Donald J. Trump’s decisive electoral victory in the November 5, 2024 election has, in all probability, ended the Obama era.  For all intents and purposes, Obama served three terms as president.  A Harris victory on November 5 would have extended Obama’s reign as a de facto president for another four years.

Obama’s chartered policy for the Middle East was detrimental to Israel.  It began with his 2009 appeasement tour of Egypt, where he apologized for America and sought solidarity with the Muslim world.  His appeasement of America’s enemies, mainly the radical theocratic Islamic Republic of Iran and its proxies, continued throughout his presidency.  Joe Biden pursued the same soft approach that sought to bring the Iranians to the negotiating table in order to resuscitate the 2015 nuclear deal that Trump had dumped in his first term as president.

Whereas Biden sought de-escalation in the Middle East by exercising U.S. restraint in the face of Iranian aggression, President Trump, though seeking to stay away from conflicts in the Middle East, believes that a strong military posture is the best defense, serves as a deterrence, and is the best way to prevent wars.  American deterrence, during the last four years under Biden and Harris, has been dangerously diminished and has provoked America’s enemies, Iran in particular, to attack U.S. bases in Syria and Iraq through its proxies, essentially with impunity.  The Biden administration’s reaction to the attacks on Western and American shipping in the Red Sea by the Houthis (one of Iran’s proxies) was pitifully weak and indecisive.  To his credit, however, Biden reacted immediately after the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by sending a naval task force to the eastern Mediterranean.

The incoming Trump administration may not be as pro-Israel this time around as it was during his first term.  However, his significant Evangelical Christian supporters will counter any contentious actions taken against Israel, as Obama did, and as Biden did, by withholding certain arms supplies to Israel and threatening an embargo.  Trump appeared last September at the Israeli-American Summit in Washington, where he bemoaned the lack of Jewish-American support despite of all that he had done for Israel.  Yet it was the Jewish vote in Pennsylvania that tipped the balance in his favor and secured his election victory.

Most Israelis expressed relief at Trump’s victory, recognizing that President Biden and particularly Kamala Harris were hamstrung by the pro-Hamas radical leftist Democrats in the U.S. Congress.  Unlike the ineffectiveness of the Biden/Harris administration in dealing with the “head of the snake” — namely, Iran — Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign bankrupted Iran and caused it to cut down its support for its proxies.  In his second term, Trump must add a credible military threat to the economic pressure.  Iran’s recent attempt to assassinate Trump will, more than likely, incentivize Trump to be even tougher on the ayatollahs.

The Biden administration's clamoring to return to the nuclear deal with Iran and its insistence on old paradigms regarding the Palestinian issue led to negative results.  Palestinians became further entrenched in their refusal to negotiate and continued inciting their public and funding terror (widely referred to as “Pay for Slay”). Hamas and Hezb’allah hoped American pressure to end the war would cause Israel to abandon its objectives, causing regional states, including some who signed the Abraham Accords, to question warming relations with Israel.  Not coincidentally, there were no additional Arab states that joined the peace circle during Biden's administration.  In the mindset of the Gulf Arab, especially among the leadership, Trump is seen as the “strong horse,” a leader who is decisive and determined to win, especially in dealing with Iran.  This stance will likely convince the Saudis to reconsider joining the Abraham Accords and conclude a peace deal with Israel.

Although Trump declared during his campaign that he would seek quick ends to the wars in Gaza and Lebanon, he is certain to recognize the need for the complete defeat of Hamas and Hezb’allah and the restoration of Israeli deterrence.  Otherwise, the region will be condemned to recurring wars.  Trump understands that only a clear victory for Israel will bring long-term stability and quiet to the region.  A decisive victory for Israel, bolstered by U.S. support, would also enhance American influence in the region and would signal to the Saudis and others that the U.S. is a trustworthy ally.

Effecting a regime change in Iran, unthinkable under the Obama and Biden administrations, will not be dismissed as such by Trump.  Cooperating with the Netanyahu government in the destruction of Iran’s regime assets, including military, nuclear, and oil facilities, would boost the probability of the Iranian people rising up against the ayatollahs in order to get rid of the hated, repressive, and failed regime.  Hopefully, Trump understands that there will never be peace in the Middle East region as long as the world’s leading terror-sponsoring regime in Tehran remains in power.  The Trump administration will undoubtedly be generous toward the people of Iran once they have ushered in a new democratic regime.

With wokeness out of the American governing system, American foreign policy under Trump can reward America’s allies and cease to appease its enemies.  A new era of peace through strength may well be on the horizon.

Image via U.S. National Archives.