Our feature story this morning, “Germany’s New Chancellor Makes Militarization Top Priority,” by Josué Michels, shows how not only is Friedrich Merz is hastening his nation’s military revival, but the world is ecstatic about it. This vindicates Herbert W. Armstrong’s prophetic warnings as far back as 1945, when Germany lay in the ashes of World War II, that Germany would rise again.

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Donald Trump is single-handedly rewriting America’s Mideast policy: His trip this week to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates—and not Israel—has earned praise from some corners, concern from others, and real fear from Israelis.

His hard pivot was clear in his first speech on Tuesday in Riyadh, at the Saudi-U.S. Investment Forum. President Trump praised Arab leaders for the material advances visible in their capital cities:

This great transformation has not come from Western interventionalists … giving you lectures on how to live and how to govern your own affairs,” he said. “No, the gleaming marvels of Riyadh and Abu Dhabi were not created by the so-called nation-builders, neocons or liberal nonprofits like those who spent trillions and trillions of dollars failing to develop Kabul, Baghdad, so many other cities. Instead, the birth of a modern Middle East has been brought by the people of the region themselves.

These nations gave Trump a kingly reception, and he soaked it up. He prioritized economic deals and strategic partnerships over traditional diplomacy. He is leveraging Gulf wealth to boost U.S. interests, treating these nations as business partners and buddies. Among his feats:

• A promise of $600 billion in Saudi investments, plus $243 billion in deals with Qatar, spanning defense, AI and energy
• More than $200 billion in investment deals with the United Arab Emirates
• An unprecedented $142 billion arms package with Saudi Arabia
• Sanctions on Syria’s new government lifted
• Deals for AI infrastructure, including a $5 billion Saudi partnership with Amazon Web Services and U.A.E.’s $1.4 trillion AI and semiconductor investments

Beyond economics, Trump encouraged Saudi Arabia to join the Abraham Accords and mediate in conflicts like Russia-Ukraine, elevating its global role.

Meanwhile he is sidestepping conventional geopolitical priorities like human rights, and is deliberately ignoring these nations’ dark and dangerous activities. In the Riyadh speech he commended these leaders for “transcending the ancient conflicts and tired divisions of the past, and forging a future where the Middle East is defined by commerce, not chaos, where it exports technology, not terrorism ….”

If only it were true. It is extraordinary to dismiss these nations’ history of terrorist activity with a rhetorical flourish. And Qatar, in particular, still underwrites Hamas and represents the Muslim Brotherhood. Qatar just convinced Hamas to release U.S. national Edan Alexander, an October 7 hostage. And as Melanie Phillips writes this morning:

Of course, the release of any hostage is a source of profound relief. But many were shocked that the United States dealt with Hamas directly to get its national out, while Hamas ditched a broader hostage deal that was on the verge of being clinched.

Moreover, if Qatar could force Hamas to release Alexander then it could have got the other hostages released, too. That’s because Qatar is Hamas. Yet the Americans have fawned over the Gulf state and praised it to the skies.

In an interview with Fox News’s Bret Baier just before he left the region, Trump hinted at his willingness to extend his wheeling and dealing to Iran:

Iran wants to trade with us, OK? If you can believe that I’m OK with that. I’m using trade to settle scores and to make peace. But I’ve told Iran, we make a deal. You’re going to be really—you’re going to be very happy.

There is much to be concerned about with the Trump administration cozying up to these Muslim states. Potential conflicts of interest abound, with Qatar gifting a luxury jet to the president, and Trump’s family company building a new luxury golf resort in Qatar. Syria’s president, a former al Qaeda and Islamic State figure, offered a Trump Tower in Damascus. There is concern that AI deals with Arab Gulf states could inadvertently enable China to access sensitive American technologies, potentially compromising U.S. national security.

Most importantly, such dealing places enormous trust in the hearts of unstable and dangerous men. There is no bright line between the butchers of Hamas and the Gulf princes. They are merely different expressions of a culture hostile to the West, even if willing to feign friendship to serve its ends.

Phillips makes this crucial point:

There’s no doubting Trump’s genuine commitment to Israel and the Jewish people. But it’s now clear that he has an almost messianic belief that he can end all wars and bring peace to the world through his ability to make deals. … But just as the left—with their belief in some utopian nirvana of the brotherhood of man—have helped empower aggressors such as the Palestinian Arabs and abandoned their Israeli victims, so Trump is in danger of doing the same thing. Like his foes on the left, he doesn’t seem to grasp that any negotiation with a nonnegotiable agenda, such as the belief by Iran’s rulers that bringing about the apocalypse will cause the arrival of the Shia messiah on Earth, is inescapably an act of surrender. …

The inconvenient truth … is that some people are out to destroy America and the West. If Trump doesn’t regard these as enemies, he will leave America and the West defenseless against attack.

Israel excluded from the new Middle East: Israelis thought they dodged a bullet when Trump defeated Kamala Harris for the presidency. Now they’re not so sure. Trump’s Mideast trip made clear that his focus on Gulf wealth and new regional priorities notably omits Israel. This unnerves Israelis:

• Trump’s decision to halt attacks on the Houthis, despite their continued missile strikes on Israel, raises concerns about U.S. reliability.
• Trump’s overtures to Iran seem at odds with Israel’s existential need to decisively counter the Islamic Republic’s genocidal ambitions.

In the Jerusalem Post, Yaakov Katz argues that Israel’s qualitative military edge, a long-standing U.S.-backed policy ensuring Israel’s military superiority in the region, is at risk.

• Since 2008, U.S. law has mandated maintaining Israel’s qualitative military edge. Historically, Israel received advanced weaponry, while neighboring countries got less sophisticated versions.
• New U.S. arms deals with Saudi Arabia and Turkey—potentially including F-35 jets, which Israel currently operates exclusively in the region—appear to jettison this arrangement. Turkey’s President Erdogan has repeatedly called for Israel’s destruction.

Israel was sidelined when Trump decided to drop U.S. sanctions on Syria and met with Syria’s new leader in Riyadh. This even though, as Katz writes, Israel’s defeat of Hezbollah and weakening of Iran’s influence were key factors enabling Syria’s regime change.

Even as Trump is rewriting the rules in the Middle East and shifting the region’s balance of power, Israel isn’t at the discussion table. Coupled with the potential erosion of its qualitative military edge, its absence from the “new Middle East” is a troubling development with many prophetic implications.

IN OTHER NEWS

Russia and Ukraine held their first direct peace talks in over three years in Istanbul, Turkey, but hopes for progress were dimmed by Vladimir Putin’s absence. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy criticized Russia for sending a low-level delegation led by Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky, calling it “decorative” and a sign of Moscow’s lack of seriousness. After Putin’s no-show, Zelenskyy opted not to attend himself. Ukraine’s team was led by its defense minister. The talks were fruitless. Russia presented unrealistic demands, further signaling its disinterest in genuine negotiations.

Trump: EU “nastier” than China: Efforts to negotiate a U.S.-EU trade deal have come up short so far, as highlighted by Trump’s remark on Monday. The divide between the U.S. and Europe is growing, Ezekiel Malone reports.

SCOTUS seems skeptical of Trump’s limits on birthright citizenship: In oral arguments yesterday, the majority of Supreme Court justices expressed concerns over the president’s executive order to limit birthright citizenship by excluding children born in the U.S. to undocumented immigrants or those on temporary visas.

Did James Comey call for Trump’s assassination? It’s all over the Internet: The former FBI director posted an Instagram photo of seashells arranged to form “8647,” which some viewed as a coded call to “86,” or kill, the 47th president. Trump administration officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, condemned it as a threat and initiated an investigation.