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iraq
A Comprehensive Deal for Peace in the Middle East
The sheer majority of people in the Middle East, and in the world, yearn for peace. Yet a violent extremist minority commits the region to endless war.
Jan 10, 2025
The key to peace in the Middle East is the security of all states and peoples in the region. The arrival of a new presidency in the United States brings the opportunity for a comprehensive peace deal.
The security of all states and peoples would mean the disarming of the militant non-state forces. It would mean the normalization of diplomatic relations among all nations in the region. It would mean that the people of Palestine have their own sovereign state alongside Israel. It would mean the protection of the territorial integrity and stability of neighboring countries Lebanon and Syria. It would mean the commitment of all countries to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons in the region. And it would mean that all economic sanctions would be lifted as part of the normalization of diplomatic relations, and as a great stimulus to economic development.
Many millions of people are simply terrified, believing that the other side is an implacable foe out to kill them. False narratives of hatred feed these fears.
Such a comprehensive deal would be in the national security interest of every nation. It would enable all parties to achieve their legitimate aims. Importantly, it would also be line with international law, therefore supported by the United Nations and all its member states.
The sheer majority of people in the Middle East, and in the world, yearn for peace. Yet a violent extremist minority, in Israel and the Arab world, opposes peace. Mercenary armies fight for the spoils of war, and some arms-makers stoke the conflicts. Some opponents of peace dream of restoring ancient empires in flagrant violation of today’s realities.
Many millions of people are simply terrified, believing that the other side is an implacable foe out to kill them. False narratives of hatred feed these fears. To those in great fear, let us recall the wisdom of President John F. Kennedy, who declared sixty years ago:
Indeed, across the gulfs and barriers that now divide us, we must remember that there are no permanent enemies. Hostility today is a fact, but it is not a ruling law. The supreme reality of our time is our indivisibility as children of God and our common vulnerability on this planet.
Kennedy’s confidence in peace enabled the U.S. and the Soviet Union to sign and implement the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Today, the “art of the deal” could avert a world war.
The Middle East is known as the cradle of civilization because of its vast and unique history and its gifts to world civilization. The three monotheistic faiths are all born in this region; and they all preach and yearn for peace. With the Middle East today at real risk of nuclear conflagration, the moment has arrived for a comprehensive peace deal. The world’s political leaders and religious leaders have peace within their reach.
A comprehensive peace deal in 2025 should include seven measures:
- An immediate UN-mandated ceasefire across all fronts of the conflict, including Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, and Iran, and the immediate release of hostages and prisoners of war across all entities;
- The admission of a sovereign State of Palestine as 194th UN Member State on the June 4, 1967 borders with its capital in East Jerusalem; the withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in 1967, with the simultaneous introduction of UN-mandated international forces and security guarantees to protect all populations;
- The protection of the territorial integrity and stability of Lebanon and Syria, and the full demilitarization of all non-state forces, and withdrawal of all foreign armies from the respective countries;
- The adoption of an updated Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Iran, and the end of all economic and other sanctions on Iran;
- The termination, including defunding and disarmament of belligerent non-state entities, of all claims or states of belligerency, and respect for and acknowledgement of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area, (without excluding the possibility of subsequent territorial adjustments, security arrangements, and cooperative forms of governance agreed by the sovereign parties);
- The establishment of regional peace and normalization of diplomatic relations by all Arab and Islamic states with Israel;
- The establishment of an Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East Sustainable Development Fund to support the reconstruction, economic recovery and sustainable development of the region.
Let us imagine the happiness and prosperity that will reverberate across this ancient, proud, and magnificent region, if the leaders and peoples rise to the challenge of peace.
Sybil Fares, Senior Advisor on the Middle East for UNSDSN, assisted centrally on this article.
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Trump Should 100% Take Jimmy Carter's Advice
Trump’s first term was four years of Christmas Days for billionaires and corporate interests, starting with the military-industrial complex. A repeat of that must not be tolerated.
Dec 30, 2024
With President Jimmy Carter’s passing and Donald Trump about to return to the White House, it’s a good time to recall a phone conversation that Carter had with Trump during his first term. Carter’s advice would serve Trump well if he really wants to fulfill his campaign promise to Put America First–something he failed to do in his first term.
In April 2019, Jimmy Carter told his church congregation in Georgia that President Trump had called him for advice about China. Carter said he told Trump that China was economically overtaking the United States as the world’s largest and most dynamic economy because the United States had spent decades wasting trillions of dollars to fight endless wars, while China had instead focused on economic development and lifted hundreds of millions of its people out of extreme poverty. “China has not wasted a single penny on war,” Carter said, “and that’s why they’re ahead of us, in almost every way.”
The next day, the White House confirmed that the two presidents “had a very good telephone conversation about President Trump’s stance on trade with China and numerous other topics.”
Some of Trump’s statements during the election campaign suggest that he hasn’t forgotten Carter’s advice. At the very least, he got the message that peace would be good for America, and that a lot of Americans understand that. Majorities of Americans have long supported a ceasefire in Gaza, and a plurality now support a negotiated peace in Ukraine, too. Trump promised to deliver on both. He even said that he would end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours, based on his good relations with leaders in Russia and Ukraine.
