What Will Trump Do to Us?

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

There is a fever of discussions in Arab media about what Trump will do to us, and for us, once he assumes his duties as president of the United States. Dialogue segments multiply on Arab screens over the topic, articles pile up on social media, newspapers devote great efforts to the field, and so on. It is rare to see or read, in the various Arab media outlets, anything about what Arabs will do to Trump — all the focus is on Trump the actor and the Arab nation the acted-upon. A fever of this kind is nothing new for us — its temperature rises with every Zionist or American election season, during which Arab writers and analysts show off their cleverness putting forward predictions and scenarios that might result from the election outcome. In most cases, Arabs busy themselves assessing what might result before the elections even happen, following public opinion polls to build their own reasoning upon.

Following others’ news, especially those who could influence the Arab nation’s conditions, is important, but not to the point of knowing the nation’s future through it. There is mutual influence between nations in various fields of life, and this mutual influence weakens and strengthens according to many factors, and here in our Arab region, America and Israel enjoy great influence over various scenes of life. But it seems we exaggerate this influence to the point of annulling the Arab self.

I have not yet read, nor seen on the screens, a discussion about how we Arabs might influence Trump or Netanyahu. We are creative, to some extent, at counting the settlement units Netanyahu builds, and at tallying the quantities of weapons America sends to Israel, and sometimes we are not creative at all, relying in our information on what others put forward of information and statistics, which could be misleading and aimed at deceiving us. This means Arabs are absent from Arab consciousness itself, and that the other is the one present in this consciousness, marginalizing our existence and making us understand part of ourselves through him rather than through ourselves. In other words, our will and awareness have dissolved into his person, intellectually, culturally, and practically, such that we see no outlet for ourselves toward salvation and progress except through his own awareness, will, and generosity.

Here lies the greatest predicament facing Arabs, individuals and groups, which they pass down to their children: the erasure of self. Why can’t we face our own problems ourselves, instead of waiting for the genius of others who do not live our circumstances or our lives to unravel our concerns for us and prescribe their treatment? And why do I imagine, as an Arab, that my future is being cooked up in the kitchens of others, East and West, and that I have no power to feed myself with the effort of my own hand? A conviction prevails in the Arab arena, not necessarily absolute, that Westerners, the United States especially, have ready-made plans for how to control Arabs and drive them however they wish, and that Israel controls many Arab countries and its will is enforced. As long as this conviction of the other’s octopus-like grip exists, it is futile for me to exert my own effort, and it is better to surrender to external will. For a long time, various means of knowledge and education in the Arab homeland have worked to greatly exaggerate the other’s strength, in order to justify Arab incapacity. How many times has Arab media portrayed Israel as the predatory beast extending its arms to various corners of the world, holding prestige and dominance — yet Hezbollah came to send it out defeated and humiliated from South Lebanon, teaching it a harsh lesson in the July war. We manufactured illusions about the strength of Israel and America in order to deceive our peoples into believing we are heroes and strong, while the other is stronger than us, thereby justifying our laziness, incapacity, and weakness of will, and so on.

We Arabs are often absent, and if we are present, internal conflicts among ourselves are the most important element of this presence, but we still lack self-confidence and confidence in our ability to face challenges, and we still need someone to take us by the hand and win for us, guide us, or act on our behalf. Absence is alienation, and alienation is deadly to the human spirit, will, and thought. It expresses a state of human paralysis in which a person loses himself, and with it his self-confidence evaporates, and his powers collapse such that he no longer perceives his own self, nor the extent of his strength, nor his capacity to reach things he aspires to obtain, whether material or moral. One alienated from himself is alienated from his family, his homeland, his dreams, wishes, and aspirations, drowning in illusions and a love of enslavement, remaining on the margin, measured by no one’s standard. He is a slave to whoever wants to enslave him, because freedom holds no value for him, nor dignity, nor a sense of honor.

We Arabs suffer from alienation and a feeling of lowliness and disgrace, and suffer from an inferiority complex. All of this has its historical roots and causes, and needs study and scrutiny so we might find prescriptions for escaping our situation. We have not yet been able to confront Israel except through Arab resistance in Lebanon and Palestine, and many of our concerns we are unable to address ourselves, calling for rescue from others. We summoned Western powers to intervene and settle the dispute between Iraq and Kuwait, and this is what happened in Libya and was repeated in Syria. Even the internal war in Somalia we did not address ourselves, calling on Ethiopia to do the duty instead.

The relationship between the feeling of incapacity and alienation is reciprocal. The incapable is alienated because he is weak and subjugated, always searching for someone to defend him, and the alienated is incapable because his will and thought are paralyzed. It seems we Arabs suffer from both incapacity and alienation, making our problem doubly complex. It is no wonder we busy ourselves so much with what Trump will do to us, or with what will strengthen our enemies. Had we not suffered incapacity and alienation, burdens would not have overwhelmed us, and we would not have needed someone to punish us or do us good. Had this not been so, we would all have been people of zeal and courage, rising, collectively and individually, to defend ourselves and our interests, and would have advanced with full confidence and pride.

It is not difficult to prescribe remedies for escaping this unhealthy situation, but the problem lies in for whom you write the prescription. Had there been readers among the Arab rulers, had there been enlightened ones among them searching for good governance, wanting to bring the nation out of its situation, we would have offered solutions and ideas and participated in various activities, but the Arab rulers have excelled at pursuing their creative thinkers and academics and their revolutionary writers, leaving no room for hope for a writer passionate about his homeland and nation.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “ماذا سيفعل ترامب بنا؟” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.