"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God"
“Peacemakers, Not Peacekeepers: Peacemaking involves active intervention to build peace, often through uncomfortable confrontation or sacrifice, rather than simply avoiding conflict (peacekeeping).”
Too often, peace treaties are simply the prelude to the next war, think the Treaty of Versailles after World War I as the prelude to World War II, and the Treaty of Frankfurt after the Franco-Prussian War as the prelude to World War 1. Contrast that with the peace building of the EU, and give credit to the leaders of France and Germany during the 1950s, building on the extraordinary reconstruction efforts of the Marshall Plan in the 40’s.
President Jimmy Carter, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, and President Anwar Sadat of Egypt were able to negotiate Peace Accords between Egypt and Israel. https://history.state.gov/milestones/1977-1980/camp-david It took them two years (1978-9). Carter and Sadat sought to negotiate a grand bargain in which the Arab countries would recognize Israel; Israel would return the territories gained during the 1967 war, and an independent Palestine would be created and recognized in the West Bank and Gaza. Egypt and Israel had fought 4 wars, starting shortly after Israeli independence in 1948. Begin would not negotiate a “grand bargain”, but the three leaders were able to negotiate recognition of Israel and a return of the Sinai to Egypt.
Two years later, Sadat was assassinated by Egyptian Islamic Jihad extremists for negotiating peace with Israel. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/what-anwar-sadats-murder-40-years-ago-meant-for-the-middle-east/ and https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/october-6/the-president-of-egypt-is-assassinated The spokesperson for Sadat’s assassins would later turn up as Osama Bin Laden’s right hand man and successor as leader of Al Qaeda.
The treaty has held, but the peace has been cold, due in large measure to the unresolved issues of the Palestinians in Gaza.
The Oslo Accords were negotiated between the PLO (led by Yassir Arafat) and Israel (led by Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin) beginning in 1993. https://history.state.gov/milestones/1993-2000/oslo Each recognized the other’s right to exist; the Palestinian Authority was established to govern the Palestinian Territories. Israeli troops were to withdraw. The PLO and the Jewish state were to work together on security measures. The process was designed to end in the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. It was derailed by Hamas bombers and by right wing Israelis and settlers who opposed the independent Palestinian state. Rabin was assassinated by a right-wing Israeli law student, and 29 Palestinians were killed in the Cave of the Patriarchs by a right wing Israeli American physician. Hamas bombers killed over 55 Israelis in 1994, in a concerted effort to stop and derail the peace process through their terrorism. Despite the persistent peace-making efforts of President Clinton, Prime Minister Ehud Barak, and PLO Chair Yassir Arafat, the negotiations ultimately foundered in 2000 on the issues of borders, the status of East Jerusalem, Jewish settlements in the West Bank, and refugees. https://history.state.gov/milestones/1993-2000/oslo and https://theweek.com/politics/israel-palestine-why-did-the-oslo-accords-fail Clinton blamed Arafat for failing to make the necessary compromises when peace and the establishment of a Palestinian state were within reach. Thereafter, the intifada ensued with widespread killings across the West Bank and Gaza and terror attacks on Israel and widespread retaliation by each side.
King Hussein of Jordan and Prime Minister Rabin with the strong support of President Clinton negotiated a peace treaty between Jordan and Israel which settled their borders, ended their enmity, divided the water rights and recognized Israel’s right to exist. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/25-years-on-remembering-the-path-to-peace-for-jordan-and-israel/ and http://www.kinghussein.gov.jo/peacetreaty.html The treaty hinged on trust between leaders of the two nations. That trust was later broken by then Prime Minister Netanyahu who dispatched a hit team to Jordan to assassinate a Hamas leader and took other destabilizing actions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel–Jordan_peace_treaty The treaty has not been followed up by any improvements in conditions for the Palestinians living in the West Bank, and then most recently by the massive loss of lives in the Gaza War, leaving it as a “cold peace”. https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/thirty-years-wadi-araba-there-treaty-no-warm-peace
The rise of non-state actors making war in the Middle East: The first twenty years of the new century were marked by US involvement in near constant wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and North Africa. It started with Al Qaeda’s surprise attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001 – “9/11”. Their goal was to get the US forces out of the Middle East and to throw out the secular governments of the Middle East and replace them with a fundamentalist, Pan-Arab, religious regime. They were fundamentalist Sunni Arabs and strongly opposed to the Shia religious groups affiliated with Iran and the secular, socialist Baath regime in Iraq. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/comparing-al-qaeda-and-isis-different-goals-different-targets/ They had initially been recruited, funded and trained by the US, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. IS (or ISIS) was an even more brutal spin-off from Al Qaeda that tried to build a theocratic Sunni Arab state in Syria and Iraq during the enormous chaos of regime change.
Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden in Iraq and Afghanistan After 9/11, the Bush Administration first attacked Afghanistan, an impoverished nation which had been a safe haven for Al Qaeda, the perpetrator of the 9/11 attacks. Then in 2003 the Bush Administration attacked Iraq, which it contended was supporting Al Qaeda and was developing nuclear weapons, which would threaten the US allies, such as Saudi Arabia, Israel and the small wealthy oil sheikdoms in the Persian Gulf.
No weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq, and there were no linkages between Hussein and Al Qaeda who were in fact mortal enemies. The Iraq War devolved into a murderous ethnic and religious civil war, with the US troops in the midst of it. After eight years of costly and deadly war, Obama withdrew the US troops in 2011. Most Americans have concluded that the war was a costly mistake. https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2023/03/14/a-look-back-at-how-fear-and-false-beliefs-bolstered-u-s-public-support-for-war-in-iraq/ However, it did get Hussein out of there.
It is still unclear, over 20 years later, exactly why the Bush Administration started the Iraq War and then engaged in the subsequent misadventures such as appointing an American proconsul to govern Iraq and administer de-Baathification after Hussein’s fall. Was it the lure of oil and his father’s uncompleted mission in Iraq after their Kuwait invasion, or was it American hubris and lashing out to quench an American desire for revenge after the 9/11 attacks combined with a lack of any cultural awareness of the hornet’s nest of historical, religious and ethnic rivalries awaiting the American troops and civil administrators? We do need to seek accurate answers from the historical archives so we can learn from our own nation’s egregious mistakes.
Under Obama, beginning in 2013-14, US troops and many of the allies had to return to Iraq and Syria after IS (the Islamic State) over-ran much of Syria and Iraq. Military operations continued for another 5 years until the death of the last prominent IS leader in the fall of 2019. https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/timeline-the-rise-spread-and-fall-the-islamic-state Conditions in Iraq remain unstable with sectarian and political killings continuing among the Kurds, Turks, Iranians, remnants of IS, and the US forces. Ethnic strife among the Sunnis, Shia and Kurds persists and is centered on the distribution of the nation’s large oil revenues and the Kurds desire for autonomy. https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/political-instability- Iranian linked groups have dominated the Iraq nation’s politics, and this has led to widespread demonstrations against the Iranian presence and influence, including by their fellow Shia co-religionists.
It is now far better that Iraqis use ballots rather than bullets, bombs and IEDs among the sectarian factions competing for distribution of the wealth generated by the nation’s oil revenues. And it’s a big improvement on the Hussein dictatorship. This is what an Iraqi peace looks like in the aftermath of 16 years of war. https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/menasource/tracking-iraqs-2025-elections-and-coalition-building/
Afghanistan had been a center of Cold War conflict between the Russians on one side and the mujahedeen (holy warriors) backed by the US, Pakistan and many Arab nations on the other. After the Russians left and their puppet regime fell, it disintegrated into constant warfare between the warlords from different regions and ethnicities seeking control of Kabul and of the nation’s lucrative drug trade. The Taliban emerged from this chaos. It was a fundamentalist regime, a theocratic dictatorship, that enforced its religious and cultural beliefs on the entire nation with a brutal rule. It harbored Al Qaeda, whose leaders had played an important role in ousting the Soviets and bringing the Taliban to power. The US invaded Afghanistan and ousted the Taliban after 9/11 and tried to bring peace, stability, economic progress and modernization, education and rights for women to Afghanistan, but without too much success. One, the US was a foreign power, and two, we were simultaneously fighting a guerilla war with the Taliban and a second war in Iraq with no clear objectives. The Taliban leaders sought refuge in Pakistan while it fought the US, NATO, and the new Afghan government for the next 20 years. The US killed Osama bin Laden hiding in Pakistan during the Obama Administration.
