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May 24, 2017

How Trump Really Could Make a Difference in the Middle East

Liz Peek Articles MIDDLE EAST, TRUMP

Two presidents, two trips to the Middle East in their first year in office. That is where the similarities end.

I was in Cairo for President Obama’s much-celebrated speech in 2009 as a guest of Shafik Gabr, Chairman of Egypt’s Artoc Group for Investments and Development. Mr. Gabr has spent a small fortune and a good part of his life trying to build bridges between his country and the United States, visiting members of Congress, convening educational forums, hosting scholar exchanges and the like. He wants to educate Americans about Egypt; he wants us to know that Egypt has a peace accord with Israel and a record of women’s rights. He was, like so many in the region, excited that President Obama vowed a “reset” with the Middle East following the war-torn Bush years.

Obama did not disappoint. It is impossible to overstate how euphoric Gabr and his business and political colleagues were, how convinced that a page had been turned in their relationship with the U.S. “The speech,” Gabr said later, “met or went beyond expectations in the Arab world.”

Their enthusiasm was short-lived. Several months later, Gabr hosted another forum, at which speakers vented their disappointment in the lack of follow-through from the Obama White House. “Since [the speech], there has been little progress on the ground. Now Arab Main Street is beginning to suspect that it was all just rhetoric.”

The disappointment merged with outrage when President Obama called for the immediate resignation of Egypt’s president and long-time U.S. ally Hosni Mubarak as the country became engulfed in protests. At the time Gabr told me that while sympathetic with those demonstrating for better wages and more open elections, he believed the protests had been hijacked by the Muslim Brotherhood, which was sowing discord for its own purposes. “The United States is siding with chaos if they force Mubarak out now.” How right he was.

Obama’s Cairo speech was the first in what some mocked as his “apology tour.” The president noted that there was “tension” between the U.S. and Muslims, which had been “fed by colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims.” Some thought that the tension had been fed by events such as the 1983 attack on the U.S. Army barracks in Beirut that left 307 dead, the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Tower which killed or wounded 1,048, or the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Dar es Salam and Nairobi that killed and wounded thousands. And, of course, the attacks of 9/11.

During his tenure, Obama tried to rebalance our relations with the Muslim world. In Cairo, he described the situation for the Palestinians as “intolerable” and called for a two-state solution. He vowed to “personally pursue this outcome with all the patience that the task requires.” That didn’t happen.  As Obama told Time Magazine’s Joe Klein, “This is just really hard.”

It turned out that Israel was not ready to abandon their settlement–building just because Obama asked them to. Their resistance soured U.S.-Israeli relations, which darkened further as Obama pursued a “legacy” deal to curb Iran’s pursuit of a nuclear weapon.

Courtesy of Obama acolyte Ben Rhodes, we now know that the Obama White House lied to the American people about that deal. The negotiations were not stimulated by the election of a supposedly moderate president, Hassan Rouhani and the prospect of warmer relations, as Obama claimed. Instead, they had begun several years earlier. Iran was driven by economic desperation; Obama wanted a foreign policy win.

The false narratives about the Middle East and the Iran deal were fed to and repeated by reporters favored by the White House. The spin continues. The liberal media portrayed the recent re-election of Rouhani as uncertain, suggesting that President Trump’s tough stance against the country would drive Iranians to support a hard-liner.

Rouhani was reelected in a landslide.

Donald Trump has taken a very different approach in his first visit to the Middle East. He emphasized four things:

  • Islamic extremism must be stamped out.
  • The U.S. will support those willing to join in that effort.
  • Iran’s bad behavior cannot be tolerated.
  • The U.S. will, above all, pursue our own interests.

He also wanted to do some deals, and that he did, inking agreements that could lead to $350 billion of arms sales to Saudi Arabia.

Trump’s speech was shorter than Obama’s. He inserted himself into his speech more sparingly than did his predecessor, who invoked the “I” word 53 times.  Trump said, “The United States has taken firm action in response to the use of banned chemical weapons by the Assad Regime.” Obama said, “That’s why I ordered the removal of our combat troops.” And, “I have unequivocally prohibited the use of torture.” And “I have ordered the prison at Guantanamo Bay closed.” In repairing our rifts with the Muslim world, Obama apparently walked alone.

Trump made no apologies for the U.S., and made clear that our policies are based on “Principled Realism, rooted in common values and shared interests.” Expanding on that theme, he promised, “We will make decisions based on real-world outcomes – not inflexible ideology. We will be guided by the lessons of experience, not the confines of rigid thinking. And, wherever possible, we will seek gradual reforms – not sudden intervention.” Trump also promised, “We are not here to lecture…”

In other words, no more Professor Obama.

One editorial writer for the English-language Arab News gave Trump two thumbs up, writing, “We feared a president we were led to believe hates our values and culture, but we got one who sipped our coffee, joined us in sword dancing and told us last night that the US is not here to impose its way of life, but to offer us a helping hand if we choose to take it. We thought that when Trump said “America First,” he meant we would be neglected and left to our misery. But it is his predecessor Barack Obama who did that when he opted to lecture and profess instead of adhering to his own red line when Syrian President Bashar Assad used chemical weapons against his own people.”

