Obama’s June 2009 “New Beginning” speech in Cairo struck a notably hollow echo on Monday when the prosaic, vainglorious hopes of The One became manifest in the actual accomplishments of the brutish orange man from Lower Manhattan.

Trump actually achieved what Obama only put prose to.

And why?  Because Obama made it all about him whereas Trump, the negotiator, made his pursuit of peace all about the world leaders around the table.  What were their hopes and dreams? What did they want? And how can American leadership help you get it?

Obama said in Cairo:

I have known Islam on three continents… I consider it part of my responsibility as President of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear.

Fat lot of good that did, huh?  Also from the Cairo speech:

Much has been made of the fact that an African American with the name Barack Hussein Obama could be elected President.

In a December 2008 interview with The Chicago Tribune, before he’d even assumed office, Obama spoke of the “unique chance” the country had to “recalibrate relations around the globe.”  The message was implicit and clear:  I’m here.  I’m me.  I’m Barack Hussein Obama.

If you recall, the very first interview he gave as president (a week after inauguration) was not to an American outlet, but to Al-Arabiya, in which he spoke of how “the moment is ripe” for Israel-Palestine peace, and that while he didn’t want to raise expectations that it could be “resolved in a few months” he was “absolutely certain” that he could “make significant progress.”

Now we are, when ironically, somebody actually did “resolve” it “in a few months,” but it wasn’t Barack Hussein Obama.

Trump’s been in Office for all of nine months and this happened.

It was his eighth peace deal.  Eighth.  In nine months.  Through the sheer force of his skills and personality, and, crucially, through his pattern of choices and actions, he earned the trust of the Western and Arab leaders in the region which he would need to keep the peace.​

Read the following wish-casting from Obama’s Cairo speech and see how closely it tracks to what Trump actually managed to accomplish.  It’s amazing.

The Arab states must recognize that the Arab Peace Initiative was an important beginning, but not the end of their responsibilities...  It must be a cause for action to help the Palestinian people develop the institutions that will sustain their state, to recognize Israel's legitimacy, and to choose progress over a self-defeating focus on the past.

America will align our policies with those who pursue peace, and we will say in public what we say in private to Israelis and Palestinians and Arabs.  (Applause.)  We cannot impose peace.  But privately, many Muslims recognize that Israel will not go away.  Likewise, many Israelis recognize the need for a Palestinian state.  It is time for us to act on what everyone knows to be true.

Too many tears have been shed.  Too much blood has been shed.  All of us have a responsibility to work for the day when the mothers of Israelis and Palestinians can see their children grow up without fear; when the Holy Land of the three great faiths is the place of peace that God intended it to be; when Jerusalem is a secure and lasting home for Jews and Christians and Muslims….

Ben Rhodes might’ve loaded the words into the Teleprompter and Obama may have smoothly read them and the world may have swooned, but a durable peace plan?

The closest we’ve seen to actual peace has come from a Manhattan developer hellbent on stopping the bloodshed.

Anyone who has seen President Trump speak of the killing fields of any conflict he has had a hand in ending knows he feels it deeply: the mantle of American power on his shoulders; the weight and opportunity of it.

We, as a country, as the globe’s Torch of Liberty, are uniquely situated to do good in the world without being the world’s policeman and at long last, we have a president — a leader — who found a way to do it and do it effectively by getting interested parties to have skin in the game.  It’s been amazing to watch.

May God bless America, the president, and the peacemakers.

Image from Grok.