Maybe now Trump can understand that normalizing war crimes only leads to more war crimes, not to peace or stability.
Americans may be more worried about problems closer to home than the Middle East or Ukraine, but President Carter connected the dots between U.S. war-making and our quality of life in America.
“And I think the difference is, if you take $3 trillion and put it in American infrastructure, you’d probably have $2 trillion leftover,” Carter explained to his congregation. “We’d have high-speed railroad. We’d have bridges that aren’t collapsing, we’d have roads that are maintained properly. Our education system would be as good as that of say South Korea or Hong Kong.”
What Carter described to Trump is the classic choice between “guns and butter” that faces every society. In the late 19th and early 20th century, the United States was a rising economic power, like China today. Europe’s imperial powers destroyed each other in the First World War, leaving even the victors, Britain and France, with multibillion dollar debts to J.P. Morgan and the U.S. Treasury. The United States’ economic success made it the world’s banker and industrial leader and gave it a decisive role in the history of the 20th century.
Today, it is the United States that has an unprecedented national debt of $36 trillion, and our military budget consumes 56% of federal discretionary spending, putting the squeeze on all our other needs. But we can still enjoy shared prosperity and a brighter future if Trump can do as Carter advised him and wean our government off its addiction to war.
So why are we not reassured by Trump’s promises to make peace and put America first? There are three things that worry us: his first-term track record; his second-term cabinet picks; and his aggressive rhetoric since the election (as opposed to what he said on the campaign trail).
Let’s start with his track record. Despite loud promises to tackle the entrenched interests of the “Deep State” and to “Drain the Swamp,” Trump’s first term was four years of Christmas Days for billionaires and corporate interests, starting with the military-industrial complex. In FY2025 inflation-adjusted dollars, Trump spent an average of $292 billion per year on Pentagon “investment” accounts, or payments to weapons makers and other military suppliers. That was a 24% increase over Obama’s second term.
Trump’s record tax giveaway to his billionaire buddies was not balanced by any cuts in military spending, which was as much of a sacred cow to him as to Bush, Obama, and Biden. This toxic combination blew up the national debt, leaving nothing in the kitty for improving education, healthcare, public transportation or any of our society’s other critical needs. That tax cut will expire in a year’s time, but Trump has made it clear that he intends to give even greater tax breaks to his billionaire buddies.
Trump deserves credit for not starting any new wars during his first term, but his escalations of Bush’s and Obama’s wars made his first year in office in 2017 the heaviest year of U.S. and allied bombing since the First Gulf War in 1991, dropping more than 60,000 bombs and missiles on Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen, Libya, Pakistan and Somalia.
As Jimmy Carter told Trump, by making peace and renouncing war and militarism he can actually put America First, save trillions of dollars and invest in America.
Many Americans remember Trump’s shocking statement that “When you get these terrorists, you have to take out their families.” What the U.S. corporate media swept under the rug was that the Iraqi forces who captured the bombed out ruins of Islamic State’s stronghold in Mosul’s Old City took Trump at his word and killed all the survivors, including women and children, just as Israel is doing in parts of Gaza today. Maybe now Trump can understand that normalizing war crimes only leads to more war crimes, not to peace or stability.
When it comes to Trump’s new cabinet picks, he might have jettisoned some of the worst hawks in his last coterie, such as John Bolton, but some of his nominees for top foreign policy jobs are awful, including Secretary of State nominee Marco Rubio, National Security Advisor nominee Mike Waltz and Secretary of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth.
Tulsi Gabbard is a more encouraging choice as National Intelligence Director, but as a House member, she voted for two thirds of Obama’s and Trump’s military spending bills, and was always a pushover for expensive new weapon systems. As we asked when she ran for president in 2020, which Tulsi Gabbard will we see in her new job? The one who opposes regime change wars and the new Cold War with Russia, or the one who couldn’t say no to nuclear-armed cruise missiles in 2014, 2015 or 2016? And who will Trump listen to? Tulsi Gabbard and JD Vance, who is more non-interventionist, or warmongers Rubio and Waltz?
We don’t want to place too much stock in Trump’s often contradictory public statements, but he has sounded very hawkish lately. If you believe everything Trump says, he wants to buy Greenland, invade Mexico to fight immigrants and drug gangs, annex Canada as the 51st state, put 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico, and seize the Panama Canal and close it to China. In Trump’s last term he badgered NATO countries to increase their military spending to 2 percent of GDP, but now he is calling on them to spend a staggering 5 percent, far more than the 3.1 percent of GDP that the U.S. spent in 2024.
This is a test for the American people. Do we want a showman, tough guy president, playing ringmaster of the corporate media circus? Do we want a leader who threatens to invade Canada, Mexico, Panama (again) and Greenland, like an American Netanyahu dreaming of a Western Greater Israel? Or should we demand a president who really puts America First? A president who makes peace in Ukraine and the Middle East? A president who finally starts bringing our troops home from those 800 foreign military bases all over the world? A president who can look at a map and see that Guantanamo is in Cuba and the Golan Heights are in Syria?
