Leftist snobs will hate to hear it… but it is thanks to Trump and his Israeli-Arab alliance that Iran’s attack failed so miserably. Now, says ANDREW NEIL, Biden must hold his nose and build on Anders’ success

The failure of Iran’s mass missile and drone strikes last weekend was clearly a triumph for Israel’s air defenses.

But it was equally a triumph for the careful diplomacy and military prowess of the United States, which has worked for years to develop a more coordinated regional response in the event of major Iranian aggression. On Saturday, these efforts came to fruition.

Behind the scenes and with little fanfare, America managed to assemble an alliance that included not only Israel and the US, but Europe’s two main military powers, Britain and France, and – most importantly – several major Arab players, including Jordan, United Arab Emirates and even Saudi Arabia.

The scale of the collaboration is remarkable, the resulting almost total destruction of the Iranian attack breathtaking.

From the moment Iran launched its missiles and drones at Israel, early warning radar stations in several Arab Gulf states picked up that an attack was underway and fed data and intelligence to the US Regional Military Command in Qatar, which in turn alerted Israel and its allies throughout the region.

Israeli, American, British, French and Jordanian warplanes scrambled over Jordanian airspace to meet the incoming air strike.

Israel readied its formidable air defense systems, Iron Dome and Arrow 3.

US warships, including guided missile destroyers in the Mediterranean, and US land bases in the region prepared to deploy Iranian missiles and drones.

As a result, most of the Iranian attack never even made it into Israeli airspace. Those that did were destroyed by Israel’s anti-missile defense systems, which, thanks to allied help, were never overwhelmed as the Iranians had hoped.

Without the help of its allies, old and new, the Iranian attack would have had at least limited success.

The remarkable cooperation between Israel and its allies was not put together at the last minute.

The United States has been pressing Arab capitals for several years to recognize the need for regional air defense cooperation to deal with Iranian hostilities. The strategy gained real momentum with the signing of the Abraham Accords under President Trump, which signaled a new era of cooperation between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan. Even countries that did not sign up, such as Saudi Arabia, accepted that a new era of cooperation with Israel against a common enemy, Iran, had begun.

But not President Biden. He entered the Oval Office in January 2021 with wild talk of isolating Saudi Arabia and treating it as a “pariah” while indicating he was ready for détente with Iran.

Funds were released to the mullahs in Tehran that should never have been released. The Abraham Accords were left to atrophy, largely and pathetically, because they were a legacy of Trump. The foreign policy establishment types around Biden never liked them anyway.

The US paid dearly for this Trump Derangement Syndrome. Instead of courting the Saudis to join the deals, they got the cold shoulder, resulting in Riyadh trying to appease Tehran.

But even as the White House struck all the wrong notes, behind the scenes, important, game-changing work was being done.

Two years ago, America moved its military command center for Israel from Europe to Central Command (CENTCOM) in Qatar. This was hugely important because it meant America could deal with Israel and its Arab allies from the same command center, making intelligence sharing and coordinating early warning systems more intertwined.

Biden and his foreign policy team learned slowly. But eventually they saw the virtue of encouraging closer cooperation between Israel and relatively friendly Arab nations.

Under American auspices, a meeting was secretly convened in Egypt in the spring of 2022 to begin coordinating an Israeli-Arab response to Iranian missile and drone strikes — a prophetic move that paid off last weekend.

It even began to dawn on Biden that it made sense to breathe new life into the Abraham accord, which he had so foolishly neglected. The priority became, too late, getting the Saudis on board. The prospect of success so horrified the Iranians that they gave Hamas the go-ahead to attack Israel on October 7.

It was undoubtedly a setback – the Saudis got cold feet and froze progress as the horrors in Gaza unfolded. But after last weekend, efforts to get the Saudis to sign the agreements are back on track.

It will now be a major American foreign policy goal, as it will be whoever is in the White House after the election.

The Saudis are already sharing intelligence with Tel Aviv as if they were part of the deals.

The real significance of last weekend is that it revealed that there is now a supposed alliance of Israel, America, the more robust European powers and a collection of key Sunni Arab states in the making, with the common goal of standing up to Iranian aggression designed to realize its goal of regional hegemony.

It has been a long journey and there have been many wrong turns along the way.

President Bush’s invasion of Iraq on a false pretext in 2003 degraded the one regional power with the military might to contain Iran on its own.

President Obama’s shenanigans over Syria allowed Iran to prop up the faltering Assad regime and created new bases from which its proxies could threaten Israel and US bases in the region. It also allowed Moscow to return as a major player in the region.

Biden, as we have seen, also made his mistakes.

Now is the chance to correct these mistakes and create an alliance that will thwart Iran’s ambition to be the regional superpower.

Already the events of last weekend have ended silly talk on both sides of the Atlantic about an arms embargo on Israel. There is also a greater chance of getting a new aid package for Israel (plus Ukraine and Taiwan) through Congress.

Those in Congress who opposed funding Israel’s air defense systems, such as the Iron Dome and Arrow 3, should hang their heads in shame. If there had been no anti-missile defense, the Iranian missiles would have wreaked havoc in Israel and the region would now go up in flames.

President Biden will have to look down on the vocal Palestinian lobby in his party and its wider supporters in the US, who are doing themselves no favors by blocking access to the Golden Gate Bridge or Chicago’s O’Hare Airport.

It’s performative nonsense that only serves to alienate ordinary people trying to go about their business.

Also consider this: At a time when an increasing portion of the Sunni Arab world is seeking to make common cause with Israel, by what possible measure would it make sense for America to turn its back on Israel now?

The very idea is an absurdity.

As the 21st century takes off, America will want to turn more of its military and diplomatic resources to the Pacific to deal with China’s rising power. But it cannot even consider a partial withdrawal from the Middle East without leaving a robust security structure of allies in place.

That process is now underway. In a fragile America where bipartisanship is lacking, this is surely an important policy that reasonable Republicans and Democrats can agree on.