Trump says he will end the wars in the Middle East. He also says he will give Israel a free hand. Something will have to give.
Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump walk through the West Wing Colonnade prior to the signing ceremony of the Abraham Accords on the South Lawn of the White House on September 15, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)Posted: November 14th, 2024
By Hollie McKay
Hollie McKay is a writer, war crimes investigator, and the author of “Only Cry for the Living: Memos from Inside the ISIS Battlefield.” (Jocko Publishing/Di Angelo Publications 2021). She was an investigative and international affairs/war correspondent for Fox News Digital for over fourteen years, where she focused on war, terrorism, and crimes against humanity.
DEEP DIVE — The Middle East has changed dramatically since President Donald Trump left office in 2021. An always-tense part of the world has seen an unprecedented act of terrorism against Israel, followed by major wars against Hamas and Hezbollah, and – also unprecedented – Israel and Iran engaged in military strikes against one another. All of which has drawn a major deployment of U.S. military force to the region and raised fears of a full-blown regional conflagration.
“We face the very real danger of a further regional escalation of conflict…the risk of a further escalation between Iran and Israel,” CIA Director William Burns said at last month’s Cipher Brief Threat Conference. If anything, that risk has only heightened since.