No wonder our allies are cheering.

 

Published on FiscalTimes.com.

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Liz Peek

6 months ago

Liz Peek

Are you better off than you were 2 years ago?
www.foxnews.com/opinion/inflation-hurting-americans-biden-bill-worse-liz-peek
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Inflation already hurting Americans, and Biden's Build Back Better will make things even worse

Are you better off than you were two years ago? That’s what Republicans will ask voters a year from now.

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Inflation is worldwide and COVID induced.

3/7

Swamp Think

Peek's article posted today on the Fox News website did not mention one word about President Trump's accomplishment of not only leading the way to American Energy Independence but for the country to become net exporters of the energy we and our allies could really use now.

Under President Trump, oil was in the low 40s (while on the same page, oil traders are now predicting as high as $200/barrel this month!), gas in our tanks cost below two bucks, inflation was under two percent and gas station attendant Putin with an economy about the size of Italy's and who is totally dependent on the price of energy was placed in an economic cage… by President Trump.

Instead Peek gives credit to media Saint Obama for his "all the above" strategy which consistent with how he operated was all campaign talk with ZERO follow through.

Does Peek not remember that Saint Obama's response to Putin invading Crimea was to send blankets.

If you want a quick read on Swamp Think, check in with Fox News.

From the Murdoch boys and Paul Ryan on down, no one is pushing the self-serving, elite globalists agenda of running the world as their personal piggy bank harder than Fox News.

And how are the globalists doing at managing world affairs?

No Trump, No Trump Doctrine

There's a growing rumble, by the minute, from people all over the planet who are suddenly missing Trump's policies, not necessarily Trump.

First, Trump's policies, domestic and foreign, were clear and common-sense driven which is anathema to the Swamp control freaks who thrive on complication and confusion to mask their real agendas and who they're really working for.

Second, the hypocrites who are now lamenting Trump's policies are the same, domestic and foreign, who fought Trump every inch of the way to prevent the implementation of policies that clearly worked.

Third, without Trump the fighter, no Trump policies would have ever seen the light of day.

And without what is now collectively the Trump Doctrine, what clear metric would we have to truly understand the depth and devastation of the Biden/Swamp debacle?

Don't you know that the global supply chain story is done on purpose for there to be empty shelves at the grocery stores and what not to screw with the public. This is done by the world economic Forum with the likes of Klaus Schwab Bill Gates and George Soros and their ilk

YOU are the delusional personality, dear. Sticking it against the US to please 🖕trump and putin. Disgusting anti American.

Maybe Liz you would support some immigration reform , you bitch about not having enough servers in your entitled selfish world , oh and you are against mask wearing too , how trumpian of you, the pandemic is all a hoax to you , just dont get sick out there might not be any hospital beds for you . The drs and nurses are sick and tired of taking care of anti mask anti vax selfish repubs Go claim your Darwin Award .

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Liz Peek

6 months ago

Liz Peek

Progressives got hammered on Election Day- but that was only the latest big defeat. What does this mean for Dems? Can Joe pivot? (spoiler-probably not)
www.foxnews.com/opinion/progressive-drubbing-biden-pivot-changing-guard-liz-peek
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Liz Peek: Progressives' drubbing opens door to (unlikely) Biden pivot, changing of the guard

They may not know it yet, but the ultra-liberal cabal that has choked Democrat politics and humiliated spineless party leaders like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has lost its mojo.

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Liz have you not heard latest on the “russia collusion” “steele dossier” Fiona Hill???
Or are you a typical msm reporter?

Liz Peek

7 months ago

Liz Peek

Joe Biden wanted to be an historic president- and he has done that. Worst ratings slide of any president since WWII.
He (or whoever is running WH) doesn’t care about voters’ top issues – instead Team Biden obsessing about climate change, gender and race.
No wonder he’s in trouble!
www.foxnews.com/opinion/biden-polls-ignoring-voter-concerns-liz-peek
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Liz Peek: Biden vs. Americans – his priorities, like climate change, ignore top worries of most voters

Voters are worried about inflation, jobs, crime, education and our open border, while the Biden White House is laser-focused on climate change, transgender rights, racism and reducing inequality.

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Climate change is important.
The GOP may not care about it now, but their children will.
He is trying to get an infrastructure bill through.
He has had issues with Afghanistan, but what else could he do
The people who are taking over Afghanistan were released by the previous administration.
I am sure that Biden is not perfect but he is better than Trump.

The great days turned to very bad days in less than a year.
Congress needs a flip to GOP next year to stop the craziness

Your bias is ridiculous. Makes you a bad writer. Btw avg teacher pay is way above 31000. Sensationalize much?

#LetsGoBrandon

Joebama

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