Bahrain Conference Prioritizes Iran Threat over Palestian Grievances

An Interview with Dan Diker

by Jerry Gordon and Rod Reuven Dovid Bryant (August 2019)

Palestinian Protesters of Trump Plan

‘Snow job’ was the comment of Palestinian Authority (PA) spokesmen over the release of President Trump’s Peace to Prosperity, A New Vision for the Palestinian People and the Broader Middle East prior to the long awaited two day workshop in Manama, Bahrain, held June 25-26. Special Presidential Assistant Jared Kushner and Special Envoy for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt were invited by Bahrain Foreign Minister, Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa. They presented the 40-page $50 million 10-year economic ‘opportunity of the century’ to an important assemblage of seven Sunni Arab countries and emirates. Among those who attended the Bahrain workshop were Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan and Morocco. Oman, which has friendly relations with Israel, did not attend.

The Bahrain workshop coincided with a Trilateral Summit of US, Russian and Israeli National Security Advisers which was convened in Jerusalem on the matter of Iran’s encroaching presence in Syria. A helicopter tour over the Jordan Valley with US National Security Adviser John Bolton and Israeli PM Netanyahu illustrated the country’s narrow mid-waist and the necessity of Israel’s control over the Samarian Judean ridgeline in any peace plan. The message for the Trump Peace team was only Israel could secure its own security.

Kushner’s pitch:

My direct message to the Palestinian people is that despite what those who have let you down in the past say, President Trump and America have not given up on you.

To be clear, economic growth and prosperity for the Palestinian people are not possible without an enduring and fair political solution to the conflict—one that guarantees Israel’s security and respects the dignity of the Palestinian people.

The $50 million economic plan would create an estimated 1 million jobs for Egyptians, Palestinians and Jordanians. The Plan offers a radical economic shift in the region. R. Glenn Hubbard, Columbia University Graduate School of Business Dean and former Bush Economic Adviser calls it a ‘Middle East Marshall Plan,’ as it emphasizes private business and not charity access to create jobs. That might have been a bit of stretch as the Marshall Plan bolstered the recovery and unification of Europe post WWII with countries that ostensibly share the same values. That’s not the case with the Palestinians.

There was one exception to the Trump Economic plan. The infrastructure portion of the plan proposed building a corridor between the West Bank and Gaza. That was objected to by Israeli security officials as imperiling the country’s national security.

Palestinian leaders, Mahmoud Abbas and Saeb Erekat continued to bewail the transfer of the US Embassy to Jerusalem depriving them of a future Palestinian State capital. Further, they objected to the Administration curtailing US financial support for the UNWRA refugee program. They also objected to the US reducing funding over the continuation of the PLO ‘pay for slay’ program of payments to Palestinian terrorists and their families. That didn’t prevent a contingent of Palestinian businessmen from attending the Bahrain workshop. However, upon their return, a Palestinian businessman from Hebron, Saleh Abu Miala was arrested by Palestinian Security on alleged charges of sedition. It took the intervention of US Special Envoy Greenblatt to have the PA release Miala.

Professor Eugene Kontorovich of the Antonin Scalia Law School of George Mason University, the architect of a multi-state anti-BDS statute enacted by over two dozen US States, commented:

The Bahrain workshop is intended to improve the Palestinian economy that is beleaguered by corruption, ineptitude and a bloated bureaucracy. Unfortunately, the Palestinian leadership refuses to cooperate with the U.S.’ generous approach.

The Palestinians have once again “forfeited another opportunity to improve their lot and build peace bottom-up.

Going forward, the U.S. will likely realize that Israel must take unilateral actions to protect its interests while improving the lives of Palestinians and will support such steps.

One suggestion of possible unilateral actions that Israel might undertake is a proposal by former Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat for creation of 14 new industrial zones in Area C of the disputed territories created by the Oslo pact of 1993. That may have been based on a report by Dan Diker of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Defeating Denormalization: Shared Palestinian and Israeli Perspectives on a New Path to Peace. The report illustrated the success of 16 existing Israeli-controlled industrial zones created 20 years ago by former Israeli Trade Minister and human rights icon, Anatoly Sharansky. This experience raised Palestinian employees’ level of living and income under the security of Israeli laws. See our September 2018 NER article: ‘Dan Diker on The Israeli-Palestinian Path to Peace through Economic Prosperity.’

Despite the PA rejection of the Plan, Special Envoy Greenblatt expressed his optimistic view that ‘they had changed the narrative.’

