Friday 24 November 2023

Sledgehammer

 


Some ideas need time and right circumstances to happen. Sometimes it happens independently of individual people as it took enough time for the idea to grow and for the diplomatic discussions to advance to make it happens.

The Abraham Accords, definitely, haven´t start with Pres. Trump administration. In order to achieve such a historical peace between the State of Israel and some Arab/Muslim countries, it took time to create the momentum. Discussions and negotiations, steps forward and meetings behind the close doors were ongoing long before Covid. For instance, at least 10 years ago, in Dubai there were Bar Mitzva celebrations organised and a small Jewish - mostly American - community was discretely burgeoning. 

Sledgehammer. How Breaking with the Past Brought Peace to the Middle East by former US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman accounts about the final steps of the process, when he, together with Jared Kuchner and Jason Greenblatt sealed off the signing of the Accords. It is also the testimony of the ambiance in the Middle East and Israel during Trump administration.

Friedman used to be involved in various legal cases for the Trump family, a Cohen, with strong connections with Israel. In general, for important embassy positions, US administration - and not only -usually nominates people close to the winner at the White House therefore Friedman´s presence was normal in the logic of things of American bureaucracy. Definitely, an ambassador is not alone and his everyday activity was facing sometimes opposition on behalf of the State Department diplomats. However, no matter what, some of the decisions took during Trump administration, often leaked to the press in advance for various non-diplomatic reasons, were still in force nowadays. The embassy remains in Jerusalem and there is no rebuke of the Golan Heights administration by Israel. 

A businessman rarely have time for the byzantine intricacies of diplomacy, but this is what is needed in times of crisis to take a decision and move things forward. I am not sure that there would have been any other administration opposed to the courageous steps took by the Abraham Accords - the current Biden administration, for instance, supports the rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Israel - but what is important is the alignment of political will and circumstances that made it happen. 

As the ongoing events in the region already show, we are far from getting the real clarity in this respect, but good things take time to happen.

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