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The Book of the Week is “Sledgehammer, How Breaking With the Past Brought Peace to the Middle East” by David Friedman, published in 2022.
First of all, the title of the book is an exaggeration. The author, an alpha male with hubris syndrome, penned this bragfest– along with his “funny, smart and strategic” boss (president Trump)– to take credit for campaigns he helped implement with regard to Israel and America’s Arab allies, and to express his views on Israel. He served as America’s ambassador to Israel during Trump’s presidential term of January 2017 to January 2021.
It appears he and Trump moved the Embassy of the United States in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem to get both of their names on a plaque on the wall in the main building there. They’ve secured themselves a footnote in history, as long as that building stands. Never mind the controversy and violence that ensued. Others might disagree– as they feel extremely strongly that there is archeological evidence that Jews occupied that particular location in ancient times, and therefore, they have a claim there. Another argument is that Jews militarily captured that location in the Six Day War in 1967.
One other hotly debated issue is sovereignty over territories where residents currently consist of both Palestinians and Jews; territories believed by the author to belong to Israel in the first place. Friedman thought the Israeli government should control those lands militarily and politically. The Palestinians of course, disagreed.
The author conducted endless discussions with the stakeholders (with a pro-Israel bent) to broker a peace deal with the Palestinians. There were wrenches in the works which included but were not limited to: the Israeli government was holding elections for its top leaders, so anything said in diplomatic negotiations might influence Israeli voters; there were a few groups spouting propaganda who negatively affected the talks; and the Israeli borders with its neighbors (except for Jordan) had yet to be exactly mapped, delaying the finalization of the sovereignty issue.
The breakdown in talks with the Palestinians actually ended up helping Israel become less hostile toward a few of America’s Arab allies. The personalities happened to play well together. The then-leaders of Israel and then-leaders of: Jordan, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco made verbal agreements, or signed a brief, vaguely worded document. This, for which they had an excuse to have a signing ceremony and declare peace (and have a better chance of staying in office or getting reelected).
It wasn’t as sensational and as difficult a feat as the author described. For decades, Trump’s predecessors have held talks to give peace a chance, given changing hatreds, alliances, and global economic and geopolitical conditions.
Bahrain and Jordan already had had diplomatic relations with Israel for decades, so they were just preening for the media. For Sudan, the initial overtures were the start of a beautiful friendship. Two and a half years later, Israel and Sudan normalized their relations. About two years after Israel and Saudi Arabia began their talks, planes coming to and from Israel were allowed to fly over Saudi Arabian airspace. The author made it seem as though all this progress happened over the course of his ambassadorship. One would suspect that he is a historical revisionist for Trump.
Anyway, read the book to learn many more details on Friedman’s take on the issues and situations.