Abstract
Unlike proponents of the so-called “centralist” approach, which make the resolution of the Israel–Palestine conflict a core US foreign policy objective, Trump seems to adhere to the “marginality” approach according to which the Israeli–Palestinian predicament prevents Washington from focusing on other strategic designs in the region, such as weakening Iran. Israeli–Iranian relations will without a doubt play a crucial role in the evolution of the Middle East. Although weakened by sanctions and a policy of isolation, Iran now finds itself in Syria, at the door of the Jewish State. This in turn raises new issues: despite obvious divergences from Barack Obama’s policies, not only has Donald Trump pursued his predecessor’s relative US retreat from the Middle East, he has accelerated it just as Russia consolidates its foothold in the wake of the Syrian civil war.
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Notes
- 1.
Jacob Eriksson, “Master of None: Trump, Jerusalem and the Prospects of Israeli-Palestinian Peace,” Middle East Policy 25, no. 2 (Summer 2018): 51.
- 2.
Adam Entous, “Donald Trump’s New World Order,” The New Yorker, June 18, 2018, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/06/18/donald-trumps-new-world-order.
- 3.
Martin S. Indyk, “A Trump Doctrine for the Middle East,” The Atlantic, April 14, 2018, https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/04/trump-syria-middle-east/558053/.
- 4.
Jeremy Diamond, “Trump to Republican Jewish Coalition: I Am a Negotiator, Like You,” CNN Politics, December 3, 2015, https://edition.cnn.com/2015/12/03/politics/donald-trump-rjc-negotiator/index.html.
- 5.
Timothy Alexander Guzman, “Donald Trump AIPAC’s Speech: I Love Israel,” Centre de recherche sur la mondialisation, March 31, 2016, https://www.mondialisation.ca/donald-trumps-aipac-speech-i-love-israel/5516675.
- 6.
Arms Control Association, “Addressing Iran’s Ballistic Missiles in the JCPOA and UNSC Resolution,” Issue Briefs 7, no. 8 (July 27, 2015), https://www.armscontrol.org/Issue-Briefs/2015-07-27/Addressing-Irans-Ballistic-Missiles-in-the-JCPOA-and-UNSC-Resolution.
- 7.
Eriksson, “Master of None,” 54.
- 8.
Aaron David Miller, “Israel’s Lawyer,” Washington Post, May 23, 2005, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/22/AR2005052200883.html.
- 9.
Guzman, “Donald Trump AIPAC’s Speech.”
- 10.
Molly O’Toole, “How Donald Trump and the GOP Dropped the Two-State Solution for Mideast Peace,” Foreign Policy, July 14, 2016, https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/07/14/how-donald-trump-and-the-gop-dropped-the-two-state-solution-for-mideast-peace/.
- 11.
Ibid.
- 12.
Entous, “Donald Trump’s New World Order,” 6.
- 13.
Ibid., 19.
- 14.
Jessica Martinez and Gregory A. Smith, “How the Faithful Voted: A Preliminary 2016 Analysis,” Pew Research Center, November 9, 2016, http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/11/09/how-the-faithful-voted-a-preliminary-2016-analysis/.
- 15.
Sébastien Boussois, “La montée en puissance des protestants évangéliques dans la politique étrangère américaine,” Revue internationale et stratégique 2, no. 110 (2018): 41.
- 16.
Yonat Shimron, “Most US Jews Oppose Trump but Othodox Stick with Him,” Desert News, September 13, 2017, https://www.deseretnews.com/article/865688710/Most-US-Jews-oppose-Trump-but-the-Orthodox-stick-with-him.html.
- 17.
UN News, “United States Vetoes Security Council Resolution on Israeli Settlements,” UN News, February 18, 2011, https://news.un.org/en/story/2011/02/367082-united-states-vetoes-security-council-resolution-israeli-settlements.
- 18.
Harvard Law Review, “Recent Resolution: International Law—Israel’s Settlement Activities—United Nations Security Council Asserts Illegality,” Harvard Law Review 130, no. 8 (June 10, 2017): 2267–2276.
- 19.
Sharen Haskel, “Obama’s Slap in the Face,” The Jerusalem Post, December 27, 2016, https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Obamas-slap-in-the-face-476697.
- 20.
Entous, “Donald Trump’s New World Order,” 7–8.
- 21.
Judy Maltz, “What Does Jason Greenblatt, Trump’s Int’l Negotiator, Really Think About the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict?” Haaretz, December 29, 2016, https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-what-does-trump-s-negotiator-think-about-a-two-state-solution-1.5478326.
- 22.
Elise Labott and Theodore Schleifer, “Trump Appoints His Business Attorney to Manage International Negotiations,” CNN Politics, December 23, 2016, https://edition.cnn.com/2016/12/23/politics/trump-appoints-his-business-attorney-to-manage-international-crises/index.html.
- 23.
Andrew Kaczinski, “Trump Israel Envoy Pick: Israel Has ‘As Much Right, If Not a Much Greater Right as Palestinians’ to West Bank,” CNN Politics, February 24, 2017, https://www.cnn.com/2017/02/24/politics/kfile-david-friedman-west-bank/index.html.
