A popular narrative after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack and ensuing retaliation by Israel has been that the U.S. had dropped the ball because it had 'pivoted away' from the Middle East over the last three administrations. That is simply not true. According to our guests this week, CATO researchers Jon Hoffman and Jordan Cohen, Washington has maintained a status quo in the Middle East that had become untenable. It has been fueling the region with weapons; making deals with dictators in Saudi Arabia and Israel at the expense of the Palestinian issue, and ignoring the growing violence and tensions in the occupied territories. We talk about this and more as the violence threatens to spill over to other parts of the region, which will embolden those in Washington who want us to have a bigger, not a smaller footprint there.
More from Jon Hoffman and Jordan Cohen:
Emergency Aid or Budget Trick? Assessing Biden’s $100 Billion Spending Request, Jordan Cohen w/ Dominik Lett, CATO, 10/20/23
Biden's Middle East Deal is a Disaster, Jon Hoffman, Responsible Statecraft, 9/27/23
Many Arms and Little Influence in the Middle East, Hoffman and Cohen, War on the Rocks, 8/23/23
Counter-revolutionary? A deeper look at Israel’s relationships with Arab autocrats, Responsible Statecraft
There was never a 'pivot' away from the Middle East. There should have been.