Victoria Coates
Earlier this month, after almost four years of the Biden-Harris administration’s weakness, Americans voted overwhelmingly for the return of former President Donald Trump’s determined leadership.
Nowhere is that leadership needed more than in the Middle East, where the aftershocks of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel continue to reverberate—not only in the region but here at home.
Mr. Trump left office in 2021, having just sealed the first peace deals between Israel and Muslim-majority countries in 25 years. This success stemmed from a policy that combined unequivocal support for the Jewish state with consistent and constructive outreach to America’s Arab partners and allies.
The result was peace. After Iran significantly expanded its sponsorship of its terrorist proxies funded by the Obama-era nuclear deal, America’s deadliest regional foe was being crushed by the most aggressive unilateral economic sanctions regime in history.
Iran Is Inching Toward a Nuclear Weapons Breakout: What Does This Mean for the United States?
Four years later, President-elect Donald Trump is inheriting a Middle East on the brink of regional war. Israel is under sustained attack by Iran’s proxies Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis—and for the first time, by Iran directly. Its malign interference has also created failed states from Lebanon and Syria to Iraq and Yemen. Meanwhile, Iran’s economy is strengthened by a 25-year, $400 billion agreement with China, its new patron.
Israel’s attempt to defend itself against these threats has been undermined by the timid and equivocal approach of the Biden-Harris administration. This White House has insisted on restraint and urged a negotiated cease-fire with the terrorist groups while threatening to withhold vital military resupply if Israel does not prosecute the war as instructed.
But as President Ronald Reagan demonstrated in countering the Soviet Union’s aggression in the Middle East after the 1980 election, decisive and principled American leadership could reverse even a severe regional decline. » Read More
https://www.heritage.org/middle-east/commentary/how-trump-can-bring-peace-stabilize-middle-east