Trump bringing peace to the Middle East is the real prize

In hindsight, it was clear all along that President Trump didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

Yet in being snubbed, he nonetheless proved something extremely important.

His rejection reveals that the official claim of the award is false when it says the prize goes to “the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”

That standard describes exactly the peace Trump has achieved this year by settling conflicts around the world, most recently and dramatically in Gaza.

Large numbers of additional people would have died had he not personally intervened and sent his envoys to the region to bring Hamas and Israel to the ­table.

The tangible result is already clear, with a cease-fire in place and tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians streaming back toward Gaza City.

The release of the hostages Hamas has been holding for two brutal years is scheduled to happen tomorrow, an event that seemed all but impossible until Trump put his prestige and America’s might on the table with a vow to end the war.

He employed a brilliant tactical move by having the White House seek and quickly win the endorsement of Israel and other regional powers, including Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which created a sense of momentum that even the murderous Hamas could not resist.

‘Participation trophy’

Trump achieved something similarly dramatic in his first term, when he fashioned the historic Abraham Accords.

Then, four Muslim nations normalized relations with Israel, including trade and tourism, in a glorious ceremony on the White House lawn.

An instant headline — “Kosher food in Dubai” — captured the practical impact of historic barriers falling and ordinary people benefitting.

Unfortunately, the achievement of real peace does not seem to be the metric the Norwegian committee demands and rewards.

This, after all, is the group that gave the award to Barack Obama soon after he took office and before he had actually done anything of any significance, other than get elected.

No results, no problem, because the deciders swooned over the racial symbolism Obama represented and his international apology tours where he bemoaned America’s use of power throughout history.

With this year’s award, the Nobel committee has once again revealed its woke, misguided belief that urging peace and talking about it are the preeminent virtues.

In the process, the members have blessed the terrible idea that the right kind of talk is the most that people around the world can expect from their leaders.

Because results are not required, the committee has effectively degraded the sainted Nobel into a kind of participation trophy for those with good intentions.

The use of hard power has become something of a taboo, which strikes me as especially ironic given that Alfred Nobel invented dynamite!

Against that prejudice, Trump never had a prayer of winning.

He is an excellent talker in his own punch-in-the-nose manner, but his bluntness will never be confused with the dreamy, touchy-feely prattle of the supposedly sophisticated global elite.

His motto of America First must surely horrify the Nobel custodians even though much of the world is reaping the benefits of his use of American economic and military power.

A related problem is that he never pretends to be about anything other than hard results, as his life story, in and out of politics, abundantly illustrates.

He makes a sharp contrast to this year’s winner, María Corina Machado, the opposition leader in Venezuela.

She was cited for “promoting democratic rights” and for “her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.”

There is no dispute that her quest requires enormous personal courage and sacrifice, given the thuggish instincts of the Maduro regime.

But absent results, the Nobel becomes an award for trying to do the right thing instead of actually delivering the concrete and identifiable results the founder envisioned.

Echoing Reagan

In that sense, it’s noteworthy that in accepting the award, Machado dedicated it “to the suffering people of Venezuela and to President Trump for his decisive support of our cause!”

Her recognition of Trump reflects the real-world impact of his use of power to bring peace in Venezuela and elsewhere.

His approach is an inspiring embodiment of Ronald Reagan’s pledge to deliver “Peace through Strength.”

It’s how Reagan helped to topple the Berlin Wall on the way to defeating the Soviet Union.

Even before he became president, Reagan’s vision for global peace did not include compromise with the Evil Empire.

His view, which initially horrified the calcified foreign policy establishments in the US and Europe, was best summed up in his prediction for how the Cold War would end: “We win, they lose.”

And that is exactly what happened.

More than any president since, Trump has embodied that muscular view since he first entered the political arena.

His maiden speech cited the need for secure borders, an idea that was widely mocked by Democrats and Republicans and dismissed as racist by the leftist media and throughout Europe.

A decade later, his view is now widely accepted and copied, even as the details of enforcement are disputed.

Another illustration of the impact of his peace through strength approach involves comparing his policy toward Iran versus that of his two most recent predecessors, Obama and Joe Biden.

Both sought to entice Iran back into the community of nations through making enormous financial concessions, retreating on security and placing restraints on our vulnerable allies, Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Starting with his first term, where he quickly defeated ISIS, a murderous terror group Obama left intact, Trump flipped the script by using American power to protect our interests and our allies.

He worked with Israel and Saudi Arabia and helped them bolster their defenses against Iran and the proxy groups it funded and armed.

Dramatically, the president droned Iran’s terror leader, Qasem Soleimani, a clear statement that America would no longer be a sucker and punching bag.

‘Peace through strength’

He began his second term by trying to negotiate a settlement with Iran over its nuclear program.

But when the mad mullahs rebuffed the efforts and continued to threaten our troops and our allies, Trump delivered on his threat to use devastating military force.

Imagine a world where Iran was allowed to achieve its objective of building a stockpile of nuclear weapons, which it said repeatedly would be used to destroy Israel, the Little Satan, and America, the Great Satan.

In such a war, millions upon millions of people would have been killed, yet that scenario has been eliminated because Trump pursued peace through strength.

Next to that, a Nobel Prize is just a gilded ornament.