Summary: As details of the “deal of the century” filter down Arab states back the Palestinians and turn away from Washington.
This content is locked
Login or Register To Unlock The Content!
Menu
Menu
1 thought on “Arab support for the Trump deal evaporates”
Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.
President Donald Trump has had rather a good week — the fiasco of the Democratic Party caucuses in Iowa; a strong performance from the perspective of his base in his State of the Union Address; the expected acquittal at his impeachment trail; China’s easing of tariffs on imports from the US. All good news for his all-important re-election prospects. I frankly doubt that the backlash from the Settler Movement against Jared Kushner’s blocking of immediate annexation will have taken any gloss off this, if only because it will almost certainly not have attracted much attention in the US press as yet. But it may in due course – and at a time when Mr Trump is really under electoral pressure and needs to bolster his base.
As for the Arab States, I think this and the earlier newsletter were correct to question whether there really would be any backing for the Kushner plan among their number – even if Mr Kushner had not been so undiplomatic in his public assessment of the Palestinians.
Whether he really expected at least some Arab backing or not is far from clear to me. After all, not only does he have little relevant expertise (as the Newsletter has noted) but these days, sadly, the same can be said for the US Department of State thanks to his father-in-law. Even if Mr Kushner were prepared to listen to AND follow expert professional advice which, with the possible exception of Jason Greenblatt, has not been particularly evident.
One way or the other, the reality is that Mr Kushner probably doesn’t care (unless or until the whole plan blows up in his face in a manner which damages Mr Trump himself, in which case he may learn a lesson or two!). For the fact is that his approach is consistent with overall US foreign policy for the past two years or so (ie more or less since Michael Pompeo took over as Secretary of State) that the ‘Hamiltonian-ism’ which had dominated since 1945 has gone out of the window in favour of what one could politely term ‘robust unilateralism’. In other words, America’s looking to impose its will on others with scant regard for allies – and even in some cases (eg and notably Germany and Nord Stream 2) to try to impose its will on supposedly close allies through economic sanctions.
What this all means in practice in this particular case is that we should not be at all surprised (let alone shocked) to see the Trump Administration give Israel the go ahead for annexation sooner rather than later.