By Daniel Stefanski |
Arizona’s most-recent Republican nominee for state attorney general is taking time away from his legal efforts over the previous election to praise the country’s former president for a major foreign policy success enacted under his administration.
Republican Abraham Hamadeh recently joined with Bryan Leib to co-author an op-ed in The Federalist entitled, “Three Years Later, Trump Deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for the Abraham Accords.” The piece has generated significant national attention – especially from those who are loyal to the former president and current candidate for the 2024 campaign, Donald J. Trump.
Hamadeh and his co-author first noted President Trump’s “bold decision to keep his campaign promise and move the United States Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem” – even when many naysayers doubted the rationale of this action. The writers pointed to those same doubters in the case of Trump’s announcement of the Abraham Accords framework, stating that “they were wrong once again.”
The Abraham Accords were issued in September 2020 by the United States, the State of Israel, and the United Arab Emirates. The agreement was forged with the belief “that the further development of friendly relations meets the interests of lasting peace in the Middle East and that challenges can only be effectively addressed by cooperation and not by conflict;” and with the determination “to ensure lasting peace, stability, security and prosperity for both their States and to develop and enhance their dynamic and innovative economies.”
The parties agreed to multiple points as part of these accords – primarily to the establishment of “peace, diplomatic relations and full normalization of bilateral ties” between the United Arab Emirates and the State of Israel. In one of the most challenging years for the world in modern history, the Abraham Accords infused sorely needed hope and optimism into the international community at that point in time.
According to the Abraham Accords Peace Institute, trade between Israel and the UAE increased significantly in the aftermath of the 2020 agreement, skyrocketing 82 percent from 2021 to 2022 ($3.37 billion).
The two authors discussed their credentials amid the piece to give readers confidence that they had sufficient knowledge of the situation on the ground in the Middle East. Hamadeh boasted of his service as a U.S. Army Reserve captain and intelligence officer in Saudi Arabia when the countries made history with the accords. Leib shared that he is a Jewish American who “has enjoyed relationships and friendships with Arabs in America and throughout the Middle East.”
Hamadeh and Leib bemoaned President Joe Biden’s missed chance to build on the Abraham Accords, writing, “The Biden administration took great pains not to acknowledge the Abraham Accords in the first year of his presidency, and that has created a chilling effect in the Middle East.” They both predicted that “the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is most likely the next Arab-majority country to officially make a peace or normalization agreement with Israel.
They pumped the brakes on this potential accord coming to fruition during the Biden Administration, however, stating that “the leaders and people of Israel and Saudi Arabia may have to wait for Trump to get back into the White House to broker their peace agreement.”
The writers opined that if the American president overseeing the accords was Biden or someone else, “the Nobel Peace Prize Foundation would have already awarded its highest honor for the Abraham Accords,” warning that “its failure to reward these historic agreements and Trump with the honor only damages the credibility of the Nobel Foundation.” They argue that “peace shouldn’t be political, especially in a world where it’s hard to come by.”
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
