Trump in the Age of the End of American Exceptionalism

Third: This atmosphere led to an increase in the power and popularity of the extreme right-wing parties in the Israeli arena. Not only did they declare the necessity of continuing the war, occupying Gaza, spreading settlements, and extending Israeli authority over the West Bank, but one of the government ministers, Bezalel Smotrich, went to the furthest extent when he spoke about establishing a Jewish state that includes six Arab states. As Netanyahu imagined that he had the upper hand in the region, he raised his voice loudly, speaking about changing the maps of the Middle East region to keep pace with the coming strategic change in its regions.

In this atmosphere, the new American president appeared, and reports unanimously agreed that Netanyahu was waiting for him, and many are counting on him taking office next January, to the point that I read in one of the comments that the Israeli Prime Minister will consider himself victorious once he is in the White House, which I do not rule out, because the man’s record in his first term supports that.

He is the one who came up with the idea of the Deal of the Century, who recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and recognized the annexation of the occupied Syrian Golan Heights to the occupying state. He has a well-known hand in the birth of the Abraham Accords, in addition to expressing his discomfort with the small size of Israel, and wished it to succeed in resolving this in the vast Arab space, which is remembered for its generosity towards “others.”

Against this background, we can say that if President Biden has declared his Zionist inclinations and raised the ceiling of Netanyahu’s ambitions high, his successor Trump is a fanatic of that doctrine. The difference between him and his predecessor is that the former declared his belief publicly, while the latter is keen to confirm his loyalty and zeal with successive actions that expressed the sustainability of his position.

This was clearly evident in his nominations for his team after taking office, which included elements of pro-Israel extremists. Netanyahu responded in kind when he appointed extremist settler Yehiel Leiter as his country’s ambassador to Washington, who was a member of the Kahane group, which was classified by the US as a terrorist organization.

What worries us most in the Arab world is his outbidding in his bias towards Israel and his hostility towards the Palestinians, which he expressed in his first term, to which was added the agenda of the ruling Zionist right-wing forces at the present time, whose ambitions and expansions have no limits for what he calls the biblical Jewish state that encroaches on the land of Palestine.

The implications of this policy are that it will lead to the subjugation of the Palestinians, and pressure on the Arab countries first to expand the scope of normalization, and secondly to use the Arab "allies" to exert pressure in favor of the Israeli side, and thirdly it requires resorting to cutting off the road to Iran and eliminating its influence in whatever form it takes in the region.

This would give Israel the upper hand in the Middle East, expanding the scope of normalization, eventually leading to a phase of submission. This is not a reading of the future, but rather a mere possibility that calls for concern and mobilization, based on statements circulated by the media by ministers and officials in the Israeli government.

This possibility was not ruled out by a well-known expert like Mr. Amr Moussa, the former Secretary-General of the Arab League and former Egyptian Foreign Minister. He gave a lengthy interview to the newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm, which featured on its front page on November 14 headlines that read: “Israeli expansion threatens Saudi Arabia and Egypt” and “What I said about the occupation’s plans is information, not an opinion.”

Work is underway to change the facts on the ground in and around Gaza so that Trump can assume office on a new, negotiated reality. The measures to annex the West Bank and flood it with settlements are no longer wishful thinking in the newspapers, because Israeli civilian contracting companies are planting cement pillars all over the Strip, and others are trying to market and sell Palestinian lands to Jews in Canada and the northern United States.

The activists of the Torah parties consider themselves to be on the path to establishing a Jewish state that will restore what they call the Land of Israel. It is no wonder that they consider the circumstances favorable to them locally, in the West, and regionally, at least in that they do not see any significant force on the globe pressuring them to stop their progress.

If anyone were to ask: What is the response to what is being plotted against us? Perhaps someone with good intentions would volunteer to respond by saying that the Arab-Islamic Summit issued a strong statement on this matter following the Riyadh meeting on November 11, in which it called on the international community, among other things, to do what it must do on the issue.

Noting that the speech of the aforementioned Israeli minister, Smotrich, coincided with the summit, in which he called for the annexation of the West Bank to Israel next year, my comment on what was said can be summed up as follows: That statement, which was celebrated by the Arab media, is a certificate of absence that does not cover the shame and cannot be relied upon. Therefore, its place in the archives is hardly there.

Therefore, we have no choice but to supplicate to God, hoping that He will include us in His vast mercy in honor of the blood and remains of the martyrs, and not in His justice, which is only achieved by those who deserve it.

*Quoted from Al Jazeera Net