How did a group of real-estate moguls bring peace to the Middle East?
For generations, soldiers, lawmakers, and ambassadors have attempted to end conflict in the region. During the Six-Day War in June 1967, Israel conquered Arab territories, then tried to trade this land in exchange for peace. In 1979, the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel promised “no more wars, no more bloodshed.” In 1993, the Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization claimed to create a “New Middle East,” free of conflicts and even borders. All failed to establish enduring peace.
But Donald Trump, Steve Witkoff, and Jared Kushner—all adept at developing urban properties and golf resorts—seem to have succeeded where generations of aspiring peacemakers failed. How?
The answer is precisely that the Trump team is not a group of Middle East experts operating under the misconception that no Arab state would make peace with Israel before the creation of a Palestinian state. Neither Trump nor his envoys subscribed to the mainstream nostrum that Israel’s response to the terrorists trying to destroy it should be to cower under anti-missile batteries. Never did they believe that strategic advantage in the Middle East could be obtained by soft power, nor that Iran and its proxies could be incentivized to become responsible interlocutors, nor that the way to gain the cooperation of Israeli and Arab leaders was to cold-shoulder or browbeat them. They never accepted the myth that the way to end the war was to cut off arms supplies and military aid to Israel, isolate it internationally, and expose it to charges of war crimes and genocide.