- 24.
Entous, “Donald Trump’s New World Order,” 28.
- 25.
Emily Birnbaum, “Haley Calls Jared Kushner Trump’s ‘Hidden Genius’,” The Hill, October 9, 2018, https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/410552-haley-calls-jared-kushner-trumps-hidden-genius.
- 26.
Entous, “Donald Trump’s New World Order,” 6.
- 27.
Eriksson, “Master of None,” 51.
- 28.
Barak Ravid, “Trump: I Intend to Achieve the ‘Ultimate Deal’—Israeli-Palestinian Peace,” Haaretz, November 12, 2016, https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/.premium-trump-i-intend-to-achieve-the-ultimate-deal-israeli-palestinian-peace-1.5460564.
- 29.
Tal Schneider, “Dennis Ross: The US Peace Plan Is Serious,” Globes, June 26, 2018, https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-dennis-ross-the-us-peace-plan-is-serious-1001243146.
- 30.
Dennis Ross and David Makovsky, “If Trump Wants the Ultimate Deal He Must Not Repeat These Mistakes,” The Washington Institute, October 2, 2018, https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/if-trump-wants-the-ultimate-deal-he-must-not-repeat-these-mistakes.
- 31.
Robert Malley and Aaron David Miller, “Trump Is Reinventing the U.S. Approach to the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict,” The Atlantic, September 20, 2018, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/09/trump-israel-palestinians/570646/.
- 32.
Ibid., 6.
- 33.
Amir Tibon, “Trump: Two State Solution Will Be ‘Like a Real-Estate Deal’,” Haaretz, September 27, 2018, https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/trump-two-state-solution-will-be-like-a-real-estate-deal-1.6511571.
- 34.
VOA News, “Abbas Bashes Trump, US Policies in UN Speech,” VOA News, September 27, 2018, https://www.voanews.com/a/palestinian-president-urges-trump-to-rescind-jerusalem-aid-decisions/4589953.html.
- 35.
Entous, “Donald Trump’s New World Order,” 35–36.
- 36.
VOA News, “Abbas Bashes Trump, US Policies in UN Speech.”
- 37.
Entous, “Donald Trump’s New World Order,” 35.
- 38.
Ibid., 31.
- 39.
John Podhoretz, “A New Realism: America & Israel in the Trump Era,” Commentary 145, no. 3 (March 2018): 14–16; Malley and Miller, “Trump Is Reinventing the U.S. Approach.”
- 40.
Ibid.
- 41.
Podhoretz, “A New Realism,” 16.
- 42.
Tibon, “Trump: Two State Solution Will Be ‘Like a Real-Estate Deal’.”
- 43.
Eriksson, “Master of None,” 58.
- 44.
Ibid.
- 45.
Sputnik, “«Le PM israélien s’appellerait Mohammed», Trump ironise sur l’État binational en Israël,” Sputnik, August 20, 2018, https://fr.sputniknews.com/international/201808201037735629-pm-israelien-mohammed-trump-etat-binational-israel/.
- 46.
Amin Arefi, “Israël-Palestine: le vrai plan de Donald Trump,” Le Point, September 3, 2018, https://www.lepoint.fr/monde/israel-palestine-le-vrai-plan-de-donald-trump-03-09-2018-2247990_24.php; Jonathan Cook, “Que contient l’ «accord du siècle» de Trump? La réponse est déjà sous nos yeux,” Middles East Eye, June 19, 2018, https://www.middleeasteye.net/fr/reportages/que-contient-l-accord-du-si-cle-de-trump-la-r-ponse-est-d-j-sous-nos-yeux-1515330698.
- 47.
Shalom Lipner, “The Summer of Israel’s Contentment,” Brookings, July 30, 2018, https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2018/07/30/the-summer-of-israels-contentment/.
- 48.
Thomas L. Friedman, “Trump, Israel and the Art of the Giveaway,” New York Times, December 6, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/06/opinion/trump-foreign-policy-giveaway.html.
- 49.
Quoted in Elie Barnavi, “Israël-Iran: vieille idylle, acrimonieux divorce,” Revue des Deux Mondes (September 2018): 41.
- 50.
Shalom Lipner, “The Summer of Israel’s Contentment.”
- 51.
Shai Feldman and Tamara Cofman Wittes, “Why Everyone Loves Israel Now,” Brookings, March 26, 2018, https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2018/03/26/why-everyone-loves-israel-now/.
- 52.
Le Monde and Agence France-Presse, “Israël conclut un contrat «historique» de fourniture de gaz à l’Egypte,” Le Monde Afrique, February 20, 2018, https://abonnes.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2018/02/20/israel-conclut-un-contrat-historique-de-fourniture-de-gaz-a-l-egypte_5259630_3212.html.
- 53.
Tovah Lazaroff, “Netanyahu: ‘We Have to Act Now Against Iran’,” The Jerusalem Post, December 6, 2017, https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Netanyahu-We-have-to-act-now-against-Iran-517171.
- 54.
