Less than a week after ripping the White House's Middle East policy in the pages of the Wall Street Journal, neoconservative intellectual Daniel Pipes has all but recanted in a stunning about-face.
"I've talked with USA Ambassador to Israel David Friedman since my Wall Street Journal opinion article appeared last week," wrote Pipes, the president of the Middle East Forum, in a Thursday tweet.
Pipes, who was a member of the Never Trump movement, went on to praise the U.S. ambassador to Israel and credit the president for having "bucked conventional thinking and made overdue changes."
But only a week ago, Pipes had sounded grave notes about the White House's position toward the Jewish state, warning of "a potential crisis in U.S.-Israel relations."
He cited indications from administration officials that the president was preparing to adopt a more even-handed approach to dealing with Israel and the Palestinians. And he also hit out at elements of U.S.'s pro-Israel community that he cautioned "blithely but wrongly trust" the president.
The skepticism was gone when Pipes took to social media. In his post on Twitter, Pipes praised the U.S. administration for, among other things, withdrawing from the Iran deal, cutting aid to the Palestinian Authority and moving the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. He said he "hoped for a continuation of this positive record despite my known concerns."
Sam Cohen is a freelance writer based out of the Washington, DC area.