Obama, never-Trumpers wrongly predicted Mideast disaster

FPI / September 22, 2020

As the Trump administration was set to move in and he was leaving office in January of 2017, then-Secretary of State John Kerry predicted doom for the Middle East.

“You’d have an explosion,” Kerry told CBS News of President-elect Donald Trump's vow to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

“You’d have an explosion, an absolute explosion in the region, not just in the West Bank and perhaps even in Israel itself, but throughout the region. The Arab world has enormous interest in the Haram al-Sharif, as it is called, the Temple Mount, the Dome [of the Rock], and it is a holy site for the Arab world,” Kerry proclaimed.

“And if all of a sudden Jerusalem is declared to be the location of our embassy, that has issues of sovereignty, issues of law that it would deem to be affected by that move and by the United States acquiescing in that move, and that would have profound impact on the readiness of Jordan and Egypt to be able to be as supportive and engaged with Israel as they are today.”

Since the U.S. Embassy in Israel officially moved to Jerusalem in May 2018, "there has been no dedicated Arab reprisals," Rowan Scarborough noted in a Sept. 20 report for The Washington Times.

Two years after the embassy move, Arab states "are lining up to discuss and cement unprecedented peace deals with Israel that involve not just recognizing the Jewish state but also establishing trade and travel ties," Scarborough noted.

On Sept, 15 at the White House, Trump hosted the signing of the Abraham Accord. The historical diplomatic agreements brokered by Trump saw Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates commit to the normalization of relations with Israel. Trump predicted other Arab countries, possibly Saudi Arabia, will soon join the accord.

While Trump is making history in the Mideast, his detractors are being relegated to the dustbin of history.

John Brennan, Obama’s CIA director, tweeted about the U.S. embassy move: “Deaths in Gaza result of utter disregard of Messers Trump and [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu for Palestine rights & homeland. By moving embassy to Jerusalem. Trump played politics, destroyed U.S. peacemaker role. New generation of Israelis/Palestinians need to isolate extremists to find path to peace.”

“Never Trump” Republican consultant Steve Schmidt also predicted horrible consequences when the U.S. Embassy opened in Jerusalem. Schmidt is co-founder of the Lincoln Project, which produces anti-Trump ads that often air on Fox News.

“Trump destabilized the Middle East with his decision to move the embassy,” Schmidt tweeted in 2018. “His abject ignorance of the history and religions that have shaped this moment have given succor to the agents of terror and chaos. Trump destabilizes, Hamas terrorists provoke, Israel responds. Repeat 1.”

Schmidt's tweet was retrieved and posted by Sean Davis, co-founder of The Federalist, who tweeted: “In case you weren’t already wary about taking geopolitical advice from bitter, washed-up … campaign consultants, this gem from 2018 should probably seal it for you.”

Free Press International