Give Trump his Nobel Peace Prize
There's still a lot of 'if's, but Trump deserves credit for his effort and results
In 1978, the august members of the Nobel committee awarded the Peace Prize to Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin for their historic treaty, which still endures today. Belatedly, the committee awarded President Jimmy Carter the prize in 2002, titularly not for his Middle East work, but for his post-presidency legacy of the Carter Center. In 2009, President Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for…umm…winning the election. The committee, searching for words, wrote, it was for “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”
The biggest international shift during Obama’s term was the so-called Arab Spring, where many strong dictators were overthrown by…umm…Islamic insurgents. Like Egyptian Islamic Jihad, the group that assassinated Nobel Peace Prize winner Anwar Sadat in 1981 for making peace with Israel. Egyptian Islamic Jihad is a more extremist version of the Muslim Brotherhood, which has been around since before World War II (allied with Germany in that war). In 1987, the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood became Hamas, and by 2009 it had won political control and wrested military control of Gaza from the Palestinian Authority.
Sixteen years later, much of the “work” of the Arab Spring is undone, with its major accomplishment the migration of a million or more refugees from war-torn Syria and its neighbors into Western Europe, and the continued decline of the number of nations that welcome Jews within their borders—forcing Jews to live in the U.S., if they can get in, or Israel. I’m going to throw this out there: Obama should repudiate his prize.
In his two nonconsecutive terms, to date, President Donald Trump has done more for Middle East stability than any president since Jimmy Carter, and before him, Harry Truman. (Though Truman specifically did the most for Israel, which did not lead to peace, I do place a special blessing on the man for recognizing the Jewish state, a beacon of democracy in a sea of despotism.)
Trump stands on the precipice of—if not solving—checkmating the leaders of many groups with wildly different goals and motivations into finding a way to end a bloody war. As much as I abhor Trump’s “hate your enemies” message, and I despise his approach to governing, he has used Abraham Lincoln’s method for mediating intractable division: “Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?” Trump made Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu his friend, and did many public gestures that have greatly helped Bibi politically at home. In return, Netanyahu has gushed and fawned over Trump.
Trump accepted a ridiculously lavish gift from the Qatari royal family. His acceptance may be (rightly) seen as a selling out, but one effect of this is that the Qataris now have something to protect—their “special” relationship. Nobody wastes a 747, not even the Al-Thani family. He made Qatar a friend with some skin in the game. Trump has plied the Saudis with honor, which his predecessor, President Joe Biden, did not do. Trump personally met with the new Syrian leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former terrorist, giving the man instant legitimacy. While he has insulted and bullied western traditional allies, Trump has invested heavily in making Middle East enemies into his friends.
Because of this, when it was time to pressure all these new friends into accepting a less-than-desirable end to the Gaza war, where nobody really gets everything they want, but everyone gets something acceptable, Trump had unique leverage, and he used it.
If—if—Hamas can be made to follow through delivering the 20 living hostages, Trump should be lauded for his accomplishment. In fact, I read this sentence in the New York Times, penned by none other than David E. Sanger.
If the peace plan moves forward, Mr. Trump may have as legitimate a claim to that Nobel as the four American presidents who have won the peace prize in the past, though with less bombast and lobbying. (They are Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter, who was awarded one decades after he left the White House.)
For the record, I think Teddy Roosevelt’s prize was barely earned. He is credited with ending the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, which Russia clearly lost, and in which both sides suffered immense casualties, so they were motivated to bring it to an end. As another aside, that war’s end was negotiated in a room in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, a town away from where I grew up. Woodrow Wilson’s prize should be burned in the core of the nearest fusion tokamak, where temperatures exceed the surface of the sun. Neither the League of Nations nor World War I, nor the racist segregationist policies of Wilson’s government have survived the balm of time.
There are many technical details still to be worked out, and lots of opportunities for things to fall apart. Trump, for his part, is threatening to show up in person. My first reaction to that was, God no! But thinking about it, besides Trump’s “victory lap,” him being there is a powerful reminder of why the parties are cooperating, because of personal relationships and transactional deals with the man. Just the threat of him going may be enough leverage for Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to finish the work in what’s being called “Phase 1.”
If Hamas releases all the hostages, regardless of what Israel has to pay in releasing murderers and terrorists, all will be forgiven in Israel. And when the IDF withdraws from Gaza, there will be rejoicing in Gaza and the West Bank. Everyone will proclaim their own victory. But really, if all that happens, give Trump his Nobel. The committee is scheduled to announce their choice for 2025 soon, but maybe they should hold off, lest they steal the man’s thunder (who can even think of doing that, if it’s even possible?).
Turning the United States into a social media-riven, divided hellscape of lies, conspiracies, and malady is enough for any president. Regardless of that, reshaping the Middle East and defanging an ascendent, violent Israel, so it can resume some level of normal, while making life possible for two million Gazans and giving them hope beyond just killing more Jews—if that’s not worth the Nobel Peace Prize, nothing is.
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This is a masterfully-constructed bit of click- and argument-bait. :-)
Can't wait to see the discussion.
It remains to be seen whether peace will take hold in the Middle East, but I think starting wars in the Caribbean and America may hurt his chances at the Peace Prize.