In 2020, the Trump Administration signed a peace treaty with the Taliban, but without the elected Afghan government. The US agreed to leave, and the Taliban agreed not to harbor Al Qaeda. https://law.stanford.edu/2020/12/07/the-u-s-taliban-agreement-and-the-afghan-peace-process/ Trump pulled the rug out from underneath the Afghan government, left them with no support, and once that was clear, the government quickly fell, and the Taliban took over. https://theconversation.com/how-trump-the-master-deal-maker-failed-when-it-came-to-negotiating-with-the-taliban-in-afghanistan-250835 The results have been a total disaster on nearly every front, and every American President of the 21st Century deserves a share of the blame, with Bush and Trump far in the lead. https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/war-afghanistan Hard as it is to believe, Pakistan and Afghanistan are now fighting each other and killing their respective civilian populations – the casus belli is that Afghanistan now harbors terrorist groups attacking Pakistan. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5yxkj8gnr2o This is what American policies have rebirthed after 20 years of war in Afghanistan, a very poor nation with few natural resources and historic implacable hostility to foreign invaders. We are back to where we started.
Obama, Iran and the Nuclear Bomb
Obama took office, presenting himself as a peace maker for the conflicts roiling the Middle East and threatening the peace throughout the Muslim world. For most of his Presidency, the US was at war with Al Qaeda and its spinoffs. During his eight years in office “(h)e launched airstrikes or military raids in at least seven countries: Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan.” https://www.latimes.com/projects/la-na-pol-obama-at-war/ He killed Osama Bin Laden, hiding in Pakistan, and destroyed the Kadafi regime in Libya, but leaving in its place a chaotic failed state with warlords vying for the profits of the oil fields. https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/civil-war-libya
“Obama slashed the number of U.S. troops in war zones from 150,000 to 14,000 and stopped the flow of American soldiers coming home in body bags. He also used diplomacy, not war, to defuse a tense nuclear standoff with Iran.” https://www.latimes.com/projects/la-na-pol-obama-at-war/
Obama’s proudest peace-making achievement, the JCPOA treaty with Iran, to eliminate their efforts to develop a nuclear bomb and a first steppingstone towards peace, was ripped up by his successor, Donald Trump, acting against the recommendations of his military and diplomatic advisors. The JCPOA was working; however, Iran had continued its efforts to menace its neighbors and surround Israel with a ring of armed hostility. After the US exited JCPOA, Iran renewed its nuclear program, increased its support for proxies against Israel and Saudi Arabia, and for its own ballistic missile development. Trump in collaboration with Netanyahu has initiated two wars with Iran in the past year to eliminate their renewed efforts to develop nuclear arms. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_nuclear_deal
The Trump Administration helped birth the “Abraham Accords” between Israel and several Arab states, beginning with the UAE and Bahrain. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Accords They included diplomatic recognition and business ties. Sudan and Morocco were next. These were very promising developments and could have been a building block for more. The accords have been successful in opening and improving commercial and security ties; however, they have not improved the Arab public’s highly negative views of Israel, which are now technicolored by the events in Gaza. https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/israel-and-the-abraham-accords-in-2025-five-years-on/
Hamas’ 10/7 attack on Israel was likely motivated by their desire to derail Israel and Saudia Arabia’s efforts to open diplomatic, commercial and security ties as an extension of the Abraham Accords. This backfired spectacularly on Hamas, as it led to the utter destruction of Gaza, the decapitation of Hezbollah in Lebanon, and most recently the preemptive strike targeting Iran’s leadership and war making facilities. It also derailed the expansion of the Abraham Accords between the Israeli and Saudi leaderships.
