Middle East mess “a long time in the making”

Gaza tragedy was a long time in the making

Comprehensive peace process in the Middle East never happened

Don Feder

©Washington Times

As you watch scenes of horror unfolding in Israel, understand that this tragedy has been long in the making.

It didn’t start with President Barack Obama’s Iran nuclear deal, our disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, which signaled weakness to the world, President Biden’s war on domestic energy production — making us dependent on our enemies for the lifeblood of our economy and military — or his decision to release $6 billion for Iran as part of a prisoner swap.

You could say that the latest offensive had its beginnings in 1979 when President Jimmy Carter helped to overthrow our longtime ally, the Shah of Iran, and install what became one of the world’s most murderous regimes.

Like his predecessor Woodrow Wilson, our 39th president was on a mission to make the world safe for democracy.

He was also a lousy judge of character who bought the assurances of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini that he wanted nothing but peace with the world and would protect U.S. interests. How could you not trust a guy who called America “the great Satan” and Israel “the little Satan”?

So, it was out with the shah and in with the ayatollah. There followed a quarter century of theocratic rule, the brutal repression of the Iranian people and Iran becoming the world’s chief state sponsor of terrorism.

In 1993, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin signed the Oslo Accord with terrorist chieftain Yasser Arafat, ceding control of most of the West Bank to the Palestinian Liberation Organization. Overnight, the PLO went from a terrorist entity to Israel’s alleged peace partner.