https://www.jns.org/opinion/something-to-think-about/
The Jewish Policy Center doesn’t/can’t/doesn’t want to tell people what to do. We do, however, write about both foreign and domestic policy to encourage people to think about what to do – and our members are quite clear about what they think. We posted an article about the possibility of Chinese mayhem near, but not directly against, Taiwan. We thought it was useful for determining how to think about China, the U.S. defense budget, and American policy in the Pacific. A member very pointedly said we were foolishly missing a “historic moment” by writing about China. OK. So, I went back to our library and with the help of some outside sources put together a list of things to think about at this “historic moment.” It is not – nor is it meant to be – exhaustive.
We currently have the first president since Dwight D. Eisenhower that has not engaged us in a foreign war or new foreign peacekeeping. The Abraham Accords were done without the promise of American money or U.S. troops as “monitors.” (Remember President Clinton offering to put American soldiers in Syria to monitor an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights? How would that have worked when Syria and Iran decimated the country and dropped chemical weapons on Syrian civilians with Russian help?) This has allowed the U.S. to focus on broad defense of the global commons, not being involved in other people’s civil or border wars. (Hence the determination to leave Afghanistan.) Except for the appropriate punishment of Syria for using those chemicals, and the destruction of the territorial base of the ISIS caliphate.
The focus of Middle East peacemaking changed from requiring Israel to pay the Palestinians in the currency of statehood (“risks for peace”) to a request that the Arab States consider the economic and security needs of their own people in deciding whether and how to approach the State of Israel. The result is the Abraham Accords, broadly accepted by countries that have not signed; a new compact with Jordan; and feelers from other countries. The United States abandoned the untenable position of “neutral party” between Israel, which is our democratic ally, and the Palestinian Authority, which is not. The U.S. has moved to a position of honest broker, which is vastly more appropriate. U.S.-Israel security cooperation, grounded in our commonality, continues through the pandemic.