Israeli Foreign Minister, Israel Katz was not invited to Bahrain; however, six Israeli journalists were. Other notables present on the periphery of the conference included Rabbi Marvin Heir, Chancellor of the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center. Kushner, Greenblatt, Heir and several Israeli journalists attended a morning service at the only Jewish synagogue in Manama—an anomaly in the Gulf region.

Khalifa went out of his way to convey an important message about peace and normalization of relations with Israel. In an interview with Barak Ravid of Israel’s Channel 13, the Bahrain Foreign Minister said:

Israel is a country in the Middle East. Israel is part of this heritage of this whole region historically. So, the Jewish people have a place among us.

Behind Khalifa’s comment was the fact that Bahrain, the UAE and Saudi Arabia had changed from supporting the Palestinian cause to the priority of dealing with the threat from Iran. That meant that regional security required the involvement of Israel and the US under the Trump Administration, thus explaining their willingness to publicly approve the Administration’s plans for the Middle East.

Further evidence of Bahrain’s role in Gulf region normalization of relations occurred when both Foreign Ministers Katz of Israel and Khalifa of Bahrain met and had their picture taken at a US State Department Conference on Religious Freedom at which President Trump spoke. A Times of Israel report noted the significance of the meeting of the two Foreign Ministers in Washington, DC:

Katz said the public meeting with the Bahraini minister was ‘another example of our growing diplomatic connections.’

‘I will continue to work with [Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] to advance Israel’s relations with the Gulf countries,’ he said.

Katz later put out a statement, saying the meeting was organized by State Department officials and that he and Khalifa ‘discussed Iran, regional threats and bilateral relations, and agreed to remain in contact.’

There were indications that Israeli representatives below the ministerial level may be invited to a proposed security conference on air and sea navigational rights clearly aimed at Iran.

Middle East Special Envoy Greenblatt, a month following the Bahrain conference, did a series of interviews in both Arab and US media. During a PBS News Hour interview, he made quite clear that the Administration considers Israel a ‘victim’ of Palestinian terrorism. He held Israel’s security paramount in any peace plan that the Administration might unveil following the September 17th do-over Israeli Knesset election.

When prompted on the matter of whether annexing Israeli settlements was a possibility in the Administration peace plans, Greenblatt said:

I don’t even like the word settlements. I think it’s a pejorative term. I use the term neighborhoods and cities.

I think that one of the challenges of this file, as people speak about the West Bank, Judea and Samaria as being occupied, I would argue that the land is disputed. It needs to be resolved in the context of direct negotiations between the parties. Calling it occupied territory does not help resolve the conflict.

With this background, Jerry Gordon and Rod Reuven Dovid Bryant of Israel News Talk Radio – Beyond the Matrix interviewed Dan Diker, Director of the Political Warfare Project of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.

Rod: You have officially entered Beyond the Matrix here on Israel News Talk Radio. I’m Rod Bryant along with my amazing co-host sitting on the other side of the glass, Jerry Gordon, producer of the show. We have brought back Dan Diker to discuss what happened at the Bahrain conference. Dan Diker was prescient about these developments in our interview with him a year ago. Now we are seeing his views coming true when other people were skeptical about the idea.

Jerry: Dan is the Director of the Project to Counter Political Warfare at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. He was a former Secretary General of the World Jewish Congress. He is the author of several books including The PACBI Deception: Unmasked. Terror Links and Political Warfare Masquerading as Human Rights and co-Author of Defeating Denormalization, Shared Palestinian and Israel Perspectives on a New Path to Peace. What Dan is going to discuss today is that at the Bahrain conference, the Sunni-Arab world told the Palestinians, you are not the priority, it is Iran.

Rod: Which is a profound statement.

Jerry: It is among the most profound statements coming out of our discussions with Dan. Dan made these remarks last year at this time on Beyond the Matrix.

Rod: Correct. I remember specifically someone we had mentioned in an interview when we had mentioned this peace plan or potential of it—he kind of shot it down. It sounds good, but like so many good concepts and ideas it will never work. Now, he probably meant that the Palestinians would never agree to it. I’m not sure that anybody thinks the Palestinians would have agreed to this ‘Opportunity of a Century.’

Jerry: This is going to emerge in the discussion given what Dan and his team at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs have talked about which was being put forward at the Conference.

Rod: Dan, a fifty-billion-dollar economic plan was part of this deal of the century. What were the highpoints of this plan?

