The Scoop

White House Says Trump Admin Did Not Do ‘Anything Constructive’ To End Conflict In The Middle East

By • May 19, 2021 3:35 pm

The White House said that apart from a “dead on arrival” peace strategy, the Trump administration did “nothing positive” to resolve the Middle East crisis.

Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, defended the response of the Biden administration to the continuing conflict between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants, insisting that the only hope for “lasting” peace in the region is a “two-state solution.”

Psaki told reporters that the Biden administration’s policy to de-escalate tensions in the area “doesn’t follow the same strategies as the previous administration.”

“Aside from putting forward a peace proposal that was dead on arrival, we don’t think they did anything constructive, really, to bring an end to the long-standing conflict in the Middle East,” Psaki told reporters. 

“So obviously, we’re dealing with a conflict that is happening, as we speak. It is happening on the ground. People’s lives are lost. There’s ongoing violence, we’re going to work to resolve that.” 

The White House’s “vision continues to be that providing humanitarian and security assistance to the Palestinians, while preserving our long-standing security relationship with Israel, is in the United States’ interest,” according to Psaki.

“A two-state solution, which both parties would have to get together to agree, is the only way to have a long-term outcome that’s peaceful and lasting,” she added. said. 

Members of the administration of former President Donald Trump — including former Vice President Mike Pence — have blasted the Biden administration’s policy, claiming that President Biden has shown “weakness and ambivalence” as the violence continues — the worst since 2014.

“We witnessed four years of progress toward peace, now shattered by more than a week of unprovoked violence against the people of Israel,” Pence said Tuesday. 

The former VP said the Trump-Pence administration’s “commitment to Israel was unrivaled,” while maintaining that the new administration’s “failures” in the region have invited Hamas’ aggression. 

“We made that clear to the world through our actions,” Pence said, referring to the administration’s brokering of peace deals in the Middle East, the withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, and the move of the American embassy to Jerusalem, recognizing it as “the capital of the state of Israel.” 

“But from the moment President Biden took office, all that changed, and the results have reignited violence,” he added. “Weakness arouses evil.” 

Pence also praised the Abraham Accords, which normalized relations and established bilateral agreements in areas such as “investment, tourism, direct flights, security, telecommunications, technology, energy, health care, culture, the environment, the establishment of reciprocal embassies, and other areas,” the Trump administration earlier said.

Israel and the UAE said at the time that they will keep working to “achieve a just, comprehensive, and long-term settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.”

In 2018, the Trump administration relocated the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a move that was hotly discussed in Washington and signaled the US’ recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Pence reiterates: US stands with Israel

Pence said: “The Trump-Pence administration set the table for lasting peace and an end to the decades-old conflict in the region.”

“President Biden has replaced strength with weakness, moral clarity with confusion, and loyalty with betrayal.”

He added that in the midst of these unprovoked attacks, “let’s pray for the peace of Jerusalem, and if the world knows nothing else, let the world know this: America stands with Israel.”

During a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, Biden reportedly expressed his support for a cease-fire, and over the weekend, he emphasized “the need for Hamas to cease firing rockets into Israel and reiterated Israel’s right to defend itself against terrorist attacks,” adding that Hamas has fired “more than 3,000 rockets” into Israel during the ongoing conflict.

Hamas, a Palestinian militant group, has launched a sustained rocket attack against Israel, prompting Israel to respond with heavy artillery and airstrikes, which has killed at least 180 people, including 55 children and 33 women. Over 1,200 people were injured and on the Israeli side, eight people have died including a 5-year-old boy and a soldier.

Psaki reiterated that every move of the Biden administration is “with the objective of reducing violence and bringing an end to conflict on the ground.”

“The prism we are making all our decisions through is how we can help to bring an end to violence and de-escalate the situation on the ground, and our calculation, at this point, is having those conversations behind the scenes, weighing in with our important strategic partnership we have with Israel and other countries in the region is the most constructive approach we can take,” Psaki told a briefing.

“Our approach is through quiet, intensive diplomacy and that is where we feel we can be most effective,” she added, noting that the Democratic administration will “not follow the same tactics of the prior administration.”

Steeve Strange

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