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David Harris Oped featured in
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Dear John,
Whatever one's view on the Trump era, his administration made
notable headway in the Middle East, writes AJC CEO David Harris in his
new Times of Israel blog.
Facilitating historic agreements between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain,
Sudan, and Morocco, taking a tougher approach regarding Iran and its
malign behavior, moving the U.S. Embassy to its rightful place in
Jerusalem, and messaging the Palestinians that time is not necessarily
on their side if they continue to reject two-state deals, are
significant developments that the incoming Biden administration should
consider in thinking about the region as it is today.
Join the nearly 77,000 people worldwide who follow David on Twitter
@DavidHarrisAJC.
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Best wishes,
Kenneth Bandler
AJC Director of Media Relations
"Shwaya, Shwaya" - Slowly, Slowly
The Times of Israel
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By David Harris
December 20, 2020
When our first-born child was three, he had an intense dislike for the
toddler daughter of my wife's good friend. It was quite
embarrassing. My wife tried to change his mind. One day, he looked at
her and said: "Mommy, you don't understand. I hate her so
much I even hate her shoes."
For many opposing President Trump, the dislike is so intense that it
might even come down to his shoes.
In the foreign policy realm, though, there's at least one area
where the current administration made notable headway that warrants
careful attention. It's the Middle East.
The incoming administration has an opportunity to build on the
developments of the past four years and might wish to bear in mind the
Arabic words "shwaya, shwaya" (slowly, slowly) before
making any dramatic changes of policy in this key region.
While some may have sneered at the seemingly whimsical conduct of
international relations by the current president, what's
actually been accomplished is quite noteworthy.
Most especially, of course, have been the normalization deals between
Israel and four Arab nations - UAE, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco.
No small feat. Only two deals preceded them - in 1979 with Egypt
and 1994 with Jordan. In other words, the number of Arab countries at
peace with Israel has tripled practically overnight.
Plus, a few other Arab countries have not yet signed agreements with
Israel, but their bilateral cooperation has nonetheless grown
exponentially. And there are some other nations in the wider Muslim
universe rethinking their traditional hostility to the Jewish state.
Several critics have attacked the "transactional" nature
of the four accords, but transactionalism is a key tool of foreign
policy (and also was employed in the deals with Egypt and Jordan). It
is in the American interest to nurture peace in the Middle East, as it
is in the American interest to deepen our links with friendly
countries there. And that is precisely what has been happening.
Moreover, this American approach has upended decades of embedded
Democratic and Republican thinking in Washington (not to mention
Europe) that all roads to Middle East peace lead through Ramallah, the
Palestinian Authority's seat of power.
That point was most famously suggested by Secretary of State John
Kerry, speaking at the Brookings Institution in December 2016:
"There will be no separate peace between Israel & the Arab
world...No, No, No & No." He meant the Palestinian issue would have to
be resolved before any other peace accords could be reached.
Looking ahead, that certainly does not mean leaving the Palestinian
issue behind, not at all. But the point of the Trump policy was to
signal to the Palestinians they can no longer singlehandedly drive the
Arab train, they can no longer veto Arab decisions that directly
affect their own national security and economic interests, and they
can no longer assume that a decades-long maximalist stance will serve
them well ad infinitum.
Just as four Arab countries made peace with Israel and are moving
swiftly to deepen ties, so the U.S. finally did what previous
Republican and Democratic administrations had pledged but failed to do
- move the American Embassy to Jerusalem and encourage other
countries to do the same.
No, the sky did not fall after Washington's decision to
acknowledge reality, but it did send another unmistakable message to
Ramallah that there are real-life consequences for failing to return
to the negotiating table and refusing one two-state proposal after
another.
And meanwhile, it was the UAE, not the Palestinian Authority, that
stopped Israel's proposed annexation of parts of the West Bank.
Suddenly, Israel had far more to lose by going ahead with extension of
Israeli sovereignty - jeopardizing burgeoning links with Abu
Dhabi - than stopping it dead in its tracks.
Then there is the JCPOA, the signature foreign policy issue of the
Obama presidency.
Three years later, President Trump withdrew the U.S. from the deal,
asserting it was fatally flawed and replacing it with a campaign of
maximum economic pressure.
Whether withdrawal was the right move or not, the fact is that simply
returning to the deal, as negotiated in 2015, would be an error
- or, for that matter, so would believing that once inside again
we could more easily revise the terms regarding ballistic missile
development, regional behavior, sunset clauses, and inspections of
suspected sites.
There is today American leverage generated by the punishing sanctions,
not to mention growing awareness in key European capitals, including
Berlin, that Iran's behavior in recent years has only grown more
brazen. Tehran has plotted terror attacks in Europe, kidnapped and
murdered journalists, sought clandestinely to acquire European
technology, supported Hezbollah activities on European soil, and
funded Islamist religious extremism across Europe, in addition to its
egregious violations of the JCPOA itself.
In other words, whatever the thinking about the Middle East may have
been until January 2017, regional circumstances have changed
dramatically in the past four years.
That gives the Biden team the chance to assess those changes and
factor them into the incoming administration's thinking. Indeed,
there's no reason why there couldn't be still more
breakthroughs on Israeli-Arab peace agreements, a chance to restart
Israeli-Palestinian talks and achieve tangible progress, and a more
hard-nosed approach to any new deal with Iran.
David Harris is the CEO of American Jewish Committee (AJC). Please
join 76,800 others and follow him on Twitter @DavidHarrisAJC.
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If you haven't already done so, please also join the growing community
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