by E. J. Kimball
Palestinian leaders, with the support of Iran, Turkey, and Qatar, have created an authoritarian kleptocracy that suppresses the rights of everyday Palestinians and is working towards driving the Jews into the sea.
President
Trump threatened yesterday to cut off aid to any country that votes
today against the U.S. decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's
capital. The vote takes place today at the emergency special session
being convened at the United Nations General Assembly, called for by
Turkey and Yemen (via Iran).
This
vote follows the announcement of Dec. 6, when Trump fulfilled his
campaign promise to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and
directed the State Department to begin the process of moving the U.S.
embassy there. But more than that, Trump's recognition acknowledges the
underlying problem of the past 30 years of diplomatic efforts:
recognizing reality.
The
Jerusalem announcement was a preview of President Trump's larger vision
of operating within reality, a central theme in the subsequently
released National Security Strategy. On Jerusalem, it acknowledges that
"Israel is not the cause of the region's problems," and accurately
blames regional instability on Iran and jihadist organizations. This
administration is the first in American history to so explicitly break
from the false causation drawn between Israel's existence and the
problems of the region. The rejection of this lie is long, long overdue.
Trump
is the first U.S. president to explicitly reject the false causation
drawn between Israel's existence and regional problems.
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Further,
while reflexively dismissed by pundits and foreign governments, the
Jerusalem announcement may well be a helpful step in negotiating the
"deal of the century" if it is properly leveraged.
The
Palestinian leadership still wages the war that the Arab countries
started 70 years ago upon the approval of the UN partition plan, which
is a genocidal aim to destroy, rather than promote, peace. Only with an
Israeli victory over rejectionist enemies — including Palestinian
leadership along with Hamas, Iran, and Turkey — will the conflict end.
History has shown that lasting and meaningful peace between Israelis and
Palestinians will not come through negotiations.
More
likely, peace will arrive when one side gives up its goals. Israel is
nearly 70 years-old, and the only example in the Middle East of a
modern, successful, free, and democratic country, one in which all
minorities — including its substantial Arab population — are citizens
with full rights. Meanwhile, Palestinian leaders, with the support of
Iran, Turkey, and Qatar, have created an authoritarian kleptocracy that
suppresses the rights of everyday Palestinians and is myopically working
towards, in their words, the central goal of driving the Jews into the
sea.
It's in America's interest that the Palestinians give in to Israel's vision, not the other way around.
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It's in America's interest that the Palestinians give in to the Israeli vision, and not the other way around.
A
second example of the National Security Strategy's recognition of
reality is the usage of the terms "Islamist," "Jihadist," and "Shariah" a
combined thirty-seven times, which stands in stark contrast to former
President Barack Obama's National Security Strategy in 2010 and 2015 and
President George W. Bush's in 2002 and 2006, none of which used those
terms at all.
This
terminology was scrubbed from our lexicon during the Bush
administration for political reasons and has led to disjointed and often
ineffective policies in addressing the ideological threat, which is the
root of jihadist terrorism. The Obama and Bush administrations did not
want to give credence to jihadist claims (through Al Qaeda, Al Nusra, Al
Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the Islamic State, etc.) that the U.S.
was waging a war against Islam.
Terms like "Islamist," "Jihadist," and "Shariah" were scrubbed from the official U.S. lexicon under President George W. Bush.
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This
was commendable, but not to the point of neutering our ability to
accurately identify the enemy and its doctrine. Whether they are
misguided or strict adherents, what matters is that they truly believe
in this jihadist ideology and are willing to die in order to commit
atrocities.
If
we continue to be blinded by political considerations, our national
security apparatus, whose mission it is to ensure Americans are kept
safe, is rendered ineffective.
On Monday,
President Trump announced we would no longer be hampered by our
prioritization of wishful thinking over recognition of reality. This
unexpected and unorthodox change in national security policy has many on
edge, but it should be embraced, not condemned.
Previous
administrations failed to comprehend the jihadist threat and what
really holds Israelis and Palestinians back from peace.
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Previous
administrations have failed to comprehend the reality holding Israelis
and Palestinians back from peace, and the conflict has persisted,
costing far too many lives. These same administrations have refused to
acknowledge the reality of the jihadist threat, and countless people
around the world have paid the price with their lives.
Trump's
new strategy document also takes reality into account when addressing
other enduring threats like North Korea and Iran. The breaks it takes
from past failed policies is not only pragmatic, but promising. Reality
may seem like a scary place, but it's where our enemies live. It's time
for us to live there too. We can't defeat them from the clouds.
E. J. Kimball is the director of the Israel Victory Project at the Middle East Forum.
Source: http://www.meforum.org/7116/trump-restores-realism-in-national-security-strategy
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Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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