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Comment by not_a_moth | Hacker News Reader

Curious, you didn't agree with the ME work that got 3 nobel peace prize nominations?

I don't think we disagree with it, it just isn't very significant. A couple of city states agreeing to recognize Israel? Ok, a nice step forward, but it doesn't seem very substantial or that a real solution is in the works.

How familiar would you rate yourself with Middle East politics? From people I know who are quite deep into it, it’s actually a very significant change to the geopolitical balance of the region that will likely have a lot of ramifications going forward.

Answers vary with whether someone is a Trump supporter or not, but again, these are city states, not Iran, not even "almost Israel ally at this point" Saudi Arabia. He also has made no progress with the Palestinians, and has gone plenty backwards on the front (forcing Serbia to move their embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, huh?).

All valid points, but at least the perspective I've heard is it's breaking up the "pro-Palestinian block" somewhat, so definitely changing the power dynamics, and impacting the Palestinian situation as they are losing potential allies. And as for Iran, it's pulling countries away from their sphere of influence.

Who knows whether it will be a positive push in the right direction, but it's certainly changing the dynamics of the region.

> I've heard is it's breaking up the "pro-Palestinian block" somewhat

If your goal is to screw the Palestinains, this is a good thing. Otherwise, they should have a voice.

> And as for Iran, it's pulling countries away from their sphere of influence.

This is a nonsensical statement: those Sunni countries are already deeply opposed to Shiite Iran even more than they are to Israel.

For context the UAE's population and GDP are both larger than Israel (though not by much, they are very comparable).

One of the nominators said:

"Trump has broken a 39-year-old streak of American Presidents either starting a war or bringing the United States into an international armed conflict."

Isn't this significant?

How low is your bar for peace medal worthy efforts? If not starting wars is an achievement there’s a bloody long line of heads of state ready to receive one. And yes I do realize the bar was set low by the previous president.

Sorry the discussion is about the commenter not agreeing with any previous policies of the president. If you don't think this quote marks an important shift in American policy I'm not sure you follow American policy.

Nobel peace prize nominations don’t mean much.

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