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Secretary Pompeo, welcome to the real Middle East!

Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, is well aware that the Department of State’s conventional wisdom on the Middle East has clashed frequently with its arch adversary: Middle East reality.

For example, in defiance of conventional wisdom, Secretary of State Pompeo is in the Middle East at a time when Israel’s security and commercial ties with pro-US Arab countries have expanded unprecedentedly, irrespective of the Palestinian issue.

Moreover, Secretary Pompeo is visiting Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar while more-than-ever prominent individuals and delegations from pro-US Arab countries visit Israel, advancing mutually-beneficial goals in the areas of counter-terrorism, military, agriculture, irrigation, medicine, health, commerce and industry, independent of the Palestinian issue.

Secretary of State Pompeo aims to bolster confidence in the US’ posture of deterrence by Arab regimes, which feel the machetes of Iran’s Shiite Ayatollahs and Sunni terrorism (the Muslim Brotherhood, ISIS/ISIL and Al Qaeda) at their throats, regardless of the Palestinian issue.

Furthermore, Secretary Pompeo, the former CIA Director, is meeting Arab leaders, who are intensely traumatized by the volcanic, lethal Arab Tsunami (defined as “Arab Spring” by conventional wisdom), which erupted in 2010 and is still highly tempestuous, unrelated to the Palestinian issue.

Secretary Pompeo, the West Point graduate, is briefed by pro-US Arab leaders, whose appreciation of Israel has soared since the eruption of the Arab Tsunami. The wave of intra-Arab violence has highlighted the Jewish State as an island of stability, democracy, military and commercial effectiveness and reliability in the Middle East – the most credible regional “life-insurance agent,” in face of the Ayatollahs and other patrons of terrorism, subversion and military threats, regardless of the Palestinian issue.

Secretary of State Pompeo’s track record is top heavy on rejecting wishful-thinking and oversimplification, while recognizing the inherently chaotic, unpredictable, intolerant, violent and intensely-complex, non-democratic nature of the Middle East since the 7th century, as demonstrated by the current Arab Tsunami.  The real Middle East has featured roller-coasting inter-Arab/Muslim relations; the incessant inter-Arab/Muslim wars with millions of fatalities and refugees; the recent disintegration of Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen and Sudan (which is probably not the last casualty); the inherent Sunni and Shite terrorism and subversion; the one-bullet, transient, ruthless, minority regimes, which rule fragmented non-nation societies; the provisional and tenuous regimes, and therefore, their dubious policies and agreements; and the Ayatollahs’ megalomaniacal aspirations which encompass the Persian Gulf, the Middle East and beyond. The aforementioned Middle East reality is completely unconnected to the Palestinian issue.

During his eight day visit to Arab capitals, Secretary Pompeo is, probably, subjected to the traditional display of pro-Palestinian Arab talk, which has been, historically, uncorroborated by the Arab walk – diplomatically, financially or militarily. Irrespective of their pro-Palestinian talk, Arabs have never considered the Palestinian issue a top-league priority. The pro-US Arab regimes are consumed with the clear, lethal and present danger posed by Iran’s Ayatollahs and Sunni subversion and terrorism.  In fact, the treacherous Palestinian track record has led most Arabs (especially in Kuwait and other Gulf States, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and Egypt) to consider the PLO, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas the role-models of unreliability, ungratefulness, subversion and terrorism.

The Secretary, just like National Security Advisor John Bolton, is fully engaged with the top Middle East threats to the US national security and homeland security, as well as to the survival of the pro-US Arab regimes.

Shifting attention to the Palestinian issue – by presenting a well-intentioned new peace initiative – will not only be at the expense of attention dedicated to the top threats, but will force the Palestinians to outflank the US from the maximalist/radical side, thus adding fuel – not water – to the fire. Enhancing Palestinian clout will provide a tailwind to anti-US entities in the Middle East and beyond, intensifying lethal threats to Jordan’s shaky, pro-US Hashemite regime.

A presentation of a good-intentioned US peace initiative would ignore the track record of all prior US peace initiatives – all of them failed.  The only two successful peace initiatives were directly initiated and negotiated between Israel-Egypt and Israel-Jordan, with the US playing a most critical role in sealing the deal.

Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, understands that advancing US national security requires adherence to Middle East reality, not to the State Department’s conventional wisdom. Unlike some of his predecessors at Foggy Bottom, Secretary Pompeo’s track record suggests that he has learned from precedents by avoiding – not repeating – grave errors.

 

 




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US-sponsored anti-Israel UN Security Council statement – acumen

*The US’ co-sponsorship of an anti-Israel UN Security Council Statement reflects the return of the State Department’s worldview to the center stage of US foreign policy-making. This was the first time, in six years, that the US enabled the UN Security Council to act against Israel.

*This is not merely a worldview, which is highly critical of Israel, as has been the case since 1948, when Foggy Bottom led the charge against the re-establishment of the Jewish State.

This worldview has systematically undermined US interests, by subordinating the unilateral, independent US national security policy (on Iran’s Ayatollahs, the Muslim Brotherhood, the Palestinian issue, etc.) to a multilateral common denominator with the anti-US and anti-Israel UN and international organizations, as well as the vacillating and terrorists-appeasing Europe.

*It has sacrificed Middle East reality on the altar of wishful-thinking, assuming that the establishment of a Palestinian state would fulfill Palestinian aspirations, advance the cause of peace, reduce terrorism and regional instability; thus, enhancing US interests.

*However, the reality of the Middle East and Jordan and the rogue Palestinian track record lend credence to the assumption that a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River would doom the pro-US Hashemite regime east of the River, yielding traumatic ripple effects, regionally and globally:

^Replace the relatively-moderate Hashemite regime with either a rogue Palestinian regime, a Muslim Brotherhood regime, or other rogue regimes;
^Transform Jordan into a chaotic state, similar to Libya, Syria, Iraq and Yemen, which would be leveraged by Iran’s Ayatollahs to intensify their encirclement of the pro-US Saudi regime;
^Convert Jordan into a major arena of regional and global Islamic terrorism;
^Trigger a domino scenario into the Arabian Peninsula, which could topple all pro-US, oil-producing Arab regimes;
^Imperil the supply of Persian Gulf oil, which would be held hostage by anti-US entities, catapulting the price at the pump;
^Jeopardize major naval routes of global trade between Asia and Europe through the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea and the Suez Canal;
^Intensify epicenters of regional and global terrorism and drug trafficking;
^Generate a robust tailwind to US’ adversaries (Russia and China) and enemies (Iran’s Ayatollahs, the Muslim Brotherhood and ISIS) and a powerful headwind to US economic and national security interests.

*The State Department assumes that Palestinian terrorism – just like Islamic terrorism – is driven by despair, ignoring the fact that Palestinian terrorism has been driven (for the last 100 years) by the vision to erase the “infidel” Jewish entity from “the abode of Islam,” as stated by the charters of Fatah (1959) and the PLO (1964), 8 and 3 years before the Jewish State reunited Jerusalem and reasserted itself in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank).

*Aspiring for a Palestinian state, and viewing Israel’s control of Judea and Samaria as an obstacle to peace, ignores the Arab view of the Palestinians as a role model of intra-Arab subversion, terrorism, corruption and treachery. Moreover, the State Department has held the view that the Palestinian issue is the crux of the Arab-Israeli conflict and a central to Arab interests, which has been refuted by the Abraham Accords. The latter ignored the State Department, sidestepped the Palestinian issue and therefore came to fruition.

*The State Department overlooks the centrality of the Palestinian Authority’s hate education, which has become the most effective production-line of terrorists, and the most authentic reflection of the Palestinian Authority’s worldview and vision.

*The State Department has also taken lightly the Palestinian Authority’s mosque incitement, public glorification of terrorists and monthly allowances to families of terrorists, which have documented its rogue and terroristic nature (walk), notwithstanding its peaceful diplomatic rhetoric (talk).

*The State Department’s eagerness to welcome the Palestinian issue in a “red carpet” manner – contrary to the “shabby doormat” extended to Palestinians by Arabs – and its determination to promote the establishment of a Palestinian state, along with its embrace of Iran’s Ayatollahs and the Muslim Brotherhood, have been interpreted by rogue regimes and organizations as weakness.

Experience suggests that weakness invites the wolves, including wolves which aim to bring “The Great Satan” to submission throughout the world as well as the US mainland.

Support Appreciated

 




Videos

The post-1967 turning point of US-Israel cooperation

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