It’s been remarkable to watch the mainstream press and official Washington try to downplay the significance of the peace deal the Trump administration brokered between Israel and two Arab states this week.
The signing of the Abraham Accords on Tuesday between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain at the White House, which for the first time normalized relations between Israel and the two Persian Gulf states, is by any measure historic. It’s been 26 years since any Arab state recognized Israel, and the deal struck this week holds out hope that other Mideast countries, maybe even Saudi Arabia, will be next.
Under a Democrat president, this would have met paeons in the press and soliloquies on cable news about the historic nature of the accords. Think tankers and foreign policy experts would have marveled at the achievement. Elected leaders would have hailed the agreement as the beginning of a new era for peace in the Mideast. It would have dominated the headlines all week.
Instead, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called it a “distraction.” MSNBC’s Chuck Todd said he was “uncomfortable” with it because it “seems transactional.” NBC’s Andrea Mitchell scoffed that “it is not Middle East peace.” CBS called it a “business deal,” and The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, never one to miss the conventional wisdom train, said the accords “amount to an arms deal.”
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04.23.2024