The Biden Administration Continues Its Bad Middle East Policy
Joe Biden’s failed policies in the Middle East continue to impact the American people and our allies in the region. Most recently, this has been evident in a bewildering approach to our friends and enemies, apparently confusing the two.
In 2019 the President vowed to make the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) a “pariah” state in the Middle East. Then, in the first weeks of his presidency, he sent his envoy, Brett McGurk, to meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The message McGurk brought was simple: the good relations between America and Saudi Arabia, which we in the Trump Administration worked hard to develop and from which both our nations greatly benefited, were at an end. The Biden Administration had decided a major security and economic partner – vital to our counter-terrorism efforts and our work to protect Israel – should be shunned.
Biden’s comments were unbelievably naïve and shortsighted. The disastrous policies which have resulted from this decision have proven as much as well. But this has become the norm for Team Biden: Its approach to foreign policy has been to punish our friends and help our enemies. Oddly enough, by freezing out KSA and working to revive the failed Iran nuclear agreement, Team Biden has ensured that it is the United States that has become the Middle East pariah. Its continued strategy of Iranian appeasement and weakness – including allowing Russia to mediate the talks even as Putin invades Ukraine – has only turned America’s Middle East partners against us.
This is true regarding Israel as well. In response to Hamas launching rockets at Israeli civilians back in 2021, Biden called on both sides to “de-escalate.” The Biden Administration restored aid to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, which is, historically, blatantly antisemitic and overtly anti-Israel. It restored hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid to the Palestinian Authority in violation of the Taylor Force Act. Recently, the Biden Administration announced that it would open a new Office of Palestinian Affairs in Jerusalem – signaling that the United States does not consider Jerusalem the undivided capital of Israel. And of course, by negotiating with the Iranian regime, the Biden Administration was making deals with the nation that most wishes to carry out Israel’s complete and utter destruction.
Bear in mind that these terrible policies were embraced by the Biden Administration after historic peace and normalization agreements, the Abraham Accords, were signed by Israel and several of her neighbors. It shows that Joe Biden and his Administration are more committed to rolling back Trump's success than driving to good outcomes. Worse yet, these mistakes will not easily be corrected by the next, more sensible Administration; it will take years to undo the damage President Biden’s foolish Middle East policies have caused.
That’s why we should hope that President Biden’s recently announced visit to KSA this July might prove to be a step in the right direction. Unfortunately, this trip will likely not be made to mend fences. It is not a coincidence that President Biden’s visit will come as the national price of gasoline tops $5 per gallon in the United States. He is not going to KSA to improve our relations – the White House press release did not even mention a meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman; rather, President Biden is going to KSA to beg them to produce more oil. Biden knows that while gas prices at home skyrocket, his approval rating plummets.
President Biden doesn’t need to travel halfway across the world to make gas prices go down, though. There are places right here in America he can visit instead – places like Midland, Texas. During the Trump Administration, we proved that America has the capacity and resources to achieve energy independence. Where Joe Biden has begged dictators in Venezuela and Iran to produce more oil for America, we trusted the American energy industry and achieved historic prosperity for the American people. Where the Biden Administration embraces Green New Deal, climate-change hysteria as gospel truth, we chose to embrace innovation and prosperity in our own energy industry.
American energy independence is the only path forward for American prosperity. Anything else will only result in higher gas prices and dependence on foreign powers for our energy supply. Avoiding these outcomes should be the goal of competent American leadership, but the Biden Administration continues to pursue the opposite.