The Arab World's Options for Trump

To summarise and summarize the speech, the options of the Arab world - with its local and regional systems, bodies and organisations - to respond to the potential challenges of the second term of US President Trump, are represented by one of the following: either surrender and full or partial dealing with the conditions, pressures and dictates, and thus we all suffer a crushing and overwhelming defeat with no decision, or a complete, rolling, studied or rational confrontation, by avoiding, absorbing or recycling pressures, or rushing to present proposals and initiatives or putting alternatives on the table. And because this requires a long explanation, I say that the confrontation requires rushing to complete coordination between the various Arab systems, regardless of the differences and disagreements between them, because Trump, who wins for the second time at an exceptional moment in American and global history, does not necessarily herald the end of wars except at our expense, and does not come with magical solutions except by eliminating our dreams. There is nothing to indicate that the man comes with more experience, expertise or rationality, and it is not necessary for us to believe that he is a man of settlements and deals, so he rushes to make deals with us.

Deals are made between the powerful and with parties that are similar in interest and harm, and our Arab world is not powerful and is not a party similar to other parties.

I return to my options of surrender and confrontation. The option of surrender is largely achievable, as every regime will want to save its life without looking at the other parties, as each party has its fears, concerns, weaknesses and fragility. The option of surrender is an easier and less harmful option, and therefore it is possible that it will happen right before our eyes. We can imagine how much loss we, the Palestinians, will suffer, in the sense of the disappearance or abandonment of the two-state solution, which becomes impossible as we progress in time, as well as the possibility of annexing the West Bank or parts of it, forced and voluntary displacement, or both, in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and Jerusalem, the continuation of the occupation as an alternative to a settlement, deepening the separation as an alternative to reconciliation, and searching for practical and local bodies and organizations as an alternative to the unifying bodies.

Surrender means that the occupation project will take whatever funding, legitimacy and permanence it wants, and surrender means returning to square one of the conflict, which clearly means dismantling the land of the Palestinian people and dismantling its ties and unity.

Surrender means free normalization and an Israeli-Western victory over our region and its entire peoples.

As for the moderate, studied and gradual confrontation, in my opinion it means insisting on the Arab vision to resolve all the conflicts in the region, and not allowing aggression, expansion and extremism to advance and win. There are multiple Arab proposals, and I do not want to present them or even express an opinion about them, as they are ultimately an expression of a certain historical stage that lacks the ability, strength and influence, and perhaps the real political will to benefit from the facts of reality and the capabilities of the nation. There are Arab proposals, as I said, Saudi, Egyptian, Jordanian and Emirati, and this is the axis of moderation and economic ability and calm diplomacy with a long and heavy breath. In my opinion, this is another testing moment for this movement to prove itself, and to be an alternative to the other axes that it has criticized and besieged all the time. I believe that this is the right moment for moderation to present itself as capable of flexibility and dealing with unprecedented risks and challenges. It has its sayings, tools and alternatives. It is not enough for this movement to criticize or object without having a political and intellectual alternative in order to achieve representation, legitimacy and reliability.

This is the moment to test this current to stop the bloodshed in Gaza and Lebanon, to break this unprecedented savagery and to break this crazy cycle of blood and fire.

We do not say this in vain, arbitrarily, or to curry favor with anyone, because the arrival or election of Trump, despite all the criminal and racist files that he brings with him, may lead to internal and external wars. The Arab moderation movement is called upon to confront rationally, strongly, and calmly, otherwise the defeat will be general and catastrophic. And whoever has not learned from what happened over the course of 400 days of massacres that did not shake the consciences or hearts of the colonial West, then we should expect the same from our brothers and sisters.

The danger is imminent and severe, and hearts are completely in the throats.