President Joe Biden is unlikely to match the historic speed in which President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize after just 10 months, especially with today’s fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban.
But he has a good chance to get one in his first term if he focuses on the Middle East and picks up where former President Donald Trump left off, according to an expert on the peace process.
In fact, author and newsman Joel Rosenberg has laid out a path for the Democratic administration, and it drives straight through Saudi Arabia, the Arab giant in the peace process that the Biden administration has been struggling to deal with.
The reason it’s so important, said Rosenberg in his upcoming book Enemies and Allies: An Unforgettable Journey inside the Fast-Moving and Immensely Turbulent Modern Middle East, is that he is certain that Riyadh is finally going to normalize relations with Israel, which should set the stage for other Arab powers to follow.
“I have little doubt the Saudis are going to normalize relations with Israel. As I see it, the question is not if, but when,” he wrote. And in giving advice to the White House, he suggested that the president lighten up a bit in his criticism of the country to prevent undercutting the Saudis as they change decades of anti-Israel policy.
“I suspect the Saudis would much prefer to make peace believing they are a strategic American ally — not a ‘pariah state’ — as well as in such a manner that allows them to play a useful role in encouraging the Palestinian leadership to also make peace with Israel and achieve a level of security and prosperity that thus far has eluded them,” said Rosenberg.
Rosenberg is an odd peace dove, known to many as the author of realistic and current novels and who helped open doors in the Middle East to meet with all the major peace players. As he gained influence, the Jew and Evangelical Christian invested in the area to create the sites All Israel News and All Arab News.
His influence grew during the Trump years when the Republican administration pushed an unusual, economic-based peace plan drawn up by the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and his aide Avi Berkowitz and top State officials. Both were nominated for the Nobel Prize.
In his book, shared with Secrets before its September release, Rosenberg suggested that the Trump-era Abraham Accords that led several Arab nations to normalize relations with Israel is a good model to build on.
It is also important, he said, to stay engaged at a time when many in the area fear the U.S. is moving on. And, he added, Biden must show no daylight between the U.S. and Israel.
But the key is Saudi Arabia. “If Biden can help the Saudis defend themselves against Iran and its terror proxies, improve their human rights record, advance their Vision 2030 agenda, normalize relations with Israel, and provide the Palestinians a realistic pathway to peace that in no way endangers Israel, he and his administration will have made a significant and lasting difference in the Middle East,” wrote Rosenberg.
“And earn Nobel Peace Prizes of their own.”
