What Pompeo and Kushner are up to

 https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/25/opinions/pompeo-and-kushner-opinion-miller/index.html

 Secretary of State Mike Pompeo left for Israel and the Gulf on Sunday not with the two-state solution on his mind; but with a focus on what you might call the 22-state solution: how best to use Arab state relationships with Israel to support President Donald Trump's reelection campaign.

 Enamored of Arab money, arms sales and enlisting Arab states in their pro-Israeli and anti-Iranian agenda, the Trump administration's real play was never about the Palestinians or two states. It was always about the Arab nations. And authoritarian Arab regimes eager to please an autocrat-friendly president have been only too happy to follow along with Donald Trump. The only question is how many more will do so.

 In essence, as we've seen recently with the likely sale of F-35 advanced fighter aircraft to the UAE, what the Arab states wanted, they more or less got.

Before we turn Kushner and company into Metternich-like diplomatic geniuses, it's important to point out that much of the foundation for closer Arab state-Israeli ties had been laid well before Trump came to Washington.

 As for a Trump administration desperate to showcase competency and any piece of good news, the image of Arab states making peace with Israel couldn't hurt.

If there were any doubt about the politics here, consider Pompeo's plan to address the Republican National Convention from Jerusalem while on a diplomatic mission to promote the national interests of the United States. That tethers him and his office to the domestic political interests of the President's reelection.

Unprecedented to be sure. But for a secretary of state -- the most politicized in modern American history and arguably the worst -- who appears to have presidential ambitions of his own, it may well be just another day at the office.