office, on March 26, 2021, the Biden administration announced that it would send $75 million to the PA to regain the “trust and goodwill” of the Palestinians in the wake of the Trump administration’s cuts in aid. The State Department made it known at that time that this payment was only the beginning of a renewed pledge to support the PA, making it clear at the time that renewal of aid would not be contingent on any change in PA policy.
In other words, the Biden administration brazenly declared their intent to violate the TFA. Let’s recall that the TFA is not an executive order or Trump-era policy. It is United States law.
What happened next should not surprise anyone.
The year 2021 saw 17 Israelis murdered by Arab terrorists, the highest number since 2015. It is worth noting that all these murders took place after the renewal of American financial aid to the PA at the end of March, a full quarter into the year. Not surprisingly, 2022 saw yet another rise in terror victims, with 24 Israelis murdered by Arab terrorists. And even before the Hamas invasion, 2023 had been even deadlier.
The Biden administration also began working to enrich Iran. They ceased enforcement of sanctions on the Iranian oil and petrochemical industry, enriching Tehran to the tune of tens of billions of dollars. Hezbollah and Hamas were again an affordable luxury for the Persian jihadist mullahs.
The Biden administration began negotiating with Iran to restart the JCPOA, the nuclear deal that Israel has always said endangers its national security. And in January of 2022, Biden declared Qatar, a regime that funds terrorism in Gaza and elsewhere in the region, “a major non-NATO strategic ally.”
Along the way, the administration distanced itself from the Abraham Accords and alienated the Saudis and moderate Gulf states enough that they are now more closely aligned with China and cooperating in Beijing’s plans to end the prime-reserve status of the US dollar. In short, the Biden administration chose the jihadists over the moderates in the Gulf and Riyadh.
It was widely reported that the Biden administration unfroze $6 billion in Iranian assets just weeks before October 7. And then, in an even more stunning move, last month, on November 14, Biden granted Iran $10 billion in sanctions relief while Israel was battling Iran’s proxy, Hamas. It should be noted that Biden has still never called out Iran or Qatar for their funding of Hamas and Hezbollah.
And this past week, while visiting Israel, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters: “The massive loss of civilian life and displacement of the scale that we saw in northern Gaza must not be repeated in the South,” and that “It is imperative that Israel act in accordance with international humanitarian law, and the laws of war.” In other words, Blinken implicitly accused Israel of having previously disregarded international law and of wantonly killing Gazan civilians.
While the US has been providing vital military aid to Israel, as Trump surely would have as well, Israeli leaders have repeatedly stated openly that the US is using this aid to pressure Israel into decisions that run counter to its strategic interests.
Almost every Mideast policy implemented by the Biden administration, and Obama before him, has weakened Israel and strengthened her enemies. For the sake of Israel’s security, and for the sake of peace in the Middle East, bring back Donald Trump.
The writer, a rabbi, is co-host of the Shoulder to Shoulder podcast. He can be reached at rabbi@jewsfortrump.org