In 2022, Newsmax marked the so-called Abraham Accords — peace deals Israel made (with a little help of the Trump administration) with three minor Muslim countries that had no active violent hostilities against Israel — with a TV show that was essentially right-wing actor Jon Voight sucking up to Trump for a while and pretending this thing was a massive deal. With the election coming up, Newsmax felt the need to promote these minor peace deals again. This was kicked off with a Sept. 13 column by Meir Ben Shabbat and David Aaronson, the latter of whom claims to be “Deputy Director of the Abraham Accords Peace Institute,” touting how the accords were allegedly being maintained during the war between Israel and Hamas:
On Oct. 7, the normalization between Israel and its normal neighbors took a hard hit from its abnormal neighbors, yet remained steady. Already at the beginning of the war, the Abraham Accords countries signaled their intention to preserve relations with Israel and not let Hamas sabotage them. These countries were among the first to publicly condemn Hamas for the monstrous attack it carried out on the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah.
[…]One way or another, even in the shadow of the war, the facts on the ground show that the Abraham Accords countries still strive to develop and deepen their ties with Israel in many areas. The Abraham Accords were founded on a concept of peace through strength. Not only military power but also economic and technological power. Although the current war pushed them out of the headlines, these peace treaties have quietly become part of the landscape of our lives.
There were a couple more articles (made from Newsmax’s TV channel) touting the Abraham Accords in general:
- Ido Aharoni to Newsmax: Abraham Accords Continue to Hold
- David Aaronson to Newsmax: Abraham Accords Benefit US, Mideast
But Newsmax eventually gave away the game and hyped Trump’s role in them and baselessly promised he would expand the accords if elected:
- Jonny Daniels to Newsmax: Abraham Accords Will Proceed With Trump
- Santorum to Newsmax: Trump Should Feature Abraham Accords in Race
- Shaffer, Fleitz to Newsmax: Trump Could Expand Abraham Accords
- Blaine Holt to Newsmax: Trump Would Expand Abraham Accords
Newsmax continued to play politics over the accords by using them as a cudgel to attack President Biden. implicitly blaming him for the current Middle East turmoil. Peter King happily played along with this narrative:
Four years ago, then-President Donald Trump was working toward peace in the Middle East with the signing of the Abraham Accords, but after President Joe Biden took office, turmoil has hit the region, including with the Hamas attacks on Israel, former Rep. Pete King said Sunday.
“The Abraham Accords was something that every president had tried to get,” the New York Republican told Newsmax’s “Wake Up America Weekend.” “They wanted to get some semblance of that and President Trump did it.”
Under Trump, Arab states came to the White House to sit down with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to sign the historic accords for the Arab nations to recognize Israel, and that was “so phenomenal,” said King.
“We’ve gone from a great achievement to now having a Hamas attacking Israel, carrying out the worst atrocities in Israel, and getting countries in the world to side with them,” King added.
A former Israeli ambassador joined in as well:
Signing the Abraham Accords four years ago marked a period of “incredible hope and optimism” for the Middle East, but the Biden administration “squandered it,” with its failed foreign policies, David Friedman, the former U.S. ambassador to Israel, told Newsmax Sunday.
“It was such a period of incredible hope and optimism, and it just highlights the extent to which our foreign policy has failed under the Biden administration,” Friedman, who was in the negotiations to bring Muslim nations to recognize Israel, said on Newsmax’s “Sunday Report.”
President Joe Biden’s “turned on Israel rather than embracing the policies that we adopted,” Friedman added.
None of these guests cited any specific act that the Biden administration did that could solely be the blame.