In my blog a few weeks back, I talked about the US brokered deal between Israel and the UAE. Within that blog I stated that “perhaps the most important thing about the agreement, is that it may just pave the way for other Arab countries to follow suit, and agree to normalize relations with Israel. The most likely to do so would be Oman, Bahrain, Sudan, and eventually the big prize, Saudi Arabia.”
Well last Friday, it was announced that Bahrain would indeed also normalize relations with Israel. That was followed up yesterday by an historic signing ceremony at the White House.
Disappointingly, but not unexpectedly, Nancy Pelosi called it “a distraction.” Rather than a distraction, it is truly a historic moment, that could be a major step towards peace and security, in a part of the world that has brought mostly tragedy and heartbreak for far too long.
How big a deal is it that these Arab nations are normalizing relations with their once bitter enemy, Israel? It’s a very big deal indeed – even though most of the mainstream press has, for the most part, downplayed the news. Had it been an Obama or Clinton administration that had accomplished these breakthroughs, there’s no question that the coverage would have been far more extensive, and congratulatory.
After all, only weeks after Barack Obama was sworn in as president, he was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. And at that point he had accomplished absolutely nothing, other than being elected president.
Speaking of Nobels, President Trump has now been nominated for two of them. First by a Norwegian parliamentarian, for brokering the normalization of relations between Israel and the UAE. Then he was nominated by a Swedish lawmaker for another Nobel Peace Prize, for brokering a peace deal between Serbia and Kosovo. Of course whether he actually receives the Nobel remains to be seen.
Whereas Democrats and their fans in the mainstream press uniformly pan President Trump’s foreign policy successes, his many accomplishments are undeniable. Among them: he promised to repeal the NAFTA trade deal, and he did, replacing it with the much improved USMCA. He promised to be tough on China, who’s been ripping us off for years, and he has been. He promised to pull the US out of the disastrous Iran deal, and he did. He promised to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, as other presidents had promised and failed to do. Trump actually did it. He said he’d insist on our NATO allies paying more for their own defense, and many of them are. He said he would defeat the ISIS caliphate, and he did. And of course the normalization of relations between Israel and a number of its Arab neighbors, is another great accomplishment.
I get it, it’s less than two months before a major election, and some have gone to their political corners, and see virtually everything through the prism of politics. But let’s take at least a moment, to celebrate a major step towards the possibility of a safer more peaceful world.
