Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the United States has been labeled many things, yet most analysts have missed the fact that he has proven that whoever is in the White House, the West Asia strategy of the American government will remain on the same path to self-destruction. This is evidenced by the Washington’s refusal to change course and accept compromise.
The US corporate media has attempted to portray Kamala Harris and Donald Trump as each other’s polar opposites, yet the strategy adopted by both parties towards the Arab World and wider region is to pursue hegemony through an offensive alliance, relying on Israel as its spearhead.
The ‘Arab NATO’ strategy
Towards the end of the administration of Barack Obama, the US government was faced with a tough choice in West Asia, either pursue peace with the Islamic Republic of Iran or form a regional alliance to confront it, risking all-out war. The War on Terror had caused the deaths of millions and cost the US trillions, while only strengthening the resolve of forces opposed to American hegemony. For a brief period, it appeared as if Barack Obama had chosen to bite the bullet and accept the realities on the ground, signing the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Iran in 2015, but this hope for change was short lived.
During the upheaval of the Arab Spring, the US attempted to weaponize the revolutionary fervor of the region and eliminate Arab governments that contested its regional ambitions. This policy became most evident with the NATO invasion of Libya, which worked to depose President Muammar Gaddafi and the failed attempt to remove Bashar Assad from power in Syria. The US also backed the multinational Saudi-led coalition to oust the Ansarallah Party (Houthis) that had seized power in Yemen’s Sana’a.
The rise of the Daesh (ISIS) terrorist organization also granted the United States its perfect opportunity to justify its direct presence in Iraq under Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR). Yet, by 2016, the US government was stuck, it was maintaining multiple clandestine operations throughout the region, as well as a direct military presence in nations like Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq to prop up favorable regimes, with no end in sight.
When Donald Trump came to power, he ditched the approach of attempting to push both militarily and diplomatically to reach an outcome where the US government would remain the top power in the region. He unilaterally withdrew from the JCPOA, heavily sanctioned Iran, and pursued what he called the “Abraham Accords,” working to bring the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Morocco and also Sudan into normalization agreements with Israel.
The Trump White House decided to abandon the internationally accepted two-state solution to solve the question of Palestine, offering the Palestinians no hope for change while also defying the international community’s long-held stance on the issue of Western Sahara in order to pressure Morocco into normalizing ties with the Israelis. These moves set in motion a series of events that put Morocco and Algeria on a collision course, while causing an explosion inside the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel in 1967.
Hellbound and Down 