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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
Biden is building on the Abraham Accords, part of Trump1's legacy2 in the Middle East
President Biden travels to Israel and Saudi Arabia next week — his first trip to the Middle East since entering the White House.
And while the president has been eager to criticize a range of his predecessor's policies, he is fully4 embracing one key pillar of Donald Trump's Middle East policy — the Abraham Accords. Those deals were brokered6 by the Trump White House in 2020 to normalize relations between Israel and a number of Arab countries, including Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and Morocco.
It was a huge rupture7 from recent history in which Arab nations had made it clear they would not negotiate with Israel until Palestinians received an independent state of their own. In other words, the Arab-Israeli conflict was tied to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and one could not be resolved without the other.
But the Abraham Accords disconnected the two issues, and that framework has been embraced by the Biden White House.
Biden sees the agreements as a tool for promoting stability in the region
Biden has focused his foreign policy on countering China and Russia, and rebuilding alliances in Europe. When it comes to the Middle East, experts say Biden's goals are pragmatic. He has not articulated grand schemes to broker5 an Israeli-Palestinian deal, but instead wants to see a stable, secure Middle East that does not erupt into violence. His team sees the Abraham Accords as a tool that can promote stability.
In that vein8, the Biden White House is not only embracing the accords, but also trying to build on them. The president and his team often speak about "integrating" Israel into the Middle East — a region that has long viewed Israel as an unfriendly interloper in the neighborhood.
"Part of the purpose — the trip to the Middle East — is to deepen Israel's integration9 into the region, which I think we're going to be able to do - which is good for peace, and good for Israeli security," Biden said recently in response to a question about his upcoming trip. "And that's why Israel leaders have come out so strongly for my going to Saudi."
The outcomes from this trip are expected to be modest
Biden plans to travel directly from Israel to Saudi Arabia: significant because the countries currently do not allow direct flights between one another. And Biden's trip could lead to some incremental10 movement in Saudi Arabia's relationship with Israel, such as allowing Israeli commercial planes to fly over Saudi Arabia.
But given the current domestic politics in both Israel and Saudi Arabia, foreign policy experts are not predicting the two countries will normalize relations in the near future.
"Why I have very modest expectations for Israeli-Saudi rapprochement [is] cause the Israelis are not in a position to give anything on Palestinians or anything else to the Saudis to make it more palatable," said Jon Alterman, a former State Department official, now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, during a preview of the trip for reporters.
Still, experts say these baby steps could eventually lead to a possible roadmap for normalization11 some day in the future.
A senior Israeli official told reporters last week that getting Saudi Arabia to inch toward normalization would be a "game changer in the region."
"Getting Saudi Arabia to advance, if incrementally12, towards normalization with Israel is important in the context of pushing back against the radical13 forces in the Middle East, pushing back against Iran," the official said.
Even in the heat of the election, Biden praised the accords
Trump unveiled the Abraham Accords in September 2020, during the heat of the presidential election campaign.
"After decades of division and conflict, we mark the dawn of a new Middle East," Trump promised as he welcomed officials from Israel, Bahrain and the UAE to the White House to sign the deal.
"These agreements prove that the nations of the region are breaking free from the failed approaches of the past," Trump said.
The accords were the first deal any Arab country had signed with Israel in 26 years. Until that day, the countries did not have any official economic or personal relationship with Israel.
At the time, then-candidate Joe Biden was taking every opportunity he could to point out how he would govern differently than Trump.
But in this case, he was quick to praise the accords. In a statement that day, Biden said he welcomed the news and would "build on these steps" if he won the election.
There is one big difference in Biden's approach to the accords
Once in the White House, Biden's White House did not initially14 focus on the accords. But in late March, at a summit in Israel, Secretary of State Antony Blinken made it clear where the administration stood.
"We are fully committed to expanding cooperation through the Abraham Accords, and building on the remarkable15 progress that Israel, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates as well as Morocco have made in such a short period of time," Blinken said.
"Simply put, normalization is becoming the new normal in this region," he said.
But Blinken also underscored how Biden's approach would be different from the way Trump handled diplomatic relations in the region.
"We have to be clear that these regional peace agreements are not a substitute for progress between Palestinians and Israelis," Blinken said.