Piotr Smolar and Nabil Wakim, “Entre Israël et l’Egypte, un contrat gazier «historique», mais beaucoup d’incertitudes,” Le Monde, February 21, 2018, https://abonnes.lemonde.fr/economie/article/2018/02/21/entre-israel-et-l-egypte-un-contrat-gazier-historique-mais-beaucoup-d-incertitudes_5260330_3234.html.
- 55.
Quoted in Entous, “Donald Trump’s New World Order,” 15.
- 56.
Robert Satloff, “Mohammed bin Salman Doesn’t Want to Talk About Jerusalem,” Foreign Policy, December 14, 2017, https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/12/14/mohammad-bin-salman-doesnt-want-to-talk-about-jerusalem/.
- 57.
Entous, “Donald Trump’s New World Order,” 44.
- 58.
Ibid., 44–45.
- 59.
Ben Rhodes, “A Fatal Abandonment of American Leadership,” The Atlantic, October 12, 2018, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/10/jamal-khashoggi-and-us-saudi-relationship/572905/.
- 60.
Yara Bayoumy, Jeff Mason, Warren Strobel, and Reem Shamseddine, “Saudi Deputy Crown Prince, Trump Meeting a ‘Turning Point’: Saudi Adviser,” Reuters, March 14, 2017, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-usa/saudi-deputy-crown-prince-trump-meeting-a-turning-point-saudi-adviser-idUSKBN16L2CT.
- 61.
Philip Rucker, Carol D. Leoning, and Anne Gearan, “Two Princes: Kushner Now Faces a Reckoning for Trump’s Bet on the Heir to the Saudi Throne,” The Washington Post, October 14, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/two-princes-kushner-now-faces-a-reckoning-for-trumps-bet-on-the-saudi-heir/2018/10/14/6eaeaafc-ce46-11e8-a3e6-44daa3d35ede_story.html?utm_term=.27c3f801fadb.
- 62.
Abdulhadi Khalaf, “Les projets américains d’une «OTAN arabe»,” Orient XXI, September 24, 2018, https://orientxxi.info/magazine/les-projets-americains-d-une-otan-arabe,2644.
- 63.
Ibid.
- 64.
Jean-Sylvestre Mongrenier, “Pourquoi le projet américain d’une Otan arabe n’est pas près d’arriver,” Atlantico, October 15, 2018, http://www.atlantico.fr/decryptage/pourquoi-projet-americain-otan-arabe-est-pas-pres-arriver-jean-sylvestre-mongrenier-3532970.html; Middle East Policy Council, “Mixed Reactions to the Proposed Middle East Strategic Alliance,” Middle East Policy Council, October 9, 2018, http://www.mepc.org/commentary/mixed-reactions-proposed-middle-east-strategic-alliance.
- 65.
Fabrice Balanche, “The Iranian Landbridge in the Levant: The Return of Territory in Geopolitics,” Telos, September 14, 2018, http://www.telospress.com/the-iranian-land-bridge-in-the-levant-the-return-of-territory-in-geopolitics/.
- 66.
Dimtri Trenin, What’s Russia Up To in the Middle East? (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2018).
- 67.
Stephen M. Walt, “The Islamist Republic of Hysteria,” Foreign Policy, January 16, 2018, https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/01/16/the-islamic-republic-of-hysteria-iran-middle-east-trump/.
- 68.
Stephen M. Walt, “This Is America’s Middle East Strategy on Steroids,” Foreign Policy, October 15, 2018, https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/10/15/this-is-americas-middle-east-strategy-on-steroids/.
- 69.
Bruce Riedel, “Don’t Let Israel and Saudi Arabia Drag the U.S. into Another War,” Brookings Institution, May 15, 2018, https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2018/05/15/dont-let-israel-and-saudi-arabia-drag-the-u-s-into-another-war/.
- 70.
Mike Pompeo, “After the Deal: A New Iran Strategy,” Interview by Kay Coles James, The Heritage Foundation, May 21, 2018, https://www.heritage.org/defense/event/after-the-deal-new-iran-strategy.
- 71.
Dennis Ross, “Iran Is Throwing a Tantrum but Wants a Deal,” Foreign Policy, August 15, 2018, https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/08/15/iran-is-throwing-a-tantrum-but-wants-a-deal/.
- 72.
i24News, “Iran, Russia Reach Deal to Circumvent US Oil Sanctions: Israeli Report,” i24News, October 14, 2018, https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/international/186374-181014-iran-russia-reach-deal-to-circumvent-us-oil-sanctions-israeli-report.
- 73.
Gawdat Bahgat, “US-Iran Relations Under the Trump Administration,” Mediterranean Quarterly 28, no. 3 (2017): 108–109.
- 74.
Ross, “Iran Is Throwing a Tantrum but Wants a Deal.”
- 75.
Balanche, “The Iranian Landbridge,” 2.
- 76.
Trenin, What’s Russia Up To.
- 77.
Pierre Razoux, “Le dilemme des relations franco-iraniennes depuis 1979,” Revue des Deux Mondes (September 2018): 22–30.
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Coppolani, A. (2020). “If I Forget Thee O Jerusalem”. In: Quessard, M., Heurtebize, F., Gagnon, F. (eds) Alliances and Power Politics in the Trump Era. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37258-3_5
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