Dan: First of all, Rod and Jerry, thanks for having me back on the show. I think we should brand this or call this the ‘Opportunity of the Century.’ I think it was said it very well at Bahrain: it’s the ‘Opportunity of the Century’ more than the ‘Deal of the Century.’ Because the opportunity is for the region, as opposed to advancing some deal between the Israelis and the Palestinians. I think that is the correct way to look at it. There has never been in modern political history an offer from the greatest power in the free world to coalesce and raise fifty billion dollars. Remember we are talking about close to ten billion dollars from Jordan and Egypt. We are talking about twenty-eight billion dollars for the Palestinians. We are talking about the creation of well over a million jobs for the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. We are talking about, hundreds of thousands if not more than a million jobs for Jordanians as well as Egyptians and Bedouins in Northern Sinai. We are talking about a radical regional shift in the economic development of the region. I think that’s why so many in the Arab League showed up and, unfortunately once again, the Palestinians missed an opportunity to have an opportunity.

Jerry: Dan, coincident with our interview was the comment from the Dean of the Graduate Business School at Columbia, R. Glenn Hubbard, who drew attention to this by saying that the two most important economic aspects of this plan were first private business not charity-driving prosperity and secondarily housing and businesses needing access to capital. He considers this a Middle East Marshall Plan. What are your comments?

Dan: It could be a Middle East Marshall Plan. The problem is the security and administrative aspects of where these economic initiatives would be based and who would secure them from a national security standpoint. I think this is the key point that was not mentioned in Bahrain. The only way, in my view—as someone who has analyzed what we call economic peace—is that economic stability can work if it is done in the first stage in Area C of Judea and Samaria, in the West Bank. This is where sixty percent of the disputed territory is under full security control of Israel. There have been several other economic initiatives that have been tried in Areas A and B by the Turks, the Japanese, the French and the Germans in these areas that the Palestinians control. They have not gone well. One of the reasons they haven’t gone well is because the Palestinian Authority is not a democracy. It is a corrupt kleptocracy and a terrorist autocracy. Therefore, it encourages foreign investments based on their poor track record over the last ten years with the Europeans, the Japanese and the Turks. It really requires a Middle East first-world country environment like Israel’s to secure these types of arrangements from bureaucracy, administration, and national security to make sure the terrorists can’t disrupt these operations. The last thing that the Islamic Republic of Iran and its terror proxies such as Hezbollah and even Hamas want is for a successful middle class to evolve on the Palestinian side as well as in the region. They don’t want it, so therefore the national security mandate is going to be very important. It will only happen at this point if the Israelis secure it on behalf of all parties.

Jerry: Dan, it sounds as if the comments made by Former Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat are spot on with what you just said. He talked about a plan that was focused on Area C and creation of an additional 12 industrial zones. Is that something that basically you would approve of?

Dan: Jerry, let’s bear in mind that the 14 industrial and commercial zones in Area C, which was the brainchild of Former Minister of Trade and Commerce, Natan Sharansky, the former prisoner of Zion in the former Soviet Union, has been successful. The 14 commercial industrial areas currently employ, 35,000 to 40,000 Palestinian workers. They are protected by Israeli labor laws receiving the same terms of employment and employment protection that their Jewish Israeli co-workers receive. That is being done in an environment of good will, mutual respect and profitability in Area C. What we call the Area C “enabling” strategy is something that is based on nearly twenty years of success. Let’s maintain a winning strategy and not change it.

Rod: The U.S Special Envoy, Jason Greenblatt, said the economic plan presented at the Bahrain Seminar has “changed the vision” of the Middle East. Why did he make that assessment?

Dan: It is a watershed moment in Palestinian/ Israeli diplomacy, as well as, in regional stability. We are now in a period of tremendous instability in the Middle East. That instability has had ebbs and flows since Oslo was first signed as an exchange of letters in September 1993 and then affirmed in the ‘Oslo Interim Agreement’ in September 1995. Since those years, a certain orthodoxy in emblematic thinking has emerged which says that the main problem to stability and peace in the Middle East is the necessity of solving the Palestinian/Israeli conflict which has been going on for a hundred years. That is the cause of all other problems in terrorism and insecurity in the Middle East. That sacred cow has now been slaughtered. What has happened in Bahrain the Bahraini Foreign Minister welcoming a direct interview with Israeli media. You had, according to news reports, the Foreign Minister of Israel, Mr. Israel Katz, going to Bahrain. You had invited guests from Israel, you have six or you have seven different Arab countries that showed up at the behest of the United States. All this, despite the fact, that the Palestinian Authority led by Mahmoud Abbas and Saeb Erekat, dismissed the ‘Opportunity of the Century.’ They boycotted the United States, and their own Arab brethren in the Arab League. They have basically turned themselves into a bunch of irrelevant crybabies in this emerging region. It is their own Arab fellow travelers in the Sunni-Arab establishment led by Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan who basically said directly and indirectly, ‘I’m sorry Palestinian leadership, you are missing the train again.’ We, the Arab world, are going to move forward with Israel and the United States in a regional reality that requires intervention due to the poisonous and dangerous threats of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Further, we have the need for a Western type economic investment and infrastructure that will help us become more successful—frankly more like the West.

