The Trump Administration has managed to solve the last of the remaining political disagreements it shares with Israel on issues concerning the Arab world; and the latest step that reflects this state of affairs is Donald Trump’s recognition of the Israeli sovereignty of the Golan Heights, a stance that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo shared during his Middle Eastern tour.
Trump went above international law issued by the Security Council, which states that the Golan Heights is occupied, and declared the legitimacy of the Israeli occupation.
Not only did Trump and Pompeo ignore the reality of the occupation that has blurred the land’s identity and international law, they even denied the presence of Syrians in the occupied Golan Heights, despite their protesting behind barbed wire in order to communicate with their people on the other side, separated by the weapons of the Israeli occupation, which should be proof enough of their presence.
Regardless of this deviation from the US policies that have been practiced throughout the years up until the end of the former president Barack Obama’s administration, the declaration, made by Trump’s Secretary of State in the presence of Israeli officials during his Tel Aviv visit, which took place between his visits to two Arab countries, Kuwait and Lebanon, indicates an obvious challenge to the Arab world, to the Arab commonwealth in general, and to Syria in particular.
Clearly, the repeated retreated in terms of official Arab stances encourages the US Administration to move forward in applying Israel’s expansive politics.
Perhaps due to that and for many other reasons, the US administration, with Israel behind it, is making such decisions. It is as if the Arabs have given up on protecting their nations and lands. So, Trump comes out with a declaration that contradicts the Security Council’s international law, and then reiterates it again in Benjamin Netanyahu’s presence in the White House, before drafting the decision to recognize Israeli sovereignty once more.
Furthermore, a truth worth noting is that the Arab bodies’ constant disagreement on matters that decide the Arab world’s fate, with the most important ones being the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the issue of the Syrian Golan Heights, makes it tempting for Israel to expand using violence against peaceful protesters in different areas in Palestine under the title of the Gaza Strip, resulting in the death and injury of Palestinians on every Friday of every week, along with the daily oppression of the people of the West Bank, all the way through the Bedouin to the Egyptian Sinai border.
The Israeli and US warning against the Iranian project, which they see as a threat to the Israeli occupation, cannot really be taken seriously, especially as former president Obama did not give credence to this threat while signing a nuclear deal with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Further, Trump’s constant attack on the White House will not work anymore, a policy he uses to enrich the war logic practiced by his administration against Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which Lebanese citizens consider to be “heroes,” given that they have accomplished what Arab bodies have failed to accomplish to do in terms of “alliances” to the point of a “union” against Israeli expansion.
With the weakening stance of the Arab bodies politic—beginning with Egypt’s departure and its reconciliation with the Israelis after the October 1973 war—against the ongoing Israeli developments, the US project has only gotten stronger.
This was a harsh violation of the Arab people’s wishes and a securing of the Israeli victory over the wants of the Arab people in every way.
Furthermore, the US administration fed on the “fall” of Egypt to strengthen its influence over almost all Arab nations, especially as Saddam Hussein proceeded with the attack on Iran, which seemed as if it were a request for an alliance with the US, and which was aligned with US politics up until his foolish decision to invade Kuwait.
It was also shocking that some Arab countries joined forces and attacked Iraq in 1991, which occupied Iraqi land and destroyed their military forces, as a preparation to fully invade Iraq in 2003; this then fueled the fires of sectarianism, by giving power to the Shiites through “decrees” that aimed at inciting the Sunnis against the new rule, or at least, to stand apart from it.
In a similar vein, the siege of Syria was completed as a preparation for the uprising against Bashar Al-Assad’s regime, which was itself a continuation of the original plan to destroy Iraq.
President Donald Trump welcomes visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House in Washington, Monday, March 25, 2019. MANUEL BALCE CENETA PRESIDEN / AP PHOTO
In this way, the US enriched its strategic alliance with Israel and besieged the forces that were able to face them and cleared a path for the US to carry on with his influence over the whole Arab region. This also gave the chance for Netanyahu to visit Amman, and to declare that many Arab capitals, including Cairo and Amman, were ready to welcome him, dropping the title of Israel as enemy, despite Israel’s declaration months before that it would relocate its capital from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. It also found countries—in Latin America and some in Europe—that would compliment these moves by relocating their embassies, in an attempt to oppress the Palestinians’ rights in the holy city of both Muslims and Christians.
The Trump administration is practicing clear colonial politics: it benefits from ISIS’ military presence in Iraq and even from its control over the country to implement military “rules” for it in South Syria and some of the North as well, under the excuse of “protecting the Kurds.” It is also trying to militarily “sneak” its way into Lebanon under the excuse of helping the state against Hezbollah and Iran (when was this ever asked for?).
Under the rule of Trump, the US has changed from George Washington’s nation that fought against foreign forces for the sake of liberty and independence, to a nation that colonizes the lands of others, most clearly the Arab’s, perhaps through taking advantage of the rampant weakness of countries ruled by kings, princes, and high officials. The US applies this to poor countries through its military, and through ruling elites to oil-rich countries, whose emergence from Jahiliyyah (Age of Ignorance) was shown with the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in his country’s consulate in Istanbul.
Taking this into consideration, one can understand Pompeo’s attack on Hezbollah when in Beirut during his recent visit, while he ignored that Hezbollah is the biggest political party and the most influential in Lebanon, and that it has secured three ministries in the government.
This results in Washington and Tel Aviv’s perspectives meeting and even becoming one, in the midst of the Arab absence, the collusion of Arab organizations, their lack of capacity, and their occupation with economic and social crises, as Algeria is currently witnessing; Algeria, a country once known for its one million martyrs against French colonialism, and Libya, whose government was extinguished with Moammar Kathafi.
This marks one of the ugliest periods in modern Arab history, and neither the offensive regression, the US-Israeli aggression, or the alliances with enemies of Arab nations against the people’s desires for a better future can left this ugliness.
One must begin and end with the Arab responsibility… and after that, one can talk about the roles of Washington and Tel Aviv, and Arab backwardness regarding its leaders and princes.
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