Leftist snobs will hate to hear it... but it's thanks to Trump and his ... trends now
The failure of Iran's mass missile and drone attack last weekend was clearly a triumph for Israel's air defenses.
But it was equally a triumph for the painstaking diplomacy and military prowess of the United States, which has been working for years to engineer a more coordinated regional response in the event of major Iranian aggression. Saturday saw these efforts come to fruition.
Behind the scenes and with little fanfare, America managed to bring together an alliance which didn't just include Israel and the US but Europe's two most important military powers, Britain and France, and — most significant of all — several major Arab players, including Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and even Saudi Arabia.
The extent of the co-operation is remarkable, the resulting near-total destruction of the Iranian attack breathtaking.
Right from the moment Iran launched its missiles and drones against Israel, early warning radar stations in several Arab Gulf states picked up that an attack was underway and fed data and intelligence to US regional military command in Qatar which, in turn, alerted Israel and its allies across the region.
The failure of Iran's mass missile and drone attack last weekend was clearly a triumph for Israel's air defenses. But it was equally a triumph for the painstaking diplomacy and military prowess of the United States.
Israeli, American, British, French and Jordanian fighter jets were scrambled over Jordanian airspace to meet the incoming aerial onslaught.
Israel readied its formidable air defense systems, Iron Dome and Arrow 3.
US warships, including guided missile destroyers in the Mediterranean, and US land bases in the region prepared to take out Iranian missiles and drones.
As a result most of the Iranian attack never even made it into Israeli airspace. Those that did were destroyed by Israel's anti-missile defense systems, which, thanks to allied help, was never overwhelmed as the Iranians had hoped.
Without the help of its allies, old and new, the Iranian attack would have had at least limited success.
The remarkable cooperation between Israel and its allies was not put together at the last minute.
The US has been pushing Arab capitals for several years to recognize the need for region-wide air defense co-operation to be able to deal with Iranian hostilities. The strategy was given real momentum by the signing of the Abraham Accords under President Trump, which signaled a new era of cooperation between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan. Even countries that didn't sign up, like Saudi Arabia, accepted that a new era of cooperation with Israel against a common enemy, Iran, had begun.
But not President Biden. He entered the Oval Office in January 2021 with wild talk of isolating Saudi Arabia and treating it as a 'pariah' while indicating he was up for détente with Iran.
Funds were released for the mullahs in Tehran which should never have been handed over. The Abraham Accords were left to atrophy, largely and pathetically because they were a Trump legacy. The foreign-policy establishment types around Biden never liked them anyway.
The US paid dearly for this Trump Derangement Syndrome. Instead of wooing the Saudis to join the Accords, they were given the cold shoulder, which resulted in Riyadh trying to appease Tehran.
But even as the White House struck all the wrong notes, behind the scenes, important, game-changing work was being done.
Two years ago, America moved its military command center for Israel from Europe to Central Command (CENTCOM) in Qatar. This was hugely significant because it meant America could deal with Israel and its Arab allies from the same command center, making intelligence sharing and the coordination of early warning systems more intertwined.
Biden and his foreign policy team were slow learners. But eventually they saw the virtue in encouraging closer cooperation
