Titus, Trump and the Triumph of Israel: The Power of Faith Based Diplomacy by Josh Reinstein

Author:Josh Reinstein
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Gefen Publishing House
Published: 2020-08-31T21:00:00+00:00

Diverging Foreign Policy

Misdiagnosing the conflict in the Middle East has also led to a divergence in foreign policy. Over the past decade, two contrasting perspectives have steered American Middle East policy in general, and America’s approach to Israel in particular. At the heart of the matter lies the different worldview policies of former president Barack Obama and President Donald Trump.

The Obama administration viewed the biggest challenge in the Middle East as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. More specifically, Israel and the so-called occupation were viewed as responsible for the lack of peace in the region. And therefore, America needed to put more pressure on Israel to make concessions; this, the president felt, would solve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and bring peace in the Middle East.

According to that doctrine, Israel was the biggest obstacle, while Iran provided the solution to the problem. Iran is a powerful nation that could bring order to the Middle East. The Obama administration, therefore, decided that the primary objective of US foreign policy was to reach an agreement with Iran. And former president Obama’s burning desire to placate Iran came at the expense of Israel, the US’s Sunni Arab allies, and the safety of millions across the world. The series of fierce uprisings, protests, and unrest called the Arab Spring that spread across the Middle East resulted from his attempt to bolster Iran and its influence in the region, to strengthen the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, Syria, and Lebanon.

While Obama believed that by pacifying Iran and putting pressure on Israel he had found the solution to many of the problems in the Middle East, the Trump doctrine is exactly the opposite. President Trump sees Iran as the main problem in the Middle East. The fact that Iran is a powerful country trying to develop nuclear weapons and infiltrating weaker countries – Lebanon, Yemen, Egypt, Libya, and Bahrain and encroaching on Syria – is the main cause of instability and conflict in the region. And Israel, as the only free democratic state in the Middle East, is seen as the beacon. By standing with Israel and confronting Iran, Trump could help bring about a peaceful solution.

These two contradictory perspectives led to different strategies, which in turn created incredibly different outcomes. The former administration’s emboldening of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Middle East and Iran led to the deaths of about two million Muslims, almost a million in Syria alone. It reached a point where, because of America’s support of the Muslim Brotherhood over Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, the Obama administration was considered persona non grata by Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the new president of Egypt, when he took power. This was a shocking turn of events since Egypt was always America’s top ally, after Israel, in the Middle East.

The Obama administration’s policy also led to Hezbollah taking over the government of Lebanon. This internationally recognized terrorist group is now the leading faction in the government of Lebanon and in the Syrian civil war. It also led to the

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