U.S. President Donald Trump’s Middle East policy contains three steps that don’t really make sense as a whole. All three steps concern both Turkey and Israel, and as they all intertwine, it is obligatory to reinterpret all approaches of international relations through the lens of the U.S.’s plans in the Middle East.
If we were to start from the end, Trump’s Syria policy, which has recently been criticized for making too many concessions for Turkey, is considered to have especially ruined Israel’s plans that have been ongoing for six decades and were expected to leave a mark on the upcoming century.
The second one is the “Deal of the Century” which aimed to normalize relations between Middle East Arab nations and Israel, and execute the plan to have Jerusalem recognized as Israel’s capital. The first step taken in accordance with this decision was the U.S. declaration that it recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital city.
Frankly, not even Israel was expecting this much. While Trump, who, through a sudden decision, took a step no U.S. president until now dared to, pleased Israel, he also drew the ire of Arab nations. Though it is unclear what the next steps may be, based on the current situation, it was for Arab states to also accept this plan. The support Arab leaders, who convened in Bahrain upon the initiative of Jared Kushner, gave to this plan led to serious divisions and debates among themselves.
Trump’s third step concerning the Middle East, or his attitude concerning the situation that emerged, is the vast shield of protection he provided for Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman with respect to the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
It is possible to explain this with the large-scale financial exchange between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, yet without a doubt, it is also related to a sense of loyalty to the support guaranteed by the crown prince in the deal of the century, which is being carried out under Kushner’s coordination. The gravity of the price paid to the crown prince for the sake of Israel has even become the subject of criticisms of Israeli lobbies among the American public.
These three instances of Trump’s are far from pleasing Israel. While it is considered that the last step taken with respect to Turkey has nullified all previous steps, things are not going as thought concerning the deal of the century either. The normalizing steps promised to Arab countries are not being taken, and Arab nations are reinforcing the attitude that considers normalizing relations with Israel as the “greatest betrayal.”
The November-December issue of Foreign Policy magazine contains an article titled “Why Trump's Middle East Plan Can't Work,” by Martin Indyk, a former Israel ambassador for the U.S. and author of the book titled, “Henry Kissinger and the Art of the Middle East Deal.” In this article, Indyk gives important information concerning the background of the deal of the century, which has made Trump the hero of Israel and Zionist Jewish lobbies, while also explaining that the plan is far from reality and has no chance of success.
According to the information provided by Indyk, the principle of the plan is based on the deal between Kushner and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Though Salman has promised that he would support this plan to the end, over time it has become clear that he does not have the power to provide the support he promised. Salman promised Kushner that Saudi Arabia would remain quiet with respect to Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital city, and that any voices that may rise in Arab streets would be silenced in less than three months. He also promised in 2017 that he would have Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to sit at the negotiation table under the conditions demanded by Trump, and for this, he offered Abbas a bribe of $10 billion, but Abbas rejected the offer.
Salman, who did this based on the assumption that bribery would always be more effective on Palestinians and Middle Eastern nations than tyranny, is now going through a great fiasco as he undermined the Palestinians’ sensitivities regarding Jerusalem and their resistance culture. Bribery not only failed to fool the Palestinians, but it also proved disastrous as a key to open Jerusalem’s doors in terms of Jordanian King Abdullah. Even the threat that the aid received annually from the U.S. would be cut off could not persuade King Abdullah to get on board with the deal of the century.
Of course, the matter Salman failed to foresee and as a result misguided Trump on, was that his own father, Saudi Arabian King Salman bin Abdulaziz denounced this plan. According to Indyk, this, as a matter of fact, was not something that could not be calculated. Expecting any Saudi king to completely give up on Jerusalem and Palestinians despite all good relations with the U.S. could be no more than wishful thinking.
Can anybody see the kind of Middle East political map the U.S. is revealing through all these steps? What happened to the great U.S. that it has been exposed to such an amateur mess in foreign policy?
