JPC Senior Director Shoshana Bryen and Clare Lopez of the Center for Security Policy, spoke with moderator Lauri Regan for this EMET (Endowment for Middle East Truth) webinar.
With the new administration’s Middle East policies differing greatly from those of the previous administration, both America and Israel will be facing ever-greater military and national security challenges. While Arab civil wars are nothing new, Israeli Arabs and Israeli Jews saw 70 years of relatively peaceful co-existence shattered during Operation Guardian of the Walls. Although the Biden administration claims it wants to prevent the rearmament of Hamas, Iran and its proxies will likely continue providing billions of dollars for military aggression including missiles, drones, tunnels and offshore attacks.
Meanwhile, all U.S. forces will withdraw from Afghanistan on the 20th anniversary of 9/11 and terrorist groups run rampant across Iraq, Syria and Yemen, plagued by Houthi rebels, who were recently removed from the United States’ Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) list. The Abraham Accords are also increasingly unstable, given that Saudi Arabia appears to be strengthening ties with Iran, rather than becoming the fifth Arab nation to sign a normalization agreement with Israel as expected. China and Russia also have their hands in the Mideast, complicating matters and leaving everyone to wonder what the coming years will bring.
