Arab Leaders Have A Historic Opportunity In Gaza — But It Requires A Hard ‘No’ To Trump

-OpEd-

CAIRO — Despite Arab countries’ absolute rejection of the plan to expel Palestinians from Gaza, U.S. President Donald Trump, who proposed it, remains steadfast in his position. He has insisted that the United States ” would own the site [Gaza]. It’d be no Hamas, and it’d be developed.”

In an interview with Fox News Radio host Brian Kilmeade on Feb. 21, Trump expressed his surprise over Egypt and Jordan’s rejection of his plan. He also expressed astonishment that Israel “ever gave [Gaza] up,” calling it a “bad real estate deal.”

The real estate mogul, who treats nations like mere lands to be converted into tourist projects, once again raised the threat of aid, warning Egypt and Jordan against rejecting his proposal — although, this time, he did not threaten to unleash “all hell,” as he had repeatedly done in recent weeks.

Subjugating Gaza

Trump treats international issues and crises as deals; he raises his demands during negotiations and offers what he does not insist on but is unacceptable to the other parties, to force them to accept what he truly wants. This is what he presented in his recent radio interview, suggesting an alternative approach, namely implementing the reconstruction plan while keeping the population in place.

Trump does not see this suggestion as effective: “But I just don’t see that working. I mean, it’s been – it’s been so many years, so many decades of – of killing on that site. That is one dangerous place.” And yet he is trying to pressure Arab leaders to accept what his friends from the Zionist right-wing, both American and Israeli, demand.

The will of Trump converges with the desires of Netanyahu and his allies in the ruling right-wing coalition.

The agenda of the Zionist right-wing, which Trump is pushing to implement, not only calls for Hamas to relinquish power the day after the war, but also for the disarmament of resistance factions in Gaza before starting the reconstruction process. Indeed, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had leaked several times through his office last year that they would not accept rebuilding the sector without subjecting it.

For Netanyahu, this can only happen by eliminating the resistance’s weapons, purging educational curricula of anything that incites “terrorism,” and installing a dependent authority, neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority, while granting the Israeli army freedom of movement and intervention at any time to face any potential threat to the Israeli state, meaning he wants Gaza to be subjugated.

Gaza’s future at stake

Here, the will of Trump, who sees Gaza as the “Riviera of the Middle East,” converges with the desires of Netanyahu and his allies in the ruling right-wing coalition, not to grant Palestinians a state. Not only on the 1967 borders as stipulated in international resolutions, which was the minimum the Arabs accepted, but not even according to what Trump had previously proposed during his first term in office as part of what he called the “Deal of the Century,” which required the Palestinians to forgo many of their rights in exchange for a truncated state without authority or sovereignty.

Both parties aim to empty Gaza and the West Bank of the concept of resistance, even after the Palestinians lowered their demands from establishing a state on all of historic Palestine’s land to a state on the 1967 borders. To achieve this, they are not only applying pressure on the Palestinian people, the Ramallah Authority, and resistance factions but also on the Arab states, which today find themselves required to pay exorbitant bills that could affect their stability if they accept the U.S.-Israel plan.

Rubio asked the region’s wealthy countries to help implement the U.S. plans

So far, most Arab countries, led by Egypt and Jordan, are resisting the Trump/Netanyahu plans to “cleanse” Gaza and “displace” its people. But it seems some have accepted the idea of searching for alternatives that align with American-Israeli desires, after U.S. Secretary of State Mark Rubio last week called on Arab countries to present a “better alternative plan” if they did not like Trump’s plan.

U.S. pressure on Gaza

Rubio, who called for the elimination of Hamas’ political and military capabilities in Gaza, asked the region’s wealthy countries to help implement their plans to rebuild the sector and move forward in the peace process, which will not be achieved as long as Hamas remains in Gaza, “because they are going to go back to attacking Israel. And Israel is going to have to respond.”

The intentions of the U.S. Republican administration are clear, and an Arab stance is required. Any concession or surrender at this moment will push Trump and his partners in Tel Aviv to stick to the ceiling they set, seeking greater gains.

No one knows yet why the Arab consultative meeting, which was supposed to be held to agree on a unified Arab position regarding the U.S. proposal, was postponed, nor do they know the details of the discussions in the “informal” meeting that took place instead in Riyadh last Friday, ending without issuing a final statement.

Steadfast Arab unity

Begging will not work with Trump and Netanyahu. Arab countries have no alternative but steadfastness; they must adopt a unified position that sticks to the minimum, and must consider it the only path that may lead to results that satisfy the Palestinians first and are accepted by the Arab people second.

The Arab regimes have a historic opportunity that will not be repeated to prove to their peoples their ability to break free from the American orbit. When the fundamentals of the Arab nation conflict with Washington’s interests, the regimes should align with their people’s fundamentals.

The summit would then become a starting point for rebuilding the Arab system.

The Arabs may seize this opportunity at their summit, which is scheduled to take place in Cairo in early March, by announcing a clear position and a coherent project that aligns with Palestinian rights and satisfies the Arab people. The summit would then become a starting point for rebuilding the Arab system, which has been fragmented since the 1970s.

The Palestinians have made sacrifices — not only in the recent battle but over more than seven decades — and it is now the Arabs’ turn to support them and defend the security of the region, which is targeted by Israel and the United States.