Rod: Is this plan going to continue without Palestinian support?

Dan: Yes, that’s what the Bahrainis are saying. The Bahrainis and the Saudis are saying that the Palestinian issue is not the most important one in the Middle East. They are saying that the Iranian regime’s race for regional and nuclear supremacy undermining almost every country in the region is the major cause of instability in the Middle East. The fact is that the Palestinians refuse to accept that idea. They are behaving like abused children who have never been paid the right amount of attention by their own brethren, as well as by the West and Israel. That whole excuse has now gone out the window.

Rod: Dan, did you say that the Arab states are saying that dealing with Iran is more important than a Palestinian State. Did I hear that correctly?

Dan: Rod, the title of the workshop in Bahrain was ‘Peace to Prosperity.’ That means you have got to have an economically viable infrastructure in order to achieve the long-term peace and security stability. The Arab world understands. This is also what the Americans and, more increasingly, the Europeans are understanding. The Palestinian leadership simply rejects the notion or the right of the Jewish people to their own self-determination in the Middle East. They keep rejecting any sort of logical approach to reaching Palestinian sovereignty. It is security for them and for their Israeli neighbors. It is more important to lay down economic infrastructure first. Only in that way will it naturally lead to a Palestinian sovereign entity if they ever get their act together. I have my doubts.

Jerry: Dan the hypocrisy of the PLO Fatah leaders in opposing the activities at Bahrain was reflected in a group of about a dozen or more Palestinian businessmen who independently of the PLO Fatah leadership went to Bahrain. They returned only to be arrested on charges of sedition. That sends a horrible message to the rest of the world and perhaps even their former Arab allies. What is your comment?

Dan: Unfortunately, the Palestinian Authority—contrary to what many in Europe has said—is not a democracy. It’s a sort of a semi-dictatorship. It is tyrannical to political opposition as well as to minorities that are in their midst. As an example of that, two Palestinians who led the Palestinian Businessmen Delegation from Hebron, Ashraf Jabari and Saleh Abu Mayaleh, were reportedly arrested by the Palestinian Security Services as reported by The New York Times. It was also reported that Jason Greenblatt, Special Peace Envoy to Middle East intervened and, according to reports, these men were released. However, what is telling is that the Palestinian official declaration characterized their participation as a betrayal of the Palestinian cause. That is why they were arrested. Here you have proof of the political nature of the Palestinian Authority, which is somewhere between the former fascist Italian regime and the Soviet Union.

Rod: Dan, the antics of the Palestinian Authority aside, why are they are still rejecting the idea of prosperity while boycotting Israel, who they allege is oppressing them. Can you comment on that?

Dan: That is an important question Rod. What you have exposed the blatant hypocrisy on the Palestinian side. One the one hand they say that any Israeli presence East of the 1949 Armistice Line that include Jerusalem and all of Judea and Samaria on the West is due to Israeli oppression, Israeli colonialization. Frankly, they are inaccurate. What is really motivating the Palestinians since Arafat signed the Oslo exchange of letters with Prime Minister Rabin on the lawn of the White House in ’93 had become very suspect. Their motivations were to continue the PLO 1974 plan which was to continue the Revolutionary Fight Against Israel’s existence until it no longer exists. This was very much inspired by South Africa’s African National Council, the underground movement that is now quite unsuccessfully ruling South Africa’s major party. This revolutionary fervor frankly not going to help the Palestinians. Basically, they will bury themselves because they are rejecting direct assistance from the Arab world, the United States, the Europeans as well as from their neighbor Israel.

Jerry: Dan, there was one fly in the ointment in this plan and that was under the infrastructure heading; the objective of building a possible corridor between Gaza and the West Bank. How realistic is that?

