In recent months, the Middle East has felt like a page-turning novel, with what lies ahead on the next page unknown. Alliances, threats, and declarations have been changing with dizzying speed. From Gaza and Tehran to Riyadh and Doha, from Washington to Jerusalem, the headlines come fast and furious.
But underneath the noise, and sometimes hidden from the general public, a larger, more connected strategy is emerging: a potential realignment of the Middle East, one in which Israel’s security may be quietly benefiting from what seems, on the surface, like an American contradiction.
On the surface, an anxiety-ridden scene unfolds where it is hard to interpret the age-old question: “Is this good or bad for the Jews?” The US has lavished praise on Qatar, a nation that bankrolls Hamas, shelters its leadership, and funds American universities that have become hotbeds of anti-Israel sentiment. This is the same Qatar that owns Al Jazeera, a media empire often hostile to Israel and the West.
Trump's Middle East policies
Unimaginably, Syria is being offered sanctions relief, and its new leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, was bestowed the honor of meeting US President Donald Trump. Sharaa, not 10 months ago, had a US bounty of $10 million on his head.
One can reasonably ask whether we are witnessing American naïveté, or something else entirely. From one lens, it may seem like Trump is consorting with the enemy, but from a different perspective, a deeper strategy is at play, one Israel could never pull off alone.
As people try to make sense of his continued praise for Gulf autocrats and dictators like Putin, they may be missing Trump’s point, which is to create relationships, which in turn create leverage.
The US president praises flawed leaders, not because he’s blind to their records, but because he knows honey attracts more flies than vinegar. Charm is the currency he uses to build relationships and, crucially, to secure interconnectivity. It is easy to say no to an enemy, and very hard to say no to a friend.
Conditions allowing Israel to achieve peace
Trump’s efforts may be creating the very conditions Israel needs to ultimately achieve peace. If Arab nations are brought into alignment with the US, through deals, flattery, and economic incentives, they will inevitably find themselves closer to Israel, either through shared interests or simply as a by-product. Peace with Syria, Lebanon, and the Gulf states isn’t just a pipe dream in this framework; it’s a likely outcome.
The US president is doing what is good for human society in promoting peace, and by doing so, Israel benefits as well. He is creating a “what’s good for you is good for me” ecosystem in which cooperation with the US means, by default, cooperation with Israel, now or in the near future.
Such a shift would isolate the Palestinian leadership, not through military action, but through a lack of places to draw support to continue their “resistance.” Resistance only works when someone funds it and legitimizes it. Imagine a world where Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Morocco, Oman, Sudan, Libya, Bahrain, and more are all at peace with Israel.
While all this may sound too good to be true, it is a realistic aspiration based on events as they are unfolding today. The world has witnessed the decimation of the Iranian Shia axis of resistance concurrently with the conciliatory ascension of the rest of the Arab world.
To be fair to this conversation and Trump’s efforts, he has a track record of results and deserves the benefit of the doubt. His previous administration orchestrated the Abraham Accords, brokered normalization agreements between Israel and Arab nations, relocated the US embassy to Jerusalem, recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, and withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal while launching a maximum pressure campaign on Tehran.
These were not symbolic overtures; they were substantive achievements. He upended the conventional wisdom and did things that “could not be done.”
It is no doubt difficult to watch Trump embrace certain characters and speak highly of them, but the bigger picture must be considered. As president Ronald Reagan once said, “Trust, but verify.” If the strategy succeeds, it could remake the region and change the rules of the game for generations to come.
The writer is the co-chairman and co-founder of Emissary, an organization dedicated to combating antisemitism on social media. To contact him: drosen@Emmisary4all.org.