America is coming back to the Middle East

Washington has realized that disengaging from the region will only exacerbate its problems and that its relationship with Israel is a conduit, not an obstacle, for enhancing U.S. standing.

by Prof. Eyal Zisser, ISRAEL HAYOM

Something strange is happening to U.S. President Donald Trump. Just a half year ago, he declared that the United States’ historical role in the Middle East had come to an end and that his intention was to reduce the scope of American forces deployed to the region and even remove all U.S. soldiers still stationed in Syria.

The president explained that America had lost interest in the Middle East because it no longer needs its oil, and because the Islamic State group, which had threatened to bring the fight to U.S. soil, was eliminated. He added that from his perspective Iran could now do as it pleased, noting that reimposed economic sanctions were steadily weakening the Islamic republic. In any case, he summarized, Israel would be able to fend for itself thanks to economic aid provided by the U.S.

Just a few months removed, and Trump has been drawn back to the region he wanted to leave, bolstering American forces and even dispatching bombers and battleships. It appears the president didn’t have much choice in light of Tehran’s saber rattling. In actuality, this saber rattling was more than mere rhetoric, as evidenced by numerous Iranian attacks against Washington’s allies in the region. In Tehran, there were apparently those who interpreted Trump’s desire to disengage from the Middle East as an expression of weakness.

Trump’s America is thus learning the hard way what Israel painfully learned over the previous decade in Gaza and south Lebanon. You can leave Gaza, but Gaza won’t be so quick to “leave” Israel. Rather, it will chase after it, even if Israel completely withdraws. In the same vein, the U.S. can remove its troops from the region and disengage, but the home-grown Islamic terror espoused by al-Qaida and ISIS, alongside Iran and its proxies, will continue hounding the U.S. on its own soil and harming its interests and those of its allies in the Middle East and across the globe.

Over the decades, American involvement in the region has known ups and downs, successes and failures, and the apparent conclusions are even more cogent considering the present challenges in the Middle East.

First, if the U.S. wants to play a central role in the world – for example, in strategic areas such as the Far East – it cannot neglect the Middle East. This very conclusion, incidentally, was also reached by the Russians, and Vladimir Putin is positioning his country as a global leader through his increasing involvement in our region. The Middle East’s geographical centrality, together with its economic and diplomatic influence, doesn’t allow for disengagement; rather it necessitates constant monitoring and control.

Second, the pressing questions pertaining to the Middle East are not restricted to the region and its inhabitants. Iranian policy is fundamentally non-defensive; it is aggressive and ambitious and creates a real threat. Disengaging from the region won’t mitigate this threat, only amplify it. Meanwhile, the economic warfare approach adopted by Trump will likely have a limited impact as well and fail to change the regional reality in any fundamental way.

Finally, the U.S. historically viewed Iran, followed by Turkey and the Persian Gulf states as the cornerstones of its regional presence, partly relying on them to safeguard American interests. All these, however, have proven to be disappointments. Iran became an enemy; Turkey, which has tightened its relationship with Moscow, can no longer be trusted; nor can the Arab states mired in their own domestic problems. Amid this backdrop, it has become clear to the U.S., yet again, that Israel is the only ally it can lean on in a crisis. The relationship with Israel is not an obstacle, rather a conduit for enhancing the United States’ standing in the region, particularly as Arab and Gulf countries need a strong buttress to help them against Iran.