Trump and Jerusalem: Violating the Bride of Our Arabism

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

The bride of our Arabism has been violated since 1967, and all we could do was steal a look and a listen through the crack of the door or from behind the window. Now, it seems, we will beg to take part in the violation itself.

Did the Saudis know American President Donald Trump would recognize Jerusalem as the Zionists’ capital when they summoned Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Authority whose term has expired? And why did they propose Abu Dis as a capital to him if they did not know? Perhaps they told him what they knew.

But Abbas did not return from Riyadh to tell the Palestinian people what happened before and after the summons, and the Palestinian people had to learn some of what happened from Zionist and American media instead. This is one of the hallmarks of failed leaderships: they conceal information and keep those whose affairs they oversee in darkness and ignorance. The Palestinian people ought to have known, and ought to have been presented with ideas about options it could adopt in confronting American arrogance.

In any case, the surprise was not in the principle of the matter but in the timing — the American Congress, in both its houses, had already voted for recognition and moving the American embassy from a Zionist settlement to Jerusalem, and American presidents had already declared their intentions regarding moving the embassy, without carrying it out.

Trump promised what he decided, but left the timing open to his own discretion — and, as it seems, without the involvement of the American State Department. The department directly responsible for friction with the world’s states declared that the matter of recognizing Jerusalem as the Zionists’ capital was a White House affair, indicating some disagreement within the American administration.

American Reassurance

The American president was entirely calm delivering his speech about Jerusalem, showing no hesitation or stammering, delivering his speech with complete fluency without glancing behind him, unconcerned with whatever reactions might follow — reassured by the weakness of the Palestinians and of all Arabs who might be concerned with the Jerusalem cause.

Palestinians are divided, trading on their own weakness and begging, and the Arab regimes seek America’s favor at all times, most of them rushing toward establishing good relations with the Zionist entity, the queen of Saudi money foremost among them. Most Arab regimes also cannot step outside the American security and military umbrella, and some beg for money just to be able to pay salaries at the end of the month.

Most of them are agent, mercenary regimes, or are dragged by the forelock into the Zionist and American house of obedience. Trump was reassured that the Arab countries that could have had a word of defiance or a position of dignity are now capable of nothing, and the most they can do is stay silent or issue a timid condemnation.

Syria and Iraq need a long time before they can stand on solid ground again, Egypt is preoccupied with Sinai, Saudi Arabia is hastening its steps toward the Zionist entity, working hard to ally with it in confronting the “new enemy,” and the rest of the Arab states play clearly ineffective roles in the Arab arena.

The official Palestinian side frightens no one — it has proven its diligence over more than twenty years in pursuing resistance fighters and anyone who touches Zionist security, and proven its ability to tame a large portion of the Palestinian people and neutralize the Palestinian factions. As for the resistance axis, Trump knows this axis is ready to defend but has not yet reached the stage of offense, neither politically nor militarily.

Certainly the American president understood that a sweeping wave of condemnations would follow his decision, and he must have relied on the Zionists’ own assessment of the importance of these condemnations and the extent of their impact. The Zionists usually know that an abundance of condemnations and similar expressions constitutes a message of reassurance to them and their allies, since the helpless cover their helplessness with some hot, polished, empty words.

The Americans themselves have penetrated the Arab nation in all its countries, and they know these countries’ capabilities and how far they might go in angering the United States. Words of condemnation, denunciation, and disapproval constitute distinctive features of Arab political conduct, and Arabs use them as a way of discharging duty rather than translating it into reality on the ground.

Clarifying one’s position is necessary, but in the case of the conflict raging in the region for decades, words must carry action within them. The Arab ruler condemns, then goes to bed to sink into deep slumber, and this time will be no different from previous ones. There will be widespread campaigns of condemnation and denunciation of what the American president did in the Arab arena, but without substance or practical consequences.

Mass Movement

It is difficult to detect any practical Arab position confronting American arrogance — we can only see some hesitation in making visits to the White House, but the rulers who condemned will, before long, be found making pilgrimage to Washington once again.

The Zionist entity and many states of the world have grown accustomed to Arabs excelling at expressions of denunciation and insults, but never working to prepare theaters of operations, nor moving toward practical construction to confront challenges, whether coming from enemies or from internal social, political, economic, or moral aspects. My assessment is that the Zionist assessment of the Arab position is largely correct — so will we witness a shift this time?

The Arab stage has witnessed mass movement in a number of Arab countries: in Palestine, crowds came out to confront the occupation with protests, at contact points especially, and crowds came out in Tunisia, Iraq, Lebanon, and elsewhere. These crowds, who demonstrated and raised banners and Palestinian flags, are what constitute an asset for the Palestinian people, not the rulers.

