Eli Lake, Columnist

Trump Looks for Opportunities in the Middle East Crisis

Peace between Israelis and Palestinians? Well, that has been tried before....

May 5, 2017 at 9:30 AM UTC

Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI.

A mission to Riyadh....
Photographer: David Degner/Getty Images

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As Donald Trump prepares for his first foreign trip as president later this month, he has big plans. Beginning May 19, Trump will travel to Riyadh, Jerusalem and Rome. He hopes to find a path to peace for Israel and the Palestinians. In the Middle East's crisis, Trump sees an opportunity.

The crisis part is obvious. The region has been coming apart since his predecessor began his second term in 2013. The Islamic State has created a proto-caliphate. Iran has stepped up its support for violent radicals throughout the region. The civil war that is collapsing Syria is flooding Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and Europe with millions of refugees. War rages in Yemen. The Libyan state has failed.