04-13-17 Trump unpredictability is what Middle East needs

Trump’s unpredictability is exactly what the Middle East needs 

Published in the Arab News April 13, 2017 

By Ray Hanania

President Donald Trump’s decision to destroy a Syrian airbase used to deploy chemical weapons against civilian targets shows that America’s new president can do what needs to be done in the Middle East.

The bombing of the Syrian air base, the first ever by an American military force in the six-year long effort by Syria’s terrorist leader Bashar al-Assad to suppress pro-Democracy protestors, is only one example of Trump’s evolving Middle East policy.

Although he campaigned on the platform of being Israel’s strongest ally, heaping praise on Israel’s rightwing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump drew a real line in the sand over Israel’s continued expansion of illegal Jewish-only settlements.

Trump has also reinforced his relations with the moderate leadership of the Arab World as strongly as he has with Israel, but without the political fanfare directing the attack on Syria only hours after conferring with Jordan’s King Abdullah II.