The Magical Middle East Makeover

Have you been to the Middle East lately? Honestly, you won’t recognize the place. Bring a combat helmet and armored vest. It’s positively lethal this time of year.

Yes, these abysmally failed states still have plenty of deserts, mountains, date trees and antisemitism—although not in that order. But a lot of civilian structures, monuments and cultural heritage sites have been destroyed by Israeli airstrikes and detonation devices. It’s difficult to locate a patch of land that can credibly be designated a safe haven.

More importantly, and delightfully, many once familiar faces are gone. These were all authoritarian monsters, theocratic thugs and terrorist impresarios: the usual suspects who further suggest—as if more evidence is necessary—that Arabs and Muslims tend to be all too allergic to liberal democracy and partial to apocalyptic maniacs.

Remember the promise of a democratic overhaul during Arab Spring? It turned wintry even before summer.

Take the recently dethroned president of Syria, Bashar al-Assad. He’s gone for good, apparently holed up in Moscow brushing up on his Russian. He will never be welcome in an Arabic nation again.

By the time Arab Spring arrived, he was pounding pro-democracy factions, trying to maintain his family’s dynasty. A civil war ensued where he gassed his own people. Yes, chemical weapons killed Syrian children. Half a million Syrians are dead. Curiously, not a single college campus protest or bridge closure erupted in the West.

President Barack Obama drew a “red line” warning Assad that the use of chemical weapons would trigger America’s intervention. The gassing continued. Obama reached for the closest eraser to wipe away that pesky red line.

Assad managed to fight off Sunni insurgents with the assistance of Russia, Iran and Hezbollah. But when Israel assassinated the cleric who headed Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, literally blew the brains out of many of his henchman, and destroyed weapons and launch sites in Beirut, Assad lost a key fighting force.

The Houthis of Yemen, another one of Iran’s proxies, has shown itself to be no more than an annoyance on the Red Sea, and not a true threat.

The entire senior leadership of Hamas has been assassinated—with the mastermind of October 7, Yahya Sinwar, killed in Gaza a year later, and its political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, blown to bits in a guesthouse under the protection of Iran. Israel’s stealth maneuvers in Iran and Lebanon has boosted the sales of rear-view mirrors throughout the Middle East and Persian Gulf.

Iran came to realize that it bet on the wrong horses. Each of its proxies were tested and bested. That’s a serious problem. Iran specializes in instigating and financing wars fought by others on its behalf. The mullahs are now hiding behind their mothers.

Meanwhile, Iran’s air defense system was decimated by Israel and 300 of their ballistic missiles and drones fired at the Jewish state never reached ground. Demonstrating its own first-strike capability, Israel sent a powerful message in firing upon a military facility peripherally related to Iran’s nuclear program.

As for Russia, they have their hands full in Ukraine in a war that has wrecked their economy and resulted in 85,000 soldiers killed in action while killing 12,300 Ukrainian civilians. (No college campus upheavals over them, either.)

No one had the time, manpower, or will to defend Assad.

Syria is now essentially up for grabs. Turkey has placed the country on its Thanksgiving plate. Sunni Islamists going by the name Hayat Tahrir al-Sham are taking credit for ousting Assad, led by a new bearded terrorist, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, who lists both al-Qaeda and ISIS as references on his resume. It’s not too late to foil his plans and rescue all those Christians, Alawites, Druze and Yazidis who must be trembling.

Syria is now essentially up for grabs. Turkey has placed the country on its Thanksgiving plate.

October 7 will go down in history as a red-letter date, but not just for Israelis. Everything is now changed by the aftermath of that fateful October.

Had Hamas not Pearl-Harbored Israel, thousands of Palestinians would still be alive, and Hamas would have the manpower to forever torment its people. Nasrallah would still be preaching radical sermons and wearing out his welcome in Lebanon. Assad could have added to his tally of dead Syrians since, apparently, the world never cares when Muslims kill Muslims. The Houthis could focus on its civil war in Yemen.

And Iran could talk tough, enrich uranium, build missiles and manipulate these now vanquished terrorists to do its bidding. The unobstructed sphere of influence through Iraq, Syria and Lebanon it once enjoyed is now gone. All due to the chain of events unleashed by having armed Hamas. The topography and terror outfits of the Middle East are today smoldering from Israeli airstrikes and buried in rubble.

It’s a magical Middle East makeover—but, quite possibly, all for the better.

Donald Trump has a tremendous opportunity to re-shape these fallen nations and burnish his foreign policy credentials. Whether he will choose to exercise his leverage is another matter. Remember “America First” is shorthand for isolationism.

He, and particularly his vice president, believe that the future of Ukraine is NATO’s headache. Trump is seeking fewer entanglements on the European continent. But Ukraine and Russia are war weary and ripe for a resolution that may allow both Zelensky and Putin to save face. Trump could broker that.

The Middle East is another matter, entirely. Remember, the Abraham Accords happened under Trump’s watch. He once convinced Muslim financial centers that they would be crazy not to be in business with Israel. The Palestinians, after all, offer nothing other than terrorism, petulance and misery. Israel is abundant in enterprising, innovative Jews with a military that just proved it can disable Iran at a moment’s notice.

If he chooses to, Trump can liberate Iran from the same tyrannical Islamists who took 53 American hostages back in 1979. Just imagine a secular Iran. It’s been so long, few can even remember that during the Shah’s reign, Iran was a Western nation on the banks of the Persian Gulf and Caspian Sea.

If he chooses to, Trump can liberate Iran from the same tyrannical Islamists who took 53 American hostages back in 1979. Just imagine a secular Iran. It’s been so long, few can even remember that during the Shah’s reign, Iran was a Western nation on the banks of the Persian Gulf and Caspian Sea. The Beatles were on the radio, and women wore bikinis, not burkas. There were no morality police, and homosexuals did not hang from cranes. Iran was even a reliable ally of Israel!

And as for Israel, October 7 scarred the nation for life. But its resilience and resourcefulness made good use of a crisis to re-make its neighborhood.

Thane Rosenbaum is a novelist, essayist, law professor and Distinguished University Professor at Touro University, where he directs the Forum on Life, Culture & Society. He is the legal analyst for CBS News Radio. His most recent book is titled “Saving Free Speech … From Itself,” and his forthcoming book is titled, “Beyond Proportionality: Is Israel Fighting a Just War in Gaza?”