That distinction showed the Biden administration recognizes that "normalization between Arab states and Israel can't come at the expense of the Palestinians," said Khaled Elgindy, a former adviser16 to Palestinian leadership and now at the Middle East Institute.
Elgindy said Trump and then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had used the accords to "marginalize the Palestinians, to weaken them, to take away leverage17, to sort of force them to the negotiating table."
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict: sticking point, or separate issue?
Elgindy said he is still skeptical18 that the Arab-Israeli conflict can be kept separate from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Others disagree.
Since the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, Arab countries, led by Saudi Arabia, had issued an ultimatum19: they would normalize relations with Israel only in return for an independent Palestinian state, Israeli withdrawal20 from territory captured in 1967, and a resolution for Palestinian refugees.
But with the Abraham Accords, that consensus21 collapsed22. Arab countries showed they were willing to bypass the Palestinian issue, which was a fundamental shift in the region.
"We changed the paradigm23 and we said: 'Alright: let's do business with Israel, and hopefully once we have more Arab voices, more influence, more seats on the table, we can have more of an influence on Israel as we talk about the two-state solution,'" said Yousef al-Otaiba, the UAE ambassador to the United States, who was intimately involved in negotiating his country's deal.
But in Washington, there is broad agreement that the accords are worth pursuing. In the first 48 hours after the UAE-Israel deal was announced, al-Otaiba said he spoke24 with 24 members of Congress - about half Republican, half Democrat25.
"The question I got from every single one of the 24 is, 'What country's next?'" he said.
Biden may take a less transactional approach to the accords
UAE Ambassador Al-Otaiba credited top Trump officials — including the former president's son-in-law Jared Kushner — for getting the deal done. "I think we had the right people in the right places at the right time," he said. "All of my engagement was with the U.S. administration — I did everything through the United States."
He said it's plausible26 to expand on the accords with a new Democratic administration, but "it's just going to be a different method, different style, different technique."
Trump used a lot of tactics that Biden probably would not, according to Aaron David Miller27, who's worked as a Middle East negotiator under both Republican and Democratic administrations.
For example, Trump announced on Twitter during his waning28 days in the White House that the United States would side with Morocco over a long-disputed territory in north Africa. It was a decision related to Morocco signing on to the accords.
"I doubt whether any Democratic administration would have given away sovereignty over the Western Sahara in exchange for an upgrade in relationship between Israel and Morocco," said Miller, now at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
"That's Trump's transactional style."
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trump
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| n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭 | |
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legacy
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| n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西 | |
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transcript
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| n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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broker
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| n.中间人，经纪人；v.作为中间人来安排 | |
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brokered
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| adj.由权力经纪人安排（或控制）的v.做掮客（或中人等）( broker的过去式和过去分词 )；作为权力经纪人进行谈判；以中间人等身份安排… | |
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rupture
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| n.破裂；(关系的)决裂；v.(使)破裂 | |
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vein
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| n.血管，静脉；叶脉，纹理；情绪；vt.使成脉络 | |
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integration
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| n.一体化，联合，结合 | |
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incremental
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| adj.增加的 | |
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normalization
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| n.（normalisation）正常化，标准化 | |
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incrementally
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| adv.逐渐地 | |
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radical
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| n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的 | |
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initially
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| adv.最初，开始 | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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adviser
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| n.劝告者，顾问 | |
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leverage
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| n.力量，影响；杠杆作用，杠杆的力量 | |
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skeptical
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| adj.怀疑的，多疑的 | |
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ultimatum
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| n.最后通牒 | |
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withdrawal
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| n.取回，提款；撤退，撤军；收回，撤销 | |
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consensus
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| n.(意见等的)一致，一致同意，共识 | |
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collapsed
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| adj.倒塌的 | |
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paradigm
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| n.例子，模范，词形变化表 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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democrat
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| n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员 | |
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plausible
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| adj.似真实的，似乎有理的，似乎可信的 | |
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miller
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| n.磨坊主 | |
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waning
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| adj.（月亮）渐亏的，逐渐减弱或变小的n.月亏v.衰落( wane的现在分词 )；（月）亏；变小；变暗淡 | |
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