Israel has embarked on a military tear of its Middle East opponents targeting its neighbors Lebanon and Gaza, and now Iran, the financier and arms purveyor for Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis. The US provided the arms for these Israeli offensives and has now joined the assault on Iran. It is impossible to call any of this peacemaking. It looks as if the blood lust and bloodletting among these combatants have no bottom. The extensive scope of the bombing campaign amply confirms to ordinary Iranians their hated regime’s propaganda and warnings of the evils emanating from the Great Satan and Little Satan and may well set back the internal, domestic forces for the much-needed regime change that many Iranians truly want.
Syria: Overthrowing a corrupt and dictatorial regime from within. The Syrian people overthrew the Assad regime after a rebellion that began in 2011 and ultimately succeeded in 2024-5. It caused widespread death and suffering to the Syrian people, but towards a brighter future. The Arab Spring/uprisings/intifada birthed protest movements across the Arab world against aging dictatorships, brutality. corruption and economic privation. They began in Tunisia and spread to Libya, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, and Yemen. In Syria, the Assad regime massacred and gassed the protesters; they put them in jail and tortured them; this led to armed revolts. https://www.britannica.com/event/Syrian-Civil-War/Timelines-of-events The rebels were supported by Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the Kurds, and the US. The Assad government was supported by Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah. At one point, IS was rampant in both Syria and Iraq, perpetrating even worse atrocities than the Syrian government; all parties focused on stopping and then defeating IS, including traditional enemies like Turkey and the Kurds, Iran and the US.
Eventually, the Syrian rebels prevailed in 2024, and Assad fled to Moscow. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian_civil_war The Russians renegotiated their existing naval and air bases with the new regime; the Iranians and Hezbollah withdrew. https://www.belfercenter.org/research-analysis/external-states-and-syrias-challenge-reunification-under-transitional-president The Trump Administration has welcomed the new Syrian leadership at the White House, https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/two-views-on-the-syrian-presidents-visit-to-the-white-house-and-whats-next/ Israel has occupied a bit more of Syria beyond the Golan Heights, claiming it as a needed buffer zone.
It is possible that Syria will emerge from the horrors of the Assad’s regime into a tolerant, multi-confessional, democratic state rebuilding from the immense damages of its past. All of that is yet to be determined.
My personal preferences for Middle East and North African peace:
· An independent Palestinian state with no offensive weapons or army for conducting external attacks.
· An Israeli government that pulls back its armed settlers from the West Bank and its troops from neighboring states.
· Full recognition of the state of Israel by all nations in the region.
· An Iranian government that stops funding terrorist proxies like Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis, that stops oppressing its women citizens, and starts funding economic and educational development for all its people.
· International guarantees of safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz
· An absolute (and continuously verified by the IAEA) enforceable ban on any nuclear weapons development anywhere in the region
· Growth of economic cooperation in the Middle East, building towards an EU-like regional entity to support regional economic development, vital water development, human development, better education, and investments in and transition to fossil fuel alternatives.
· The UN, EU, US, Japan, China, and India as guarantors of peace in the Middle East.
· A nice island retreat (like Elba or St. Helena) where the current political leaders of Iran, Israel and US can retire together in mutual peace (or continuous animosity if they still prefer) for the rest of their lives. Have you heard about the salubrious and bracing climate in the South Orkneys?
To get anywhere, we need new, courageous, peace-making, leadership of Iran, Israel, the Palestinians, and the US – all of them. The US and Israel have many serious domestic problems that need addressing, and they do have upcoming elections which might provide the paths towards new peace-making leadership; every single vote counts. Iran and the Palestinians have far worse internal domestic problems that desperately need to be tended for the benefit of their citizens, but they do not yet have strong vibrant democratic institutions. An evolution towards peacemaking with Israel and the US can be particularly hazardous to your health in both. This will require an engaged citizenship committed to peace and bridging long-held animosities in all the combatants. Each is rooted in the three great religious and moral teachings from the very same biblical roots; blessed are the peacemakers.