Last month, Jonathan Tobin sounded the alarm on Biden’s foreign policy in the Middle East, which is guided by the foreign policy establishment now back in charge. Tobin is looking at the return of Robert Malley, who will advise on Iran; the resumption of aid to UNRWA and to the Palestinian Authority itself; and at Biden’s decision to halt, at least temporarily, the arms sales to the UAE and Saudi Arabia — the former considered a part of the Abraham Accords.
As Tobin sees it:
Biden’s choices show that he has learned nothing from the mistakes made during the Clinton and Obama administrations.
But what exactly are the mistakes of the Clinton and Obama administrations?
Enter Yoram Ettinger, Israeli researcher, who this week looked beyond the Clinton and Obama administrations, and traced the history of various US administrations in the Middle East, going back to 1948:
President Biden’s foreign policy and national security team reflects a resurgence of the State Department’s worldview. An examination of this worldview and its track record is required, in order to avoid past mistakes.
Remember how Abba Eban said the Palestinian Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity?
Notice the pattern of misjudgements that Ettinger finds in US Middle East policy:
1. In 1948, the State Department opposed the recognition of Israel for a variety of reasons:
o Israel would be helpless against the Arab armies arrayed against it
o Israel would be pro-Soviet
o Israel’s existence would undermine US-Arab relations
o Israel’s existence would destabilize the Middle East
o Israel’s existence would threaten the US supply of oil
o Israel’s existence would damage US interests
2. During the 1950s, the US courted Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser as a potential Middle East ally, going so far as to extend non-military aid to Egypt. But In return:
o Nasser turned into a key ally of the then-USSR
o Nasser supported anti-Western elements in Africa
o Nasser intensified anti-US sentiments in the Arab world
o Nasser attempted to topple pro-US Arab regimes
3. In 1978-1979, the Carter administration betrayed the pro-US Shah of Iran and instead embraced Ayatollah Khomeini and even shared intelligence with the Khomeini regime during its first few months. Carter assumed Khomeini was controllable and looking for freedom, democracy and positive ties with the US.
4. In 1980-1990, during the Reagan and first 2 years of the George H. W. Bush administrations, the US collaborated with Saddam Hussein and supplied him with:
o intelligence-sharing
o supply of dual use systems
o $5 billion loan guarantees
This time, the guiding principle was “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” For his part, Saddam saw this as a green light for Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait — especially when the US Ambassador to Iraq, April Gillespie, 8 days before the invasion, told the leader, in accordance with the position of the State Department that an invasion of Kuwait was an inter-Arab issue.
Interestingly, Ettinger does not list the overthrow of Hussein and the subsequent weakening of Iraq — removing Iraq as a check on Iran which in turn became a major destabilizing influence and global sponsor of terrorism — as an error by the Bush administration.
5. From 1993-2000, during the Clinton administration, the US praised Arafat as a messenger of peace, worthy of the Nobel Prize for Peace and of annual US foreign aid. In doing so, Clinton ignored:
o Arafat’s goal of destroying Israel, as reflected the 1959 Fatah and 1964 PLO charters,
o Arafat’s hate-education system, demonizing Jews and glorifying terrorism
o Arafat’s intensified terrorism.
6. In 2009, the Obama administration embraced the anti-US Muslim Brotherhood, ignoring its terroristic nature, and looking at it instead as a political, secular entity and turned a cold shoulder toward the pro-US Mubarak. This paved the way for the Muslim Brotherhood to gain power in 2012/13, which was a blow to pro-US Arab countries, which have been afflicted by Muslim Brotherhood terrorism.
7. Up until the 2011 civil war in Syria, the State Department considered Bashar Assad to be a reformer and possibly a potential moderate, based in part on Assad being
o an ophthalmologist in London
o married to a British woman
o president of the Syrian Internet Association
— just as his father, Hafiz Assad — known as “the butcher from Damascus” — was regarded as a man of his word, and a credible negotiator, justifying Israel’s giving away the strategically important Golan Heights.
8. In 2011, the Obama State Department was a key supporter of the US-led NATO military offensive, which toppled Libya’s Qaddafi, despite the fact that Qaddafi
o dismantled Libya’s nuclear infrastructure
o conducted a war on Islamic terrorism
o provided the US counter-terror intelligence
The overthrow of Qaddafi transformed Libya into a platform for civil wars and global Islamic terrorism.
9. In 2011, the Washington, DC foreign policy and national security establishment welcomed the eruption of violence on the Arab Street in various Arab countries, and interpreted it as a march toward democracy and progress toward peaceful-coexistence — calling it an Arab Spring.
In fact, this released intra-Arab and intra-Muslim terrorism and violent power struggles across the region.
10. In 2015, the Obama administration ignored Iran’s core fanatical and repressive ideology and its systematic perpetration of war and terrorism. Instead, the architects of the Iran nuclear accord (JCPOA) provided Iran with $150 billion, which allowed it to bolster their terrorism and expansionism across the region.
Obama and his ‘experts’ operated under the assumption that the Ayatollahs were open to negotiation and willing to live in peaceful-coexistence with their Arab Sunni neighbors. In doing so, the US disappointed most Iranian citizens, by renouncing a military regime-change option against the ruthless Iranian regime.
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In his rush to reinstate the Iran deal, Biden is not merely pushing back the clock on the mistaken policy in which he participated during his time as vice president in the Obama administration.
Now Biden is adding his name to the list of US administrations whose foreign policy errors have inflamed the instability of a region that is more than capable of generating tensions and instability all on its own.