Expert eye on Trump tactics
THE tide is turning against Palestinians' obstructionism in their long-running conflict with Israel, a visiting US analyst has noted.
THE tide is turning against Palestinians’ obstructionism in their long-running conflict with Israel, a visiting US analyst has noted.
Speaking at an event co-hosted by the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC), the Anti-Defamation Commission and the Australasian Union of Jewish Students at Beth Weizmann last week, Dr Jonathan Schanzer, vice-president of the Foundation for the Defence of Democracies outlined the seachange gripping the Middle East.
Schanzer, who also spoke at Kehillat Kadimah in Sydney, said Sunni Arab countries increasingly share Israel’s concern about Iran’s expansionist goals, particularly through Hezbollah in Syria, and how this might impact other Arab states.
He said US President Donald Trump “is looking at regional peace, he’s looking at trying to galvanise support from the Arab world, with the Israelis, and trying to get to that final place where no-one else has made it”.
“Many people ask me whether Trump is the guy who can do it. What I will say is that all the other very smart [US] presidents, perhaps better read than the current one, more practised in diplomacy, more practised in statecraft, they all failed miserably. I don’t know whether that makes Trump destined to fail or destined to succeed.
“He is attacking the Palestinian issue and doing things no-one has ever done,” noted Schanzer, referring to Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
He lauded Trump’s move to restrict US funding for the Palestinians through the UN Relief and Works Agency, to make American aid conditional on internal reforms, and to reject the agency’s multi-generational definition of Palestinian “refugees” that inflates the number from 800,000 in 1948 to around 5 million today, all claiming a “right to return” to Israel’s territory.
Schanzer also noted the Palestinian threat of large-scale violence after the Jerusalem announcement has all but evaporated because there is no longer much appetite in the Sunni countries to protract the Palestinian issue, now that strategic cooperation with Israel seems the priority.
Meanwhile, Middle East Forum president Dr Daniel Pipes will speak at AIJAC events in Melbourne and Sydney next week. Described by The Washington Post as “perhaps the most prominent US scholar on radical Islam”, he served in five presidential administrations between 1982 and 2005, including two presidentially-appointed-positions.
Dr Daniel Pipes will speak on Winners and Losers in a Fractured Middle East, Tuesday February 27, 7.30pm at Beth Weizmann Community Centre. $8 ($5 concession). Enquiries (03) 9681 6660.
PETER KOHN
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