Dan: You put your finger on really one of the trouble spots of the plan. This was not part of the Bahrain plan; this was part of they call the ‘Opportunity of the Century.’ There is a fly in the ointment here. What Israel has learned from a security standpoint is that the Gazans and the West Bankers have nothing to do with one another in terms of family lines and commercial interests. These are really very different communities and even people. The Gazans came from Egypt and the West Bankers and Jordan are connected by family, ethnic, tribal and clan life. That is number one for them. However, from Israel’s point of view, it is some sort of underground or over ground transportation artery connecting Gaza to the West Bank that simply threatens Israel’s sovereignty and its national security. There are too many terrorists running around from ISIS, Al Qaida, Hezbollah and Hamas. In order to secure such a direct link between Gaza and the West Bank when, in fact, on the Palestinian side there are no natural links between the two areas. That was part of the Oslo agreement from 1993 connecting these two areas until the last few years when the Israeli consensus rejected such a transportation linkage because of the wars that the Iranian regime sponsored out of Gaza. Therefore, Israelis realized that by getting out of Gaza hook, line and sinker, which the State of Israel did in 2005, only led to a massive increase in terrorism. Linking Gaza and the West Bank would be to commit national security suicide for Israel.

Rod: Is this an obviously a dead issue—the linkage between the two communities with a secure highway?

Dan: I can tell you this, after the Oslo exchange of letters took place in September of 1993. what you saw between then and the following three years were Gazans going to the West Bank for work- and economic-related reasons. They were thrown out because the West Bankers do not want Gazans in their midst. The West Bankers look at Gazans like the old white South African apartheid minority looked at its black majority. There is a real issue of racism and inverted prejudice from the West Bankers towards the Gazans. Now you will never hear this from them on Beyond the Matrix because they always put up a front of what they call national unity. That is simply untrue. From an Israeli point of view, it is very much is a dead letter. It doesn’t matter if it is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who is leading the country or someone else. It is very much a dead issue.

Rod: Dan, several months ago, I can remember us on an interview talking about the major components of this idea of bringing peace to the region through economic prosperity. There were other people who were naysayers of the idea saying it will never work. That you never can get all the partners together and yet, we are now seeing this. How does that make you feel?

Dan: It is gratifying Rod. Over a year ago The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs published a monograph called Defeating Denormalization. It was the first time that a policy book was co-authored by Israelis and Palestinians. The Palestinians allowed us to publish their articles publicly. Those articles called for exactly what we are seeing today which is a you know a prosperity linked regional peace process. The Palestinians are themselves saying it. I urge people to read that monograph. That interview on your show a year ago has been adopted as part of the mainstream thinking so this is encouraging. I think it means that there is sort of a democratization of influence that can take place among people in the private sector, not only as government initiatives.

Rod: You were invited to the White House to discuss some of the content of your book, correct?

Dan: Yes, I was invited to the White House by Middle East advisor to President Trump, Jason Greenblatt, concerned with this issue. I shared these ideas with him. The meeting had been scheduled for twenty minutes and we sat well over an hour both times. So, I must say I was very impressed by those advisors who were dealing with this Middle East Peace Process lead by Attorney Jason Greenblatt. They asked thoughtful questions and were deeply committed to understanding the distinctions in Middle Eastern political culture. That is what led to a very adventurous and courageous approach. I think Jared Kushner has done an excellent job in putting this together. The fact that this approach is currently being endorsed by the Arab leadership Saudi Arabia, the Gulf Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, even Qatar, sitting there as part of the assembly really says it all. The fact that the Palestinians refuse to join it should send a very loud message to all those who are wondering how the Palestinians have allowed themselves to be deluded during all these years. Here you have a real shift in thinking and something that has become a consensus discussion in how to create a more stable and secure region.

Jerry: Dan, there was another major event recently. That was the trilateral meeting in Jerusalem of US National Security Advisor John Bolton, his counterpart from Israel, and a counterpart from Russia. Prior to that Summit, Prime Minister Netanyahu took Ambassador Bolton on a helicopter trip purposefully to the Jordan Valley. That is a throwback to one of the comments you made over a year ago about the necessity of maintaining Israeli security. What do you think occurred at this summit to deal with Iran?

