Kaufman: A monumental day for peace

In a tumultuous year, Sept. 15, 2020, was an unambiguously good day for America and the peace-loving world. It’d be nice if we could all agree.

Image from White House Twitter

In a story relayed by a senior administration official, when President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed analyzed the Abraham Accords over the phone, MBZ said, “Hey, 2020’s been a really tough year. This has got to be the best news of 2020.” To which Trump said, “Yeah, what do you think, Bibi?” And Netanyahu said, “Are you kidding me? This is the best news in the last 20 years.”

Indeed, Tuesday perhaps began the dawn of the new Middle East at a White House signing ceremony for peace accords between Israel, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates.

“We’re here this afternoon to change the course of history,” Trump told attendees.

Netanyahu echoed Trump’s remarks.

“This day is a pivot of history, it heralds a new dawn of peace,” the prime minister said.

But like much legacy media, The Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg downplayed the day’s importance. Goldberg is not an Israel hater, so did his post-millennial staffers feel “unsafe” because the president had a successful day?

In particular, Goldberg wrote “Israel gets something for nothing: relations with two more Arab states without so much as a settlement freeze?”

The Arab nations don’t care about those, Jeff. The “settlement” issue has been a delusional fantasy of the American left for years.

Of course this is a man whose own magazine admitted he cravenly kowtowed to a mob when dismissing columnist Kevin Williamson two years ago following uproar from intolerant readers.

Goldberg’s mendacity probably is ideological. He was an admirer of Barack Obama’s foreign policy, upon which he opined obsequiously for years.

Such is the nature of negative partisanship. A seemingly-unattainable foreign policy goal is achieved in the most labyrinthine geo-political situation on earth, and yet we read thisthis and this from anti-Israel blue checks reciting talking points.

Hate Trump and advocate for his administration’s end all you want, but when Islamist nations sue for peace, Iran’s nuclear proliferation is curbed, and their terror proxies also lose, it’s a good day.

During Commentary Magazine’s Wednesday podcast, Abe Greenwald claimed:

“The accord is not just an earth-shaking development for global relations in the Middle East, but a crushing blow for the Obama foreign policy echo chamber. All that terrible policy — daylight between the U.S. and Israel, rehabilitating Iran — was portrayed as rationale and pragmatic. The accord blows it all up.”

In a stellar recap, National Review Editor Rich Lowry wrote:

“Rather than ending any possibility of peace in the region, moving the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem forged a tight relationship of trust with Israel that made everything else possible. Rather than alienating our allies, pulling out of the Iran deal drew our allies in the region closer to us. Rather than causing a war, as even some of Trump’s ideological allies feared, the killing of Soleimani sent an unmistakable message of resolve.”

Talk show host Erick Erickson, who was raised in UAE, posted a great recap of media malfeasance alongside his own views. He concluded:

“It reinforces just how wrong so many people have been about Israeli and Arab nations. Remember, moving the American Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem would spark a war. Various pundits and most experts claimed as much, including former Secretary of State John F. Kerry. They were wrong. This is an enormous deal and President Trump and Jared Kushner both deserve some credit — credit much of the media would prefer they not have so they will ignore the story.”

In a tumultuous year, Sept. 15, 2020, was an unambiguously good day for America and the peace-loving world. It’d be nice if we could all agree.

 

A.J. Kaufman

A.J. Kaufman is an Alpha News columnist. His work has appeared in the Baltimore Sun, Florida Sun-Sentinel, Indianapolis Star, Israel National News, Orange County Register, St. Cloud Times, Star-Tribune, and across AIM Media Midwest and the Internet. Kaufman previously worked as a school teacher and military historian.