Gaza.

 I frankly admit that I do not well understand the situation in the Middle East, but I am equally certain that the United States government is not dealing with the region intelligently.  I much preferred the approach implicit in the Abraham Accords as compared to the appeasement inherent in both Biden and Obama’s policies.  The current focus, to the extent that there is any focus, is the conflict in Gaza, where the Biden/Harris Administration is floundering badly in exactly the same way that the Obama/Biden Administration did.

My understanding of the situation is that Hamas is but one of several Iranian proxies in the region, and Shia Teheran has ordered all of them to make trouble in an effort to thwart Sunni Riyadh’s efforts to control the region, in part through the Abraham Accords.  The American public is understandably focused on the horrible conflict in Gaza, but the game is much larger than just Gaza and the Palestinians.  It is the latest manifestation of the age old argument between Shia and Sunni Arabs complicated by the age old animosity between Arab and Jew.  Given that Teheran is either on the cusp of having a nuclear capability or already has such, we are looking at the very real possibility of a nuclear exchange that will benefit no one.

Israel is currently bent on destroying Hamas, believing it to be the only way to protect itself against further conflict.  Every single Hamas fighter that Israel manages to kill has a family, every single one of which will understandably hate Israel to their dying day.  I understand the hardliners in the Israeli government’s appreciation of the situation, but do not believe that it will accomplish anything positive and long lasting.  The current conflict is but the latest round of killing in a terrible conflict that has been going on for millennia.  The horrible part of October 7 is that Hamas targeted that element of the Israeli public that most wanted to end the conflict.  Every single one of the people killed that day were among the most liberal elements of modern Judaism.  I do not believe that point was lost on the leadership in Teheran.  Quite the contrary, I believe that to have been a central objective of October 7 and, combined with the horrible travesties that were committed that day, were a central part of Shia strategic thinking.

Teheran is not afraid of Jerusalem, or better put, Tehran is more afraid of Riyadh than it is Jerusalem.  October 7 was designed to stop Riyadh’s rapprochement with Jerusalem, not promote the interests of the Palestinian people.  The folks living in Gaza are merely pawns in the larger struggle and our confused participation in the mess merely magnifies the stupidity.  The Biden/Harris approach may well be the worst of all possible ways to deal with the mess that could be imagined, but we are now front and center in the killing, whether we like it or not.

PS:  I do not see the Abraham Accords as being the result of Trump’s brilliance.  The force behind that effort was the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia.  You remember him.  He is the guy that our current president called a pariah because he is believed to have sanctioned the bungled murder of a troublesome Saudi journalist that worked for an influential American newspaper.  The reason that I prefer Trump to Biden, in this situation, is that Trump had the foresight to champion the Saudi Crown Prince.  The reason that I dislike Biden’s approach to world affairs is that his actions are driven by his appreciation of ignorant public opinion in this country.