Trump himself has known Netanyahu for many years. I'm told the relationship dates back to Netanyahu's days as Israel's ambassador to the United Nations in the mid-1980s.
So, it's perhaps not surprising that Trump would send out NSC advisor Flynn to put Iran "on notice" for conducting some conventional ballistic missile tests and that Trump would include Iran on his travel ban.
Trump also has been consulting with Sunni leaders in the Middle East, including Egypt's President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt, Saudi Arabia's King Salman, Abu Dhabi's Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, and Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Times reported. None of those countries were included in Trump's executive order restricting travel from the seven other mostly Muslim countries.
With his son-in-law out-front, Trump's approach to the Middle East is shaping up as similar to previous administrations, catering to Israel and Saudi Arabia even to the extent of wholesale lying to the American people about who is the main backer of terrorism.
Trump also may be isolating his new Secretary of State as Tillerson apparently looks to more realist options and fights to limit neocon influences in making U.S. foreign policy. But Tillerson is facing a challenge in staffing the State Department without turning to veterans of past administrations with close ties to the neocons.
The hard truth is that the neocons and their liberal-interventionist cohorts have been so successful in purging contrarian thinkers from the foreign policy establishment that there aren't many independent-minded people left with recent management experience at the State Department.
Now, with the neocons having found a backdoor into the Trump administration via son-in-law Kushner, the prospects for a sharp break with the long reign of disastrous neocon policies in the Middle East have grown dimmer.
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