Sunday, October 25, 2020

Peace in the Middle East

Peace is breaking out in the Middle East. What with Sudan signing an accord with Israel, Trump’s diplomacy seems to be working. Considering that John Kerry, a man who is being considered for yet another government job, insisted that it couldn’t be done, we now have further confirmation of the sheer vapidity of John Kerry. 


Anyway, ABC News and even the New York Times are touting Trump’s achievement. Heck, even CNN pronounced it a significant foreign policy accomplishment. (Via Hot Air and Maggie’s Farm)


ABC reported:


Either way, Friday's events mark a historic new chapter, 18 months after the Sudanese people overthrew their strongman leader in mass protests. Facing fuel and food shortages and sky-high inflation, Sudan is desperate for international assistance, humanitarian aid, and foreign investment, all of which have been stymied or outright blocked by U.S. sanctions.


Despite the advances, several critical hurdles remain, including for the U.S. victims of terror attacks who have legal claims against Sudan.


In an agreement reached between the State Department and Sudan's transitional government, the country agreed to pay $335 million to the victims of the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, victims of the USS Cole attack, and the family of murdered USAID employee John Granville.


The New York Times was less sanguine, but at least it was balanced.


About all that Israelis could truly savor in Friday’s announcement by President Trump that he had fostered another diplomatic breakthrough was its symbolic value: Sudan was the scene of the Arab League’s defiant 1967 Khartoum Resolution. Soon after Israel’s victory in the Six-Day War, the league’s members all vowed in the resolution “No to peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with Israel.”


Suddenly, Sudan, of all the Arab countries, was saying yes to all of the above.


In that sense, even the limited economic and trade relations that President Trump ballyhooed on Friday as a victory “for peace in the world” would drive another nail in the coffin of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s old strategy of maintaining Arab solidarity behind the rejection of Israel until the Palestinians establish a state.


One suspects that the Times is reporting the story because it believes that Joe Biden will win the election, regardless.


It does note, not unreasonably, that Trump is trying to pull in some Jewish votes in Florida and Pennsylvania. When you run a political campaign that’s what you do.


On the other side, a The New York Post article suggests that Trump is perhaps the most pro-Jewish president ever.


And yet, American Jews, in a spasm of ingratitude, seem far more likely to vote for Joe Biden, the man who served in an administration that was the most anti-Jewish ever.

1 comment:

Sam L. said...

This is good. Maybe they've wised up. We shall see, eventually.