And now Morocco says it will be establishing full diplomatic ties with Israel – plus, the Hydroxy Effect
In a statement, Moroccan sovereign King Mohammad VI says Morocco intends to “resume official bilateral contacts and diplomatic relations [with Israel] as soon as possible.”
King Mohammad says that Morocco will take three moves in the near future. First, facilitating direct flights to transport Jews of Moroccan origin and Israeli tourists too and from Morocco. The North African nation will also seek to “resume official bilateral ties and diplomatic relations [with Israel] as soon as possible.”
Morocco will also seek “to develop innovative relationships in the economic and technological fields. As part of this goal, there will be work on renewing liaison offices in the two countries, as was the case in the past for many years, until 2002,” King Mohammad says.
He thanks US President Donald Trump for recognizing Moroccan sovereignty over the disputed region of Western Sahara, which observers believe was done as a quid pro quo in exchange for normalization.
I keep wondering whether a Biden administration would try to undo this, and if so whether they would succeed in that endeavor. Or, alternatively, they might do something unintentionally that would mess it up. Either course of action is possible. Biden has already signaled his desire (or someone’s desire) to court Obama’s favored nation Iran once again, but emboldening and empowering Iran might just make the Arab nations now allied with Israel cling to that alliance ever tighter – you know, the “enemy of my enemy.”
In line with that thought – I notice that Victor Davis Hanson has an excellent article in National Review about what he calls “the hydroxy effect” and whether if Biden becomes president he will go with it as policy. An excerpt:
Trump’s presidential endorsement [of hydroxychloroquine] was apparent proof of rank quackery [to the MSM and the Democrats]. Yet a few recent second-look studies, especially abroad, suggest that hydroxychloroquine, a dirt-cheap, time-tested anti-malarial drug, can in fact offer help in treating some cases of COVID-19.
This Hydroxy Effect — hysterical disavowal of anything Trump has endorsed — is dangerous to the country at large.
Hanson goes on to list several other ways in which it played out that a Trump statement or opinion or policy was widely derided and yet was correct and/or advantageous. For some of those things there’s a post-election-day “now it finally can be told” element going on in the press. Of foreign policy, Hanson writes:
Logic dictates that Biden would not scrap the framework of an effective containment policy of expansionist China. Pacific nations such as Australia, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan appreciated Trump’s efforts to corral China…
Logic suggests that Biden would appreciate inheriting a more stable Middle East, with Arab states and Israel increasingly united against the theocracy in Iran. The emerging alliances seem tailor-made to allow Biden to take credit for still more Arab nations recognizing Israel…
But the logic we see as logical is not the logic Democrats see as logical. Biden has his own reasons for wanting to cozy up to China, in addition of course to the need to do the opposite of what Trump has done. It may be the same for Israel, although the Arab nations may not really care if Biden doesn’t approve – their motive to ally with Israel at this point may be just that powerful.
If Biden dies before inauguration, can you trust that the Media will not conceal the news, with the constant mask wearing it will be very easy to find a stand in to take his place and the public wouldn’t even know it.
Imagine my disappointment that the “hydroxy effect” didn’t involve thin, crisp chocolate cookies with a thin layer of sugary frosting between the halves.
huxley, I am imagining away. It does seem a counterintuitive sort of label for this phenomenon. My mind goes to something like Botox when I hear of ‘hydroxy’; maybe thinking of free radicals.
I’m rather pleased to hear about the Moroccan government signing on. I guess I have a bit of a soft spot for the place in principle – tagine, Casablanca, TORCH and all that. Oh, and dates. 🙂
Great news for the world.
Trump, in pulling OUT, has been so fantastic for the ME.
Tho I do believe that Bush, going INTO Iraq, made more Arabs and Muslims understand what can, and can’t be, done on the ground.
Any military can lose.
Hearts and minds seldom change quickly.
“Democracy” is not a panacea.
I’m also revising my prior admiration and agreement with Bush’s idea that “Freedom is in every heart”.
See The WEIRDest People in the World J. Henrich, where “we” are the weird outliers in many psyche experiments carried out over different cultures. More individualist, more freedom oriented. (Because of Christian opposition to marrying cousins and developing clans.)
Tom, yes, great point: “More individualist, more freedom oriented”. I believe that the Church’s restrictions on cousin marrying as a means to enhance their wealth (via bequeaths from rich widows) had a greater impact on Western social structure and history than is usually recognized. This practice reduced the influence of Germanic tribes and clans, forcing everyone into the “Christian” tribe instead, and thus also altering allegiance to the local kings and fostering regional and national outlooks.
This did not happen in the Islamic world, nor in China and other Asian and African areas. They are often still tribal “under the covers” of a modern overlay. Pity these restrictions were not more widespread, but it is at least one important factor that makes the West unique among nations/cultures.
neo,
“the logic we see as logical is not the logic Democrats see as logical.”
Indeed. The premises that underly the Left’s view of human nature and external reality guarantee a less than ‘optimal’ outcome.
” the Arab nations may not really care if Biden doesn’t approve – their motive to ally with Israel at this point may be just that powerful.”
In the foreseeable future (a decidely limited perspective) that may well be true, especially so as long as Shia Iran presents a viable threat to Sunni Islam but… as soon as Iran ceases to be a treat, the ‘moderate’ Islamic regimes will be under threat from their own fundamentalists, who will not lack for recruits, as the fundamentalists hold Islam’s theological ‘high ground’.
It is this basic factor that poses a mortal threat to lasting peace in the M.E. especially as Islam is utterly incapable of either external or internal reform.
“My mind goes to something like Botox when I hear of ‘hydroxy’; maybe thinking of free radicals.” – Philip
“thin, crisp chocolate cookies with a thin layer of sugary frosting between the halves.” – huxley
There is an internet meme in there somewhere —