The Neo-Cons are back in control

UAE suspends $23b weapons deal with U.S,

The proposed sale of 50 F-35s to the UAE came at the end of former President Donald Trump’s administration, emerging from a deal that saw the Emiratis formally recognize Israel. President Joe Biden’s administration put the deal on hold after he took office, in part due to criticism of the UAE and Saudi Arabia over their yearslong war in Yemen, which has sparked one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises and continues today.

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The UAE has long worked with the U.S. on counterterrorism and allowed the entry of people fleeing Afghanistan during the chaotic U.S. withdrawal earlier this year. But tensions between Washington and Abu Dhabi have risen over the UAE’s growing cooperation with China.

The State Department swamp creatures have always insisted that peace in the Middle East required a peace treaty between the Palestinians and Israel first, and only then could negotiations with the Arab states begin. Trump recognized that the Arabs were fed up with the Palestinians, and that a direct approach to them without involving the terrorist nation was possible. He acted on it, achieved some success with far more promised, and then lost the election. John Kerry et als moved immediately to abort the process, turn attention back to their failed “Palestine First” policy and, while they were at it, cozied back up to Iran to speed up that country’s nuclear weapons program.

You’d almost think that our leaders want war in the Middle East, but surely their friends in the defense industry will put a stop to that.

From the Washington Times, May 24 2021 (disable Java to get behind cash wall):

The White House is now dismissing President Trump’s Abraham Accords between Arab states and Israel— after candidate Joseph R. Biden in 2020 effusively praised the deals and took credit for laying the diplomatic groundwork.

The normalization pacts between Israel and a number of Arab states were at the heart of the Trump administration’s Middle East strategy, easing Israel’s economic and diplomatic isolation and building up a regional coalition of allies to confront Iran and its proxies. 

Asked by a reporter last week specifically about the status of Mr. Trump’s accords, Jen Psaki, President Biden’s press secretary, responded: “Aside from putting forward a peace proposal that was dead on arrival, we don’t think they did anything constructive, really, to bring an end to the longstanding conflict in the Middle East.”

The recent 11-day war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip has put the region on edge once again. Over the weekend, Hamas terror leader Ismail Haniyeh declared victory after Hamas fired over 4,000 missiles into Israel and the Jewish state’s retaliated with airstrikes. Mr. Haniyeh said Hamas had met its objective in the fighting and “destroyed the project of coexistence,” according to news reports, in a reference to the Abraham Accords.

The Trump administration’s point man, the president’s son-in-law and White House adviser Jared Kushner, brought a new approach to the Middle East. Instead of waiting for Palestinians to recognize Israel — a prospect that has lingered unfulfilled for decades — the Trump team decoupled those talks from brokering individual deals between Israel and Arab states.