As Jimmy Carter told Trump, by making peace and renouncing war and militarism he can actually put America First, save trillions of dollars and invest in America. The Democrats have had their chances to do right by the American people and they’ve blown it so many times we’ve lost count. So the ball’s in Trump’s court. Will he follow Carter’s sage advice?
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Trump Picks 'Lobbyist for War Criminals' to Lead Pentagon
Pete Hegseth helped secure pardons for three former U.S. soldiers accused or convicted of horrific war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Nov 13, 2024
President-elect Donald Trump's choice to head the Pentagon privately lobbied Trump during his first White House term to pardon former members of the U.S. armed forces accused or convicted of war crimes, including a Navy SEAL chief who allegedly gunned down a young girl and elderly man in Iraq.
Pete Hegseth is an Army veteran who has used his role as a "Fox & Friends" co-host to praise Trump, make the case for a preemptive strike against North Korea, peddle anti-Muslim bigotry, express support for Israel's U.S.-backed assault on Gaza, and divulge bizarre details about his lack of personal hygiene.
Hegseth also had the ear of the former president during his first four years in the White House, acting as an informal adviser. In that capacity, Hegseth reportedly played a key role in securing pardons for three court-martialed U.S. military officers who were accused or convicted of horrific crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.
As Politiconoted Tuesday, "Hegseth helped capture Trump's attention on a military case that led, in 2019, to full pardons for former Army 1st Lt. Clint Lorance and Maj. Mathew Golsteyn, both convicted of war crimes."
Lorance was serving a 19-year prison sentence for second-degree murder when Trump pardoned him. Golsteyn was charged with murder in 2018 for killing an Afghan man.
Trump also pardoned Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher, "who had been stripped of military honors during his prosecution for murder charges," Politico added.
The New York Timesreported in 2019 that a member of Gallagher's platoon called him "freaking evil" and said that "you could tell he was perfectly O.K. with killing anybody that was moving." According to the Times, Gallagher was accused by fellow soldiers of "stabbing a defenseless teenage captive to death," "picking off a school-age girl and an old man from a sniper's roost," and "indiscriminately spraying neighborhoods with rockets and machine-gun fire."
Media Matters for America has documented some of what it described as Hegseth's "eyebrow-raising comments about war crimes."
"In August [2019], he referred to the 2007 massacre of 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad's Nisour Square by private security contractors working for Blackwater (now rebranded as Academi) as 'another day on the job in Iraq,' later hosting Blackwater founder Erik Prince to complain about the unfair prosecutions of his former employees who murdered 17 people," the watchdog organization noted. "Hegseth has also said the possibility of pardons is 'very heartening for guys like me,' that it 'could've been me' on trial for war crimes, and that if Golsteyn's actions counted as a war crime, then 'put us all in jail.'"
The incoming Defense Secretary is literally a lobbyist for war criminals https://t.co/S27FoJOkV7 pic.twitter.com/jLe9wAJa9J
— Eric Levitz (@EricLevitz) November 13, 2024
If confirmed by the Senate or rammed through in a recess appointment, Hegseth—who served in served in Afghanistan, Iraq, and at Guantánamo Bay prison—will be tasked with leading a waste-and-fraud-ridden department whose budget accounts for roughly half of all federal discretionary spending.
Paul Eaton, a retired U.S. Army officer who chairs the advocacy group VoteVets, said in a statement Tuesday that Hegseth is "wholly unqualified to head the Department of Defense and hold the lives of our troops in his hands."
"Nothing more need be said," Eaton added.
As likely chief of the Pentagon, Hegseth will also have to contend with a reported Trump plan to purge the military's top ranks of insufficiently loyal generals.
The Wall Street Journalreported Tuesday that Trump—who threatened on the campaign trail to deploy the U.S. military against his political opponents—is "considering a draft executive order that establishes a 'warrior board' of retired senior military personnel with the power to review three- and four-star officers and to recommend removals of any deemed unfit for leadership."
"If Donald Trump approves the order, it could fast-track the removal of generals and admirals found to be 'lacking in requisite leadership qualities,'" the Journal reported, citing a draft of the order. "But it could also create a chilling effect on top military officers, given the president-elect's past vow to fire 'woke generals,' referring to officers seen as promoting diversity in the ranks at the expense of military readiness."
Hegseth, who has said that "we should not have women in combat roles," has signaled support for such a purge, telling an interviewer last week that any general involved in "woke shit" should be fired.
Eaton of VoteVets said Tuesday that the removal of generals seen as disloyal to Trump would "give him what he said he wanted—generals like Hitler had, who do not challenge him, do not tell him what he doesn't want to hear, and do not stand in the way of using the military to crush his political opposition."
If not stopped, Eaton warned, the president-elect's plan would spawn "a MAGA military, pledging fealty to Donald Trump."
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