This week the first official flight from Israel to Sudan took place, with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on board. He probably had a good reason to travel all the way there. The African country, no longer under the rule of a brutal oppressor, has been trying very hard to find its path forward despite its many challenges.
Apart from abolishing Sharia Law and announcing an election that would take place in two years, the provisional council that has been governing the country wants to closer ties with the US and Israel. If and when Jerusalem and Khartoum announce a peace deal – US officials believe this could be very soon – it will encapsulate the entire region's history for the past 53 years.
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It was in Khartoum that the Arab League famously declared, following the Six-Day War, "no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with it."
There was another condition: no to relinquishing the rights of the Palestinians. And here we are in 2020, and that very Khartoum now all but recognizes Israel, it is willing to talk to it (it's interim leader met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu several months ago) and it is engaging Israel despite a Palestinian-Israeli peace accord not being any closer.
The historic shifting of sands can be attributed to a whole host of reasons but chiefly among them is the Trump Doctrine.
During the eight years of the previous administration, then-President Barack Obama was eager to appease the worst regimes. He fueled the Iranians with billions of dollars and gave the ayatollahs legitimacy; he embraced Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey, and pro-Islamic Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, who was briefly in power, as well as the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood.
He also took the Holocaust-denier and terrorist-funder Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas under his wings. The result was chaos: The moderate regimes collapsed, the Islamic State terrorist group grew, the Iranian evil powers thrived, and the Palestinian Authority became moribund.
President Donald Trump turned this approach on its head. He has crippled Iran, hit Erdogan hard, and has insisted that the PA get its act together. He also had no qualms about traveling directly from Riyadh to Jerusalem, in what is an unmistakable message. And finally, Trump published the most realistic plan ever on a peace deal between the Palestinians and Israelis.
This peace plan but did away with the 1967 borders and no longer automatically accepted the Palestinians' demands. It also agreed that Israel could extend its sovereignty to areas in Judea and Samaria even before a peace deal. So why has this plan, out of all other plans, drawn the Arabs closer to Israel?
Perhaps because Trump and his peace team have refused to let the propaganda and deceit dictate their moves. Reality, truth and loyalty to allies – chiefly among them Israel – are the values that have guided them. This is how you make history, and in the coming days we will likely hear history being made again.
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