But it is unlikely this movement will continue, because the Arab political environments are not prepared for a popular movement in defense of Arab causes. These crowds might find someone to embrace them if they wanted strife, but they remain orphaned if they are national, pan-Arab, or in defense of a public cause.

Arab governments are not concerned with embracing mass movement in support of Arab causes. We find these governments and their security apparatuses mobilized and eager to rally people in defense of the ruling regime, not the homeland and the citizen.

If the mass movement is to continue, the Palestinian masses themselves must feed it by intensifying their confrontation with the enemy, and their decisive refusal to deal with the United States. Palestinians are required to continue their activity against the occupation and escalate it, including armed resistance.

Armed Resistance

Armed resistance is possible in the Gaza Strip, even though the Strip is burdened with hardship of living and the siege imposed on it. In the West Bank, however, the paths are blocked by the Palestinian Authority, which still coordinates security matters with the occupation and fights everyone who resists or even thinks of armed resistance.

The Palestinian masses can influence the masses of the Arab countries through communication that can occur via multiple channels, inciting them to stand against official policies restraining Arab mass solidarity. As for the West Bank, I do not see, within the currently prevailing conditions, that the opportunity is ripe for escalating mass activity there against the occupation.

Activity needs a nurturing political and social environment, and the West Bank’s environment has been ravaged by the Palestinian Authority, causing widespread damage such that it is no longer suitable, not to mention that a mass movement needs a leadership enjoying the masses’ trust — something unavailable in the West Bank. People in the West Bank generally do not trust the Authority or its leadership, and where trust is absent, commitment is absent.

What is meant is that the intensity of mass participation in the protest process we witnessed on the first day after Trump’s speech is expected to diminish, unless new elements enter the scene, such as impactful military operations confronting the occupation, the Palestinian Authority retreating from its recognition of the Zionist entity, renouncing the Oslo Accords, and rejecting the United States’ role in searching for a solution to the Palestinian cause.

The Appropriate Responses

It is possible we will witness individual operations confronting the occupation, in the pattern of using knives or firearms, and it is quite likely individuals will take revenge on the Zionist entity, striking at its soldiers, and destabilizing some of its cities and settlements, and it is also quite likely some Zionists will be killed and some Palestinians martyred.

But given the current circumstances, there is doubt these acts will develop into a phenomenon or a crisis disturbing the sleep of the Zionists and their allies. If Palestinians manage to manufacture a crisis for the Zionist entity or for the United States, the American administration will consider retreating from its aggressive steps.

There are three Arab parties that recognize the Zionist entity: the Palestinian Authority, Jordan, and Egypt. These parties condemned, but have so far failed to add practical steps to their condemnation. Recognizing the Zionist entity implicitly means recognizing whatever it chooses as its capital.

Whoever recognizes a sovereign UN member state must, even implicitly, recognize its capital. Egypt’s president previously visited Jerusalem while it was under occupation, and Jordanian and Palestinian officials have previously held meetings with Zionists in the city of Jerusalem.

Doesn’t this constitute recognition of the legitimacy of Jerusalem’s occupation? Indeed it does, and all this condemnation and hot talk is unnecessary — everyone must stop treating people’s minds with contempt.

And if we are to set aside the matter of recognition, it is not possible to overlook normalization activities with the Zionists and the establishment of joint investment projects with them. There is economic and commercial cooperation between many Arabs and the Zionists, so at the very least these parties could stop security coordination with the Zionist occupier.

Condemnation has no value amid continued contact with the Zionists and the normalization of relations with them.

The Palestinian Authority was supposed to immediately, after Trump’s speech, annul the Oslo Accords, withdraw its recognition of the Zionist entity, permanently halt security coordination, prevent normalization, and hold accountable the normalizers who carried out security coordination — but none of this happened. So how can we think good intentions are at play, especially when the president of the Authority delivered a feeble statement after Trump’s speech, entirely disproportionate to the scale of the event, and to the dignity and honor of the Palestinian people?

The Zionist entity benefits from American recognition in that the task of Judaizing the city of Jerusalem has become easier and more convenient. The United States used to sometimes rein in the Zionists depending on its assessment of Arab and international reactions, but now the American statement has become open, in line with Trump’s conviction that the Zionist entity is the state of the Jews.

Accordingly, there is great danger to the residents of the city of Jerusalem, their homes, property, and interests. The Zionists will intensify their settlement efforts, and their efforts to remove the people of Jerusalem from their city, and will become free to intensify their efforts to Judaize the West Bank.

The Zionists have been working for years to Judaize the West Bank, and now see that the road ahead of them is paved with fewer obstacles than before. For every Zionist gain, there is a Palestinian loss — so will the Palestinian Authority change what it is and what it is in, and work seriously to establish Palestinian national unity according to a Palestinian national charter everyone commits to?

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “ترمب والقدس.. انتهاك عروس عروبتنا” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.