We are talking about the Art of the Deal now!
Although defining anything as a monumental achievement in political circles isn't uncommon, it's uncommon when the word is justified. Yet that's the best way to characterize the three-way deal Trump White House, Israel and the United Arab Emirates announced Thursday.
You may also call this one an earthquake, based on the immediate effects alone. Regional fault lines are redrawn in an instant, and the door is thrown open to normalize Israel's relations with other Arab states.
The agreement is also turning the pressure on the Palestinians to make a settlement drastically, lest they find themselves more trapped in their standoff with Israel.
"This means they have to either actually come to the negotiation table or continue to go where they've been," said Jared Kushner, the top American official involved in developing the terms.
Indeed, the deal targeting the Palestinians is a sweetener. Israel's decision to delay its attempt to claim control over most of the West Bank is a major compromise that buys time but not indefinitely for the Palestinians. Kushner has described the suspension as a "foreseeable future."
He said members of the UAE were worried that the Israeli move would be a "major partnership loss" and called for the suspension.
Meanwhile, establishing formal diplomatic relationships and starting direct airline flights would encourage Muslims from the UAE to travel to Israel and visit the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem's Dome of the Rock. The opening shreds Islamists' argument the Israel is preventing them from worshiping in the mosques, among the holiest sites of Islam.
ALSO SEE
A Great Victory for Netanyahu, Bibi, Trump
The major trade-offs vindicate the strategy of President Trump to reinforce America's relationship with Israel, and fight Muslim extremists. The usual opponents, including Democrats, most European governments and UN bureaucrats, predicted that Trump's decision to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and accept Israel's Golan Heights annexation will lead to greater Arab unity and probably war.
In turn, the critics supported the very policies followed by the Obama-Biden administration, which only yielded negative results. The former team handed the back of the hand to Israel, Saudi Arabia and other conventional allies when wooing the Palestinians and Iran. But for Palestinian intransigence and an emboldened and hostile Iran, it got nothing in return.
Trump, Kushner and Ambassador David Friedman use improved American-Israeli relations as a rallying point for Arab states that fear Iran more than Israel.
The UAE is the third Arab nation to build diplomatic relations with the Jewish state, with its signature, and the first since Jordan and Israel signed their peace treaty in 1994. In 1979 Egypt and Israel signed a formal peace.
Such negotiations were undoubtedly historic, even in the midst of regional turmoil, amid conflicts, factors remain stabilizing. The UAE deal could prove equally important and has the added dimension of coming out of nowhere to take the world by total surprise.
SEE ALSO
National security chief claims Trump will be the Nobel Peace Prize 'front runner'
The UAE is becoming the first Gulf Arab state to normalize relations with Israel, and there is already hope that others, including the Saudis, Oman, and Bahrain, will soon follow.
"This shifts the region's model of diplomacy," said Dore Gold, a veteran Israeli diplomat and former advisor to Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister. "While this does not preclude an Israeli-Palestinian partnership, it does away with the Palestinian veto over peace in the Middle East."
This even rattles out the cage of Iran. Although the Saudis and others have had back-channel security relationships with Israel, the fact that the UAE, a seven-emirates predominantly Sunni confederation, officially accepts what Iran calls the "Little Satan" must make the mullahs mad.
This would presumably mean in times past this Gen. Qassem Soleimani would unleash his Quds Force to cause mayhem and try to extract compromises in the face of terror. But Trump gave the go-ahead last January to take out Soleimani, so, thanks to US sanctions, Iran's chances of stirring the pot are greatly diminished, along with its economy.
This being the Mideast, of course, nothing is ever fully resolved. But there's no doubt that Thursday's agreement is strengthening the hand of those who want peace and widening the American-led alliance in ways the naysayers never thought possible.
Through this sense let's see if Joe Biden and the hate-Trump media have the ability to consider Trump's diplomatic performance. Or are they so rabidly besotted that they even want to condemn peace treaties?