Can New Middle East Alliances Withstand The Democratic Party’s Left-Wing Wave?

After Georgia's runoff election and the victory of Rev. Raphael Warnock over Sen. Kelly Loeffler, American leftists in the Democratic Party immediately called for radical legislative action to ram through the entire agenda of President-elect Joe Biden.

This includes ending the filibuster, packing the courts and adding new states, such as Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico, to assure that Democrats end up with between two and four additional U.S. senators. It makes one wonder how such radical actions will impact U.S. foreign policy, especially towards the Middle East.

Warnock--with his outrageous anti-Semitic statements, comparing Israel to apartheid South Africa and endorsing Rev. Jeremiah Wright's infamous "God damn America" sermon--represents the attitudes of many members of the radical left in the Democratic Party, who are against traditional America. 

For them, this America has was founded on racism and "white privilege," and must be transformed. The same goes for any allies of this traditional America.

This might explain why most of these Democratic Party members attack countries like Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia for human-rights issues, yet still call for rapprochement with the Iranian regime, ignoring the brutality against its own people and the tragedies perpetrated by Tehran for the past 40 years.

We can liken the alliance between the radical left-wing of the Democratic Party and Islamists to that of the Iranian regime and the Muslim Brotherhood, based on a consensus against traditional--or, more accurately, evangelical--America, with all its principles and values.

The above attitudes are reflected in the American mainstream media, which is dominated by the liberal left and whose double standard is extremely obvious. For instance, its coverage of protests in Iran in 2009, 2017, 2018 and 2019 was nothing like the coverage of the so-called Arab Spring. The difference was apparent in terms of content, airtime and the number of articles and news items.

Another, more recent, example is the coverage of the Jan. 6 unrest on Capitol Hill. The left-wing media and called protesters, who were resisting what they believe were stolen elections, "mobs."

Contrast this with the reaction to the Black Lives Matter protests last summer. CNN anchor Chris Cuomo even made excuses for the rioters. "Please, show me where it says protesters are supposed to be polite and peaceful," he told viewers.

Another example is Vox's German Lopez, who said that while the BLM "riots are destructive, dangerous and scary," they serve a purpose because they "can lead to serious social reforms."

So, we see that for Democrat politicians and their supportive media, the identity of rioters determines how they are covered and commented on.

We will definitely see more of these double standards and hypocrisy with the radical left increasingly dominating the political and media arena in the United States. The question, then, is whether the Abraham Accords can weather the Democratic Party's left-wing wave.

The aim of the Abraham Accords--named after the common patriarch of the three monotheistic religions and signed on Sept. 15, 2020--was to establish peace, diplomatic and trade relations, and a normalization of ties between the State of Israel, the UAE and the Kingdom of Bahrain. 

Even though these agreements were politically and economically strategic, it was notable that they were branded in religious-cultural terms.

Does this mean that there can be an Evangelical Christian, Orthodox Jewish and moderate Muslim alliance to counter the left-wing-Islamist alliance?

The UAE initiated this idea with an announcement in 2019 that it intended to build an interfaith Abrahamic Family House that includes a monumental church, mosque and synagogue. The UAE has chosen to focus on the cultural commonality between Judaism, Christianity and Islam, symbolized by Abraham, who is revered by all three faiths.

This move can be built on to counter the Islamist idea that other religions are toxic to Islam. Framing Orthodox Jews, evangelical Christians, and moderate Muslims as part of an Abrahamic family can form a political alliance that is a more robust alternative to the long-standing narrative of Judeo-Christian and Islamic civilizations being in conflict.

The attempt to build an Abrahamic narrative may challenge not only Islamist extremists, but also the radical left that wants to undermine the legitimacy of countries not aligned with its political and intellectual visions.

Originally published at JNS.org - reposted with permission.