During the years 2016-2020 I struggled to explain to American audiences that from the very narrow and selfish perspective of an Israeli, and putting aside everything that was going on in the US, the Trump administration’s policies in the Middle East were nothing short of perfect.
They included two key pillars: Basing the American exit from the Middle East on support for Israel and Gulf allies rather than Iran, and, more to my expertise, sending a clear message to Palestinians and other Arab nations that enough is enough - they need to start coming to terms with Israel's past victories in 1948 and 1967.
This second message was conveyed through a series of important policies from defunding UNRWA, closing down the PLO office in DC, removing some PA funding, recognising Jerusalem as Israel's capital and recognising the Golan Heights as sovereign Israeli territory.
This second message was also augmented through a peace plan that let the Palestinians know that they can have a state, sovereignty and economic prosperity if they actually pursue it (to which, true to form, they responded with "no, no and a thousand times no").
It is no coincidence then that the Trump administration ended its first term with four peace agreements between Israel and Arab/Islamic countries and momentum for more.
The Biden administration, in an act that I have repeatedly described as juvenile, undid almost all of the Trump administration policies.
They refunded UNRWA and other Palestinian causes, with no strings attached (Congress made it a bit more difficult), turned a cold shoulder to the Abraham Accords (for a year, refusing to even call them that), and went back to a long and failed policy of indulging Palestinians and saving them from any reckoning with their past defeats, and the absolute destruction that is their total ideology of no Jewish state in any borders.
It is therefore also no coincidence that the Biden/Harris administration ends its term on the cusp of a regional war.
Unfortunately, even after the October 7 massacre and invasion, with all the love that President Biden personally and truly has for Israel, the policies undertaken by his administration extended the war and the suffering by refusing to state that the war must end with a clear Israeli victory, Hamas/Gaza surrender, full release of hostages, and that Israel is under no obligation to supply its enemies before they surrender and release the hostages.
So as a new Trump administration is being formed, my hopes for a change in the situation, even for peace, rest on the expectation that this administration will again emphasise support for Israel and Gulf countries over Iran, defund UNRWA completely and hopefully this time will mobilise more countries to do the same, make it clear that Israel has US backing to win the war, and that Hamas/Gaza is expected to surrender and release the hostages, that Israel is under no obligation to supply an enemy before it surrenders and as it holds hostages, that Lebanon needs to make full peace with Israel rather than another worse than useless UN resolution, and that Palestinians and other Arab countries can enjoy sovereignty, peace and prosperity when they finally finally finally understand not only that Israel is here to stay, but that the Jewish people, in building their sovereign state in the Land of Israel, are home.
Dr. Einat Wilf is a leading thinker on Israel, Zionism, foreign policy and education. She was a member of the Israeli Parliament from 2010 to 2013, where she served as Chair of the Education Committee and Member of the influential Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
