Sunday, Feb. 4, 2024 | 2 a.m.
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Oh, where to begin?
President Joe Biden has already begun America’s response to the Iranian-backed terrorists who killed three and wounded so many other Americans last week in Jordan. As I write, we still don’t know the totality or extent of his message to Iran.
But, he had to do this because Iran will not stop diddling ( that means shooting at and now killing our servicemen and women) with us until we say “no more.” And say it loudly. This action, while demanded by the recent killing of our soldiers, has been a long time coming.
I have faith in Biden’s ability to calibrate the right action in a part of our world that few Americans really understand. He does. For example, he has already demonstrated his depth of knowledge and commitment by boldly supporting Israel’s right to defend itself against the brutality of Hamas.
We know what he has done by standing up for, along with most of the world, Israel’s right to protect its citizens. What most don’t know is how close Israel came in October to an existential event — but for the decisive action of the U.S. president.
The recent history of Israel (as opposed to the biblical history, which many people inexplicably refuse to acknowledge) started with the U.N. resolution that partitioned the British Mandate in the Middle East to create two states, one Jewish and one Palestinian, in 1948. It was the first time the Palestinian people missed the opportunity to create a state for themselves alongside Israel.
Since then, there have been innumerable chances to create a peace-loving Palestinian homeland that have gone by the boards. And let it neither be forgotten nor ignored (a popular course of action by far too many people right now) that Israel pushed hard for the creation of a Palestinian state — to the point that one prime minister gave his life in pursuit of that dream and another destroyed his political career and his party trying to give the Palestinians everything they wanted and, in the end, wouldn’t take.
So, now the question arises once again. There is opportunity to create or, to use biblical terms, recreate a Garden of Eden in the Middle East.
Former Israeli Prime Minister and President Shimon Peres envisioned a Middle East that formed an economic, technological and agricultural powerhouse and that stretched from the Saudi Arabian peninsula across the entire north of Africa. He saw it as clear as day, and now that dream, through the haze of the war against the Hamas butchers, is coming into focus.
The question remains: Will the parties — this time Saudi Arabia and the other Arab states in the Gulf, Israel and what should be a Palestinian state governed by those who seek peace and not war — take the opportunity to make it happen or, once again, miss it.
The New York Times’ Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Tom Friedman wrote a column this past Wednesday about “Biden’s New Middle East Doctrine” that is a must-read for anyone serious about finding a solution to the tragedy of war that pervades our consciousness even as we speak.
In it, he attributes the kind of thoughtfulness borne of experience that has defined Biden’s steadfastness of purpose in defending Israel and pursuing America’s vital interests.
It is a doctrine, assuming Friedman knows what he is talking about, which he does, that gets the timing right: the destruction of Hamas or its ability to create mayhem at any level; the prerequisites for Israel’s absolute security (meaning a demilitarized Palestinian state); the responsibility for the most impactful Arab country in the region (Saudi Arabia) to be the leader by furthering what King Abdullah presented as the Arab plan for peace over 20 years ago and what today’s Saudi Crown prince has purposefully reiterated and committed to; and the opportunity for Iran, once and for all, to choose a peaceful path with its neighbors or condemn itself to a pariah status and all the ill that will come with it.
It is a doctrine that, however long it has been in the making — at least the past 75 years — is here and now. It is an opportunity, once the threat of Hamas is removed, for the United States ( which is playing out the various scenarios as we speak) and its allies to take the leadership role in making Peres’ dream come true.
So, where to begin?
How about with all of the serious players in that part of the world grabbing hold of this opportunity to make life better instead of missing it — again. Nobody — almost nobody — wants to continue to live and die with the consequences of another failure to act.
To misquote my typing teacher, “Now is the time for every good man and woman to come to the aid of their country for the good of all countries.”
Brian Greenspun is editor, publisher and owner of the Sun
