What Will Trump’s Foreign Policy Appointments Be Like?

Who will lead the transition team at the State Department? Who are the most likely candidates for Secretary of State? For National Security Advisor? What will the new team mean for support for Israel? For preventing Iran from successfully concluding its nuclear program? More on these matters can be found here: “Pro-Israel leaders encouraged by Brian Hook’s role on State Department transition team,” by Matthew Kassel, Jewish Insider, November 8, 2024:

As questions emerge about how President-elect Donald Trump will handle the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East during a second term, some pro-Israel foreign policy voices say they have been reassured by recent news reports that Brian Hook, a special envoy for Iran in the first Trump administration, is expected to lead the transition team at the State Department.

Hook, who previously worked in the State Department under former President George W. Bush and is now the vice chairman of Cerberus Global Investments, helped to oversee Trump’s so-called “maximum pressure” campaign toward Iran, including punishing sanctions after the U.S. withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear deal. He was also a key player on the team that negotiated the Abraham Accords, Trump’s signature foreign policy achievement, which the president-elect has pledged to expand when he returns to office.

In interviews with Jewish Insider, several national security experts described Hook, 56, as a seasoned diplomat and staunch supporter of Israel who could help lay the initial groundwork and instill discipline to carry out Trump’s occasionally vague Middle East policy proposals, as he used mixed rhetoric in recent months….

Speaking with CNN, the former envoy suggested that Trump would, in a second term, return to his maximum pressure policy in order to “isolate Iran diplomatically and weaken them economically so that they can’t fund all of the violence,” referring to the Islamic Republic’s proxies in Lebanon and Gaza, among other places.

“Trump has no interest in regime change,” Hook clarified. “The future of Iran will be decided by the Iranian people.”

He also said that an Israeli-Palestinian peace plan Trump proposed in his first term “is still relevant today,” even as he acknowledged that the ongoing war in Gaza sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attacks “has really not put anybody in much of a mood to be talking about” a path to a two-state solution.

Brian Hook, who several reports make clear — despite his own refusal to confirm — that he is heading the transition team for the State Department, is known as a hardliner on Iran. Like his boss, he wants to renew the campaign of maximum pressure, diplomatic and economic, on the regime in Tehran, that the Bidenites had undone when they renewed the Iran deal and lifted sanctions. We know of three people — Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN), a former ambassador to Japan; Robert O’Brien, Trump’s former national security advisor; and Ric Grenell, who served as the former president’s ambassador to Germany as well as his acting director of national intelligence — who are candidates for Secretary of State. All three are known to. be strong supporters of Israel. O’Brien has even called for the US to threaten to deny the UK’s access to some American weapons if it imposes a partial arms embargo on Israel. Senator Hagerty has called on the Biden administration to declare its full support for Israel in its war against Hezbollah, has demanded that there be no threats to withhold arms aid to Israel, and has introduced legislation calling on the Biden administration to resupply Israel with Iron Dome missiles. Ric Grenell is known as fervently pro-Israel; someone who served with him on the National Security Council claims that “Grenell mirrors Trump in being a champion-level supporter of Israel and Iran hawk.”

In his first term, Trump moved the American Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. He recognized the Golan Heights, annexed by Israel in1981, as part of Israel. He cut off all $500 million in aid to the Palestinian Authority. He cut off America’s contribution to UNRWA. He shut down the PLO office in Washington. His administration even declared that Israeli settlements in the West Bank were not illegal. That American aid to the Palestinians was then restored by the Biden administration. But in his second term, Trump will likely renew those cuts in aid that he made during his first term. He will again declare those West Bank settlements to be “not illegal.”

At the UN, there will be no daylight between Israel and the United States, as happened when Obama, in the waning days of his administration, ordered his UN ambassador to abstain from a vote on UN Security Council Resolution 2334, thus allowing it to be adopted. That malign resolution stated that Israel’s settlement activity constitutes a “flagrant violation” of international law and has “no legal validity.” It demanded that Israel stop such activity and fulfill its obligations as an occupying power under the Fourth Geneva Convention. No, under Trump the veto will be wielded to protect Israel from such diplomatic assaults in the kangaroo court of the UN.

And with Trump in the White House, and such people as Brian Hook, Ric Gerenell, Robert O’Brien, and Robert Hagerty helping to craft his Middle East policy, among the Palestinians there will be nothing but weeping and gnashing of teeth.