May 19 2025
​​
Q. How different does the Middle East look following last week’s sweeping visit by US President Trump?
​
A. Superficially, more of the same. The same appalling and depressing news. This week opened with yet more hostage talks in Doha, an expanding IDF offensive in Gaza, and the death toll there spiraling from famine and destruction. There was a pointless Arab League summit meeting in Baghdad.
​
And President Trump, home from the Middle East, reportedly suddenly decided it was possible to resettle one million homeless Gazans in Libya. Which Libya? Does he even know there are two Libyas, locked in enmity?
​
Q. Yet not superficially, at a more substantial level? Did Trump not introduce a deeper dimension into the regional dynamic from the standpoint of the US, the Arab world, Iran and Israel?
​
A. Seen barely a few days later, it looks that way. I have to put aside my total antipathy toward the man--his shallowness, his arrogance, his ignorance, his dislike for democracy, for immigrants, for basic values--and recognize that his ‘style’, his approach, was effective last week.
​
Q. Do you mean the massive arms and AI deals with Arab potentates?
​
A. Leave those aside. We don’t really know how effective and comprehensive they will be. It is questionable just how deeply rooted the monarchies of the Arabian Peninsula really are and how capable they are of providing effective commercial and military partnerships.
​
But Trump put in place a dynamic of a US-Iran détente and nuclear deal. He welcomed to the fold an Islamist revolutionary regime in Syria, along with its patron, NATO-member Turkey. He opened direct negotiations with Hamas in Gaza. He ended the US war with the Houthis in northern Yemen.
​
These are far-reaching departures, all in scarcely a week. Trump seems not to have consulted Israel, a US ally, about any of this. . .
​
Yossi Alpher's Death Tango: Ariel Sharon, Yasser Arafat and Three Fateful Days in March
"Anyone seeking to understand how Israelis and Palestinians traded the hopes of Oslo for something approaching hopelessness is well-advised to read this book. With penetrating analysis and elegant prose, Yossi Alpher has told the gripping story of three days nearly two decades ago that continue to haunt would-be peacemakers. Yossi’s faithful readers will not be disappointed with his latest effort."
Ambassador Frederic C. Hof, Bard College
"A riveting account of the crucial days in March 2002 when the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was profoundly changed for the worse. The peace camp has never recovered from those wrenching days, and we live now without any hope of a just settlement. Alpher is a highly respected expert who has spent decades studying this conflict from both sides."
Bruce Riedel, Director of the Brookings Intelligence Project
"A critical assessment of a key period in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict never before presented in such detail. The best and most capable players at the executive and political levels proved unable to forge any resolution, final or partial, because both parties continued to maintain an insurmountable gulf between themselves. This is a MUST read for anyone daring to tackle the future of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and of Israel-Arab relations in general."
Efraim Halevy, former Head of the Mossad (1998-2002)
Oraib Khader and Avi Bar-On are youngish Palestinian and Israeli bachelors with security experience, readiness to do business with one another, a shared fondness for women and money, and total cynicism about the lack of peace between their two peoples.
Oraib and Avi can never become true friends: the cultural and political gaps are too wide. But as they confront a failed peace process and a bleak peace future, they readily become business partners: shady business that exploits a lot of naïve international peace aspirations.
As Oraib sums up on a visit to Sarpsborg, Norway, where the ultimately-failed Oslo peace talks were held, “There is a lesson here for those who still doggedly and hopelessly pursue a two-state solution in the Middle East. Get smart. Get out of the Israeli-Palestinian peace business. Step back and let the Jews and Arabs screw one another while making money.”