The Sound of Silence: Trump’s Syrian Policy Unveiled?

The gnashing of teeth is loud in the MAGA household these past few days after President Donald Trump’s decision to strike Iran’s burgeoning nuclear facilities.

Lost in the volume of the back-and-forth arguments for and against the president’s actions is what isn’t happening – namely, a regional Islamic counterpunch against Israel.

In fact, it’s plausible that Trump helped engineer this silence when he met with regional Islamic leaders in May during his whirlwind tour of the Middle East.

Israel Deters Islamic Collusion

Predicting the geopolitical winds of the volatile Middle East is difficult, but Islamic hatred of Israel is often the neutral interlocutor that bridges nationalistic and sectarian factions.

Israel has done its part to dissuade opportunistic attacks by neutralizing the military capabilities of both Hamas and Hezbollah. The Israeli Air Force (IAF) also preemptively destroyed several southern military installations in Syria during the changing of the guard in Damascus.

Sectarianism also plays a role. To be sure, there’s not much love between the Shia-dominated Iran and the Sunni-leaning multitude of Islamic nations that surround Israel. On the surface, this may also play a role in silencing the AKs and mortars aimed at Israel.

Nonetheless, with Israel’s military deeply committed to their current Iranian mission, the many well-armed jihadi organizations in Syria and elsewhere have thus far been uncharacteristically quiet.

Syria on the Sideline

Last month, I raised a quizzical eyebrow at the administration’s sudden decision to lift sanctions against Syria since that nation has for years been an incurable petri dish spawning variants of Islamic terrorist groups.

Trump even met briefly with Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, the interim Syrian leader and superintendent of Syrian terrorist organizations that were offshoots of Al-Qaeda.

What the Deal-Maker-in-Chief had in mind was less than clear at that time, and in May, I suggested that he probably did make a deal, specifically because “Riyadh wants a hedge against the Shia mullahs of Iran.”

The fact that Israel has launched a full-throttled attack on an Islamic nation without any proximal reprisals makes it quite possible that lifting the sanctions was tied to allowing Israel and America to work as a tag team to bludgeon Iran’s nuclear infrastructure.

Syrian Christians Massacred

In May, I also expressed deep concern that sanction relief was given without clawing back provisions tied to the protection of religious minorities, especially Syrian Christians.

In the hands of a terrorist like Al-Jolani, an Arab winter seemed to be falling on our Syrian brothers and sisters in Christ. Sadly, it didn’t take long for the winter to arrive.

Last week, a suicide bombing at a church in Damascus left at least 22 Christians dead and 52 wounded.

Reuters reported that the Islamic State (ISIS) was behind the bombing and that the group has carried out several similar attempts against churches across Syria since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

While Al-Jolani and his terrorist group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), are at odds with ISIS, it’s highly unlikely that the Al-Qaeda-trained terrorist will feel any obligation to protect the Christian population without a clawback provision or renewed sanction pressure from the West.

In the meantime, ISIS seems content to attack defenseless Christians and let the Shias in Iran fend for themselves.

While we argue on social media about the prudence of dismantling Iran’s nuclear capabilities, an unnatural silence has emerged from the Middle East as Sunni Islamists sit on the sideline in what could be a series of preplanned events.

Meanwhile, bomb blasts will continue to jar Syrian churches and their walls will be stained with the blood of Christians as a different kind of silence emanates from the West.

Joachim Osther is a freelance writer focusing on the intersection of culture and Christianity. He holds a master’s degree in theological studies from Veritas College and Seminary, and two degrees in the life sciences, a field in which he works as a strategist, advisor, and published author. He is also an occasional contributor to RaymondIbrahim.com, chronicling the relevance of historical clashes between militant Islam and the West.