How Breaking with the Past Brought Peace to the Middle East

When David Friedman took office, the Middle East was seen as a place of intractable conflict. When he left, the Middle East was blossoming into peace between Jews and Arabs. David Friedman was the right historic figure in a tumultuous, chaotic, and ultimately transformative time. In Sledgehammer, David tells the inside story of how the Trump administration changed the Middle East for the better.

Ambassador Friedman was essential to the historic progress the United States made in the Middle East during the Trump administration. His book, Sledgehammer, offers important lessons in leadership. He clearly understood that American interests were served by standing firmly with our ally Israel, even when it meant going against long-standing policies. America and Israel are better off because of him.

The last peace treaty between Israel and an Arab neighbor had been signed in 1994 with the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Since then, all the efforts made by multiple US administrations to advance Middle East peace went nowhere. Thus, the Abraham Accords, that brought about normalization agreements between Israel and four Arab states, represented a sharp break from the failures of the recent past. David Friedman provides an insider account of that gripping story in Sledgehammer.

In his book, Sledgehammer, David Friedman, the former US ambassador to Israel, provides his intriguing firsthand, behind-the-scenes account of the extraordinary peace initiatives President Trump and his team, in close coordination with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government, launched, leading to the historic Abraham Accords. Friedman was at the center of the most diplomatically successful, pro-Israel administration since that nation's founding. I encourage you to get a copy. Sledgehammer is a must-read.