Dan: First of all, it was no coincidence that the Bahrain Conference, and the Trilateral National Security Meeting in Jerusalem overlapped. They happened at the same time because both the economic stability and security and military national security are connected one with the other. It is also very significant that they met in Jerusalem. The United States, Russia and the Israelis met in Israel in Jerusalem, Israel’s Capital, about how to secure Israel and the broader Middle East region in the event of some sort of conflict with Iran and its proxies. They went on a helicopter ride over the Jordan Valley in order to emphasize how narrow Israel is and that Israel has no strategic depth. Israel is a country that is nine miles wide at its narrowest point East West. It is is a country that can only defend itself by itself. It can only defend itself by having the very modest territory that it already controls including the high ground. You know in the helicopter ride you can see very clearly that the hills, what they call the Judea/Samarian Hill Ridge, provides a natural wall against any terror infiltration from the East. Therefore, every Israeli government since 1967 have insisted on the concept of defensible borders for Israel based on retaining control of all the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. I think that the fact that the National Security Advisors Patrushev from Russia and Bolton from the United States understand that from witnessing it firsthand. Having the media report on it is a very important because it gets lost to a lot of people who look at the resolution of the Palestinian/Israeli problem by pressuring Israel to concede all this territory and relying on a piece of paper called a Peace Agreement as the ultimate security. What I think the US National Security Advisor saw and was reported on, was that only Israel can secure itself. Out of those security requirements could come some sort of diplomatic agreement not the other way around.

Jerry: Against that backdrop the Trump administration rolled out a new form of sanctions against the Iranian Ayatollah, the Supreme leader and leaders of the IRGC. Is that going to have any significant impact in curtailing Iran’s behavior in the region?

Dan: The IRGC leaders are the major commercial owners of much of Iran’s industries, constituting much of Iran’s GDP. So, this have major implications for trade with the Islamic Republic because most of those major assets are held by operatives and affiliates of the IRGC. It has everything to do with international banking and money flows in and out of Iran. It was the first time that the IRGC was identified and declared a terrorist entity. These are biting sanctions and these sanctions work. I think they may be related the strategy behind President Trump’s very public aggressive agreements and meetings with the North Korean leader. It sends a message to Tehran that on the one hand we will ratchet up these sanctions, on the other hand the door is open if you just walk through it. I think he was trying to say the North Koreans may be walking through the door and that’s a signal to the Iranians. However, if they don’t walk through the door, the United States and its allies would not hesitate to use force against the Islamic regime.

Rod: Dan, what comes to mind is a basketball term called a full court press. It just seems that this administration along with some coordination of the Arab states and Israel are making a full court press to put pressure on Iran to either get on board or be left behind. What do you think?

Dan: Very much so and I think that’s the North Korean strategy. I think that many people misread the North Korean strategy. If you are watching CNN and FOX, you may have seen a long list of democratic leaders who are very respectable men and women attacking the President saying, ‘You know this is a dictator, this is a tyrant.’ On the other hand, this is a full court press and I think that the Arab world is seeing it that way. The Islamic Republic of Iran is the target. The North Koreans are also being targeted. I think the President is carrying a big stick and he’s talking softly. If you look at past administrations, Republican and Democratic both, we haven’t seen this type of strategy being implemented as we have here. It really seems to me as a student of Middle East politics for several decades that the President is following The Art of War by Sun Tzu and he’s read or heard about Machiavelli. This seems to be a very appropriate strategy for the Middle East. This is the Middle East.

Rod: Yes.

Dan: It’s not America and Europe.

Rod: Right. As you said carry a big stick, but also have big carrot as well. Thank you so much for coming on the program for this very informative interview. You nailed it. Thank you for the work that you are doing. We really appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to come on to the program. Shalom.

Listen to the original Israel News Talk Radio – Beyond the Matrix interview.

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__________________________________

Jerome B Gordon is a Senior Vice President of the New English Review, author of The West Speaks, NER Press 2012, and co-author of Genocide in Sudan: Caliphate Threatens Africa and the World, JAD Publishing, 2017. Mr. Gordon is a former US Army intelligence officer who served during the Viet Nam era. He is producer and co-host of Israel News Talk Radio – Beyond the Matrix. He was the co-host and co-producer of weekly The Lisa Benson Show for National Security that aired out of KKNT960 in Phoenix Arizona from 2013 to 2016 and co-host and co-producer of the Middle East Round Table periodic series on 1330amWEBY, Northwest Florida Talk Radio, Pensacola, Florida from 2007 to 2017.

Rod Reuven Dovid Bryant is creator and host of Israel News Talk Radio-Beyond the Matrix.

Follow NER on Twitter @NERIconoclast

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Bahrain Conference Prioritizes Iran Threat over Palestian Grievances

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Bahrain Conference Prioritizes Iran Threat over Palestian Grievances

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

New English Review Press is a priceless cultural institution. — Bruce Bawer

New English Review Press is a priceless cultural institution.
— Bruce Bawer