Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu arrives in Washington at a time when the new administration, still in its early days of personnel selection, is also grappling with a series of paradoxes emerging from statements and commitments made over the past year by Candidate Trump, President-elect Trump, and President Trump.

Drawing on Donald Trump’s record, one can identify four main strategic objectives in his U.S. Middle East policy:

1. The United States will swiftly and completely “destroy” the Islamic State (IS) — not “degrade,” “shrink,” or “contain” it, but destroy it — in the context of a broader campaign against the ideologues and implementers of “radical Islamic extremism.” One result is that friends and allies will increasingly be defined as those who share these goals and contribute to this effort. Among Arab countries, the chief beneficiary is likely to be Egypt; among non-Arab countries, Turkey.
2. The United States will “get tough” on Iran — this is variously defined as “ripping up” the nuclear deal or “enforcing the hell” out of it, but always against a backdrop of pushing back on Tehran’s negative behavior throughout the region.

3. The United States will make sure that allies such as Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab states pay their share for collective defense.

4. The United States will restore friendship with Israel on a strategic and political level. While President Obama showed that America can both invest in the military/security/intelligence relationship and maintain a strategic/political relationship rife with tension, dispute, and personal animosity, the new administration will repair this, with the goal of bringing all aspects of the relationship under the umbrella of partnership.

Read the full article in The Washington Institute.