When Joe Biden became president, the Middle East was calm. We are currently in the midst of a war on many fronts.

The succession from the previous Trump administration was so quiet that on September 29, 2023, nearly three years later, and just eight days before Hamas’ massacre of Israelis on October 7, Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan could still boast that “the Middle East is.” The area is quieter today than it has been for 20 years. ”

So what happened to the inherited tranquility that led to the current perpetual turmoil?

In short, the theocratic state of Iran, the nexus of nearly all terrorism and conflict in the current Middle East, was emasculated by the Trump administration and then unleashed by Team Biden.

The Biden-Harris administration has adopted a five-step revisionist protocol to appease and encourage Iran and its terrorist proxies Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis.

As a result, something similar to the October 7th massacre was inevitable, and the violence now engulfing the Middle East over the next year was almost certain.

First, during the 2020 campaign, Biden criticized Saudi Arabia, a longtime US ally, as a “pariah.”

He has sided with the Iranian-backed Houthi terrorist group in its war with Saudi Arabia, reversing the policies of the previous Obama and Trump administrations.

Mr Biden accused the kingdom of war crimes and warned it would be “held accountable” for its actions in Yemen. Biden-Harris removed the brutal Houthis from America’s list of terrorists.

Almost immediately, the Houthis launched a series of attacks on international shipping, Israeli and US warships, effectively closing the Red Sea, the entrance to the Suez Canal, to international maritime traffic.

To make matters worse, at the time of the 2022 midterm elections, when rising gas prices were threatening the Democratic Congressional majority, Biden opportunistically reversed his strategy and sought to lower global prices before the November election by targeting Saudi Arabia. He begged for more oil to be pumped into the country. Seeming to be uncomfortable with, and then acting mean to, an old Middle Eastern ally is a recipe for regional turmoil.

Second, Biden-Harris nihilistically obliterated the Trump administration’s “Abraham Accords.” The diplomatic breakthrough served as a blueprint for moderate Arab states to seek detente with Israel, end decades of hostility and unite against a common Middle Eastern threat: Iran. proved that.

Third, Biden implored Iran to rejoin the so-called appeasement deal, which effectively guaranteed that Iran would eventually get the bomb.

To make matters worse, it lifted oil sanctions on the theocracy, allowing a nearly impoverished Iran to recoup $100 billion in profits. He gave the go-ahead for a $6 billion hostage ransom to Tehran.

Enriched, the Iranian government immediately sent billions of dollars in aid and weapons to anti-Western terrorists Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis to attack Israel, Americans, and international shipping. Iran quickly began aligning with China and Russia to form a new anti-American axis.

Biden-Harris also abruptly fled Afghanistan, abandoning billions of dollars in weapons and American contractors. This humiliation effectively destroyed America’s deterrence in the Middle East, galvanizing its enemies and endangering its friends.

Fourth, Biden-Harris restored hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the West Bank and Gaza, but there was no guarantee that the Palestinian Authority and Hamas would cease their past terrorist attacks.

In the case of Hamas, US and Western “humanitarian aid” will provide more fungible funds in Gaza to arm Hamas and expand the underground tunnel facilities essential to the October 7 massacre and hostage-taking. It was simply released.

Fifth, from the outset of the ensuing escalation of tensions, Biden-Harris condemned the massacre of approximately 1,200 Israelis and the approximately 20,000 missiles fired toward the homeland by Iran and the Houthis. , began pressing to act “proportionately” in its response to rockets and drones. Hamas and Hezbollah.

This bondage of our closest Middle East friends further signals to Iranian-backed terrorists that the “light of day” is now in sight between the United States and its closest allies in the region. This opportunity gave Iran further incentive to test how far it could safely attack Israel.

But why did Biden and Harris so foolishly provoke the Middle East?

In part, the administration is naively relying on the old and discredited Obama administration concept of “creative tensions,” which empowers rogue Iran and its terrorists to attack Israel and moderate Arab regimes. attempted to revive the concept as a new kind of balance of power. region.

Biden-Harris was frustrated in some quarters by rising anti-Semitism at home and the rise of strong pro-Palestinian groups on U.S. campuses and in key Electoral College states.

In part, Biden-Harris was naive and gullible. Both men accepted their enemy’s anti-American and anti-Israel formula. So they sought to compensate by equating Iran and its terrorists with the moral equivalent of democratic, pro-American Israel.

Their malignant legacy is the current Middle East disaster.

Victor Davis Hanson is a distinguished fellow at the Center for American Greatness. He is a classicist and historian at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and the author of Basic Books’ The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won. You can get in touch by sending an email to authorvdh@gmail.com.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of The Daily Caller.