The Shattering of Foreign Policy Delusions

The Shattering of Foreign Policy Delusions

By Sarah N. Stern

(Feb 17, 2025 | JNS) Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke during his visit on Sunday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, stating: “The President (also) has been very bold about his view of what the future for Gaza should be, not the same tired ideas of the past, but something that is bold. And something that frankly took courage and vision in order to outline. And it might have shocked and surprised many. But what may not continue is the same cycle where we repeat over and over again, and wind up in the exact same place.”

The Secretary of State is correct that it “shocked and surprised” many.  President Trump’s approach to Gaza contrasts starkly with the long-standing foreign policy strategies utilized by previous administrations since 1993. As most are aware, the President’s plan initially called for the relocation of approximately 2 million Gazans to Egypt and Jordan.

Since a peace treaty was signed between Egypt and Israel in 1979, Egyptian military aid has been foundational in foreign policy circles.  Egypt now receives $2.1 billion in military and humanitarian assistance from the United States. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi has called President Trump’s proposal “an injustice that we cannot take part in” and has refused to travel to the United States until after an Arab summit will be held in Cairo on February 27^th.

Although King Abdullah of Jordan met with President Trump and offered to take in 2,000 ill children, after meeting with Trump, he issued a statement that he” reiterated Jordan’s steadfast position against the displacement of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. This is the unified Arab position. Rebuilding Gaza without displacing the Palestinians and addressing the dire humanitarian situation should be the priority for all.” Jordan has signed a seven year Memorandum of Understanding with the United States, where it receives a portion of $10.15 billion, annually.

President Trump has threatened to withdraw funding to both Egypt and Jordan if they do not comply with his ideas.

Saudi Arabia immediately rejected the plan and is spearheading Arab efforts to come up with an alternative plan for a “Middle East Riviera” in Gaza. Saudi Arabia has been wedded to the idea of Palestinian statehood, and plans on spearheading a national Palestinian committee, which would include the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates. A

Resurrecting the Palestinian Authority when Hamas is clearly unpopular has been a default option for much of the international community.

The political landscape in Gaza and Judea and Samaria, has often been characterized by a complex interplay between various factions vying for power and influence. At the forefront of this struggle is Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian Authority (P.A.), who is now 89 years old and finds himself in a position where his influence is steadily waning. He is now in his 20^th year of what was supposed to have been a 4-year term.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has named a successor Rawhi Fattouh, which has been the head of the PLO Legislative Council, and will replace him, if indeed, Palestinian elections would happen. This, according to Lieutenant Colonel Maurice Hirsch of the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, “It is the announcement by Abu Mazen of the death of the P.A…Rawhi Fattouh is now the head of the PLO Legislative Council. Palestinians do not have a good record of holding elections. Abbas has been a dictator, issuing what has been known as law by decree. By appointing Fattouh as his replacement he is saying the PLO has overtaken the P.A.”

The PLO Charter has never been amended. It is replete with articles such as this: “Armed struggle is the only way to liberate Palestine. This it is the overall strategy, not merely a tactical phase.”

Yet, the foreign policy establishment keeps perpetually returning to propping up the P.A.

Since October 7^th, 2023, the polling numbers for the P.A. have plummeted as opposed to Hamas. The most recent Palestine Center for Policy and Survey Research poll showed Mahmoud Abbas with a mere 4 percent favorability rating. He is deemed “irrelevant” and “corrupt” by his own people.

We all remember when former Secretary of State John Kerry said in 2016, that “there will be no advanced and separate peace with the Arab world without the Palestinian process and Palestinian peace. Everybody needs to understand that. That is the hard reality.”

In contrast, both Trump administrations have recognized the minor significance of the P.A. and sagaciously did not make Palestinian statehood the keystone to resolving every dispute in the region. The Abraham Accords, signed on the White House Lawn, on September 15^th, 2020, between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain indicated just how erroneous John Kerry’s sentiments were. This shift in U.S. policy further marginalized Abbas, who had long relied on international support to bolster his position.

In complete ignorance of the Palestinian street, veteran foreign policy “experts” cannot discard failure of the “land for peace” paradigm, and the emergence of a Palestinian state as the makeshift solution to all the problems in the region. They insist on seeing the internal struggles between Hamas and the P.A. as a binary relationship, devoid of other alternatives.

Prior to both Trump administrations, the Palestinian Authority has always inserted itself as “center stage” in the Middle East Peace process. On October 7^th,2023, Hamas has proven itself to many in the foreign policy establishment to be primitive and barbaric, thus many in those circles would like to elevate the P.A. However, the Palestinian Authority continues to incite its people towards violence, and since September 13, 1993, have met each peace proposal with rejection and further acts of violence.

After the October 7^th massacres, disturbing quotes emerged from Palestinian Authority leaders in support of those horrific events. Hassan Albalawi, the deputy head of the Palestine mission to the EU, reacted by celebrating Hamas as “heroic”, while Adel Atieh, the Palestinian ambassador to the EU, described the terrorists as “the people of the mighty”. Meanwhile, Khuloussi Bsaiso, a Palestinian diplomat at the UN, shared a map of the Middle East without Israel. “Palestine as it should be,” he dubbed it.

In what can only be called “a Grand Deception”, Mahmoud Abbas and his appointee are kicking and screaming for relevance. On Tuesday, Abbas announced that he is eradicating the “Pay for Slay” program. This program incentivizes the violence and murder of Israelis and Jews by offering lavish rewards to the families of the prisoners and the families of “martyrs”.

The Taylor Force Act was named for a veteran of the US who served two tours of duty, in both Afghanistan and Iraq. He graduated with honors from West Point and subsequently enrolled at Vanderbilt University to pursue his MBA. His class travelled to Israel where on March 8, 2016, he was fatally stabbed by a Palestinian terrorist in Jaffa.

The Taylor Force Act, which prohibits US funding towards Palestinian prisoners and the families of “martyrs” was signed into law on March 23, 2018. Unfortunately, during the Biden administration more than $1.5 billion went to the Palestinian Authority, while they conveniently ignored the direct funding towards the Palestinian Authority Martyrs’ Fund.

This legislation aimed to curb the flow of money that incentivized acts of violence against Israelis and Jews by withholding funding to the Palestinian Authority unless they ceased these payments. The intention was clear: to put an end to the cycle of violence perpetuated by financial rewards. However, despite the Taylor Force Act, significant amounts of US aid continued to reach the Palestinian Authority under President Biden’s administration. This funding, which totaled over $1.5 billion, was criticized for indirectly supporting the very programs the Act sought to dismantle.

According to Axios, this new statement by Mahmoud Abbas simply transfers the computerized cash assistance program, its database, and its financial, local, and international allocations from the Ministry of Social Development to the Palestinian National Foundation for Economic Empowerment, the Palestinian official said. This new decree states that all families that benefited from the previous system are subject to “the same standards applied without discrimination to all families benefiting from protection and social welfare programs” in the Palestinian Authority.

This was an obvious and transparent overture to President Donald Trump and is as fraudulent as a ticket scammer selling tickets to the Superbowl for $100. The analogy is fitting, considering the depth of distrust that has mired the P.A. His increasingly desperate measures to regain some semblance of authority and credibility are seen by many as too little, too late. The political landscape is shifting dramatically, and Abbas’s and the P.A.’s attempts to maintain his relevance are being met with skepticism and outright dismissal, both domestically and internationally.

Yet, because of a supreme failure of the imagination, many in our foreign policy community seem to return to the same tired, failed policy paradigm.

Sarah N. Stern is Founder and President of the Endowment for Middle East Truth, a think tank and policy institute that specializes in the Middle East.