A book offers proof of the importance of standing firm in support of American principles and allies.
Before the first Trump administration upended nearly every piece of common knowledge about the Middle East, figures like former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry set the tone. In its relentless pursuit of a peace process that would end the Israel-Palestinian conflict—viewing Israeli concessions as the key to peace in the entire region—that tone was often quite negative. As in, “No, no, no and no,” Kerry’s infamous conclusion about the possibility of Israel reaching out to its other Arab neighbors. Trapped in a mindset shaped by abstract academic ideas about how to conduct diplomacy, U.S. administration after administration would get stuck on arranging frameworks for the possibility of negotiations for a sketch of what could someday, eventually, lead to discussions about a two-state solution. Palestinian intransigence and the Israeli public’s plummeting risk tolerance after decades of terror campaigns were simply an afterthought.
For all its imperfections, the Trump administration offered at least one indisputable positive. The 2020 Abraham Accords, which proved Kerry wrong (or contradicted his wish, depending on how you interpret his comments) by establishing peace between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco, have endured as a resounding “yes” to the possibility of progress without obsequiousness to the Palestinians. The question is now how many more Arab and Muslim nations will join. The Abraham Accords have brought cooperation and clarity to a region in desperate need of a unified front to counter Iran, which uses weapons and proxies to foment chaos and distrust.
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Tal Fortgang is an adjunct fellow at the Manhattan Institute. He was a 2023 Sapir Fellow.
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