“Al-Otaiba Ex Machina” or Triumph through Failure: The Trump Administration, the Vision for Peace and Prosperity, and the Abraham Accords

Abstract

ABSTRACT The books under review were written by Trump Administration officials, who worked on crafting and implementing the administration’s policies toward Israel and the Arab-Israeli conflicts. A significant part each of these books addresses the rationale and the efforts to launch the Trump Administration’s stillborn Vision for Peace and Prosperity. These efforts were an expression of the desire to abandon the old, failed peace paradigm―“change the conversation” in the Middle East―and to restructure the playing field for future negotiations, while casting aside all previous peace plans. These Trump officials wore their outsider status, and their lack of background in diplomacy and Middle East politics, as a badge of honor and saw it as a source of strength and new ideas. This essay looks at how they memorialized their work and how it led to the Abraham Accords.