President Trump hosts Middle East peace deal between Israel, UAE and Bahrain.

The flags of the countries involved in the peace deal. BBC/Reuters.

President Trump hosted a signing ceremony for a new peace deal in Washington between America, Israel, Bahrain and the UAE. BBC. The two gulf states have normalized ties between Israel, being the only Arab states to have normal ties outside of Egypt and Jordan. It is hoped that other gulf states, most notably Saudi Arabia will join Bahrain and the UAE in normalizing relations with Israel. The move is being hailed as a victory for President Trump as he was the one to broker the deal. Looming in the background of the deal is Iran, which is considered a threat to Sunni nations in the Gulf. 

My Comment:

I originally covered this story last month. Most of what I said back then still applies. The main difference is Bahrain has joined the deal as well. This is a major victory for President Trump and one of the larger diplomatic deals the United States has pulled off in a long time. Peace in the Middle East is a lot closer today then it has been in a long time. 

That doesn't mean that there isn't more work to do. The issue of Palestine isn't going away anytime soon. Israel is still building settlements and the Palestinians are still supporting terrorism. And a lot of people in the Gulf still support them over the Israelis. 

But it's also clear that the tide is turning and it's turning because of Iran. all of the Gulf states share a common enemy with Israel in Iran. Given how aggressive Iran has been and how dangerous a war would be between any of the Gulf states and Iran, it makes sense they would seek a new possible ally in Israel. 

That being said, it doesn't really take away from President Trump's accomplishment here. Many presidents have tried to broker a peace deal in the Middle East and none of them has been big as this one. Doing so was not easy and its a huge accomplishment.

President Trump has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for this deal, and separately for the Kosovo/Serbia peace deal that was also signed recently and brokered by the President. If there was any justice in the world he would win twice over. Far from the warmonger loose cannon that he was portrayed as back in the lead up to the 2016 election, President Trump has been a powerful force for peace. 

Of course the media isn't having any of it. CNN didn't even mention what the ceremony was for, only that there wasn't much social distancing. And the Washington Post called both deals as fake. It's clear that the media understands that this is a huge win for the President and are trying to downplay it.