Trump’s effect on the Middle East

And by all accounts, Trump didn’t hold back.

 

As POLITICO reported days after the U.S. election, it was clear that despite the president-elect’s hawkish picks to head his national security and foreign policy teams, Netanyahu wouldn’t be given free rein in his ambition to recast the Middle East.

 

“Trump expects a cease-fire on Lebanon soon — even before he’s inaugurated,” an Israeli official familiar with the matter, granted anonymity to speak candidly, had said.

 

Lebanese-American businessman Massad Boulos, the father-in-law of Trump’s daughter Tiffany, was also a key emissary, exploiting the disillusionment of Arab-Americans furious with the current administration’s policies on Gaza and the war in Lebanon. If Trump wins the election, he’ll “act immediately to end the war in Lebanon and won’t wait until his inauguration in January,” he told the Saudi-funded Al-Arabiya new outlet.