Trump’s Victory and Concerns over Palestine
By: Khursheed Alam Dawood Qasmi
Moon Rays Trust School, Zambia, Africa
The former US president and Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, after winning the US presidential elections, hold on 5th November, will enter the White House on the 20th of January of the next year. In the current US presidential elections, Trump had to face the Democratic Party candidate, Indian-American woman Kamala Harris. Harris is current Vice President in the Biden’s presidency term. From the Democratic Party side, in the early stages of the election campaign, Mr. Joe Biden began campaigning, hoping to win the next term’s presidential elections. But he failed miserably in his election campaign. Kamala Harris, therefore, was made the candidate for the elections. She fought elections bravely, but couldn’t beat off Mr. Trump. Harris is the part of the Biden administration, which is supporting and enabling the occupying state of Israel to commit the genocidal acts against thousands of Palestinian and Lebanese people in the Middle East. Because of this, the American voters are angry against the Biden administration and Kamala Harris was absolutely expected to lose on the same ground. Today, if the Biden administration withdraws its support for the occupying state, it will face such a defeat, it has never imagined.
In the currently concluded historical elections, Republican candidate Trump won by a landslide and Democratic Party’s candidate Kamala Harris faced defeat. Some reports also suggest that many voters didn’t cast their votes for the Democratic candidate; because her administration failing to stop the genocidal acts against Palestinian people, rather, the Biden administration generously supported Israel and the Zionist state and enabled it to commit genocide against the innocent citizens of the Gaza Strip and even now it is committing. After his historic victory, Trump delivered his maiden victory speech in Florida. One important thing he mentioned in the victory speech was regarding stopping the wars. He said: “I’m not going to start a war; I’m going to stop the wars.”
Currently, there is a war between Russia and Ukraine. Likewise, the usurper and occupying state of Israel has waged war against Palestine and Lebanon. Occupying Israel is occasionally attacking Syria, Yemen, Iraq, etc. After Trump’s victory, speaking at a session of the Valdai Discussion Club, Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Trump on his victory and praised him calling a courageous man. When Putin was asked if he was ready to have discussions with Donald Trump, he replied: “We are ready, we are ready.” Mr. Putin has no objection to resuming contacts with Trump. It is also claimed that there was a telephonic conversation between Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin, the Russian President. In the conversation, Trump advised Mr. Putin not to escalate the war in Ukraine and to restore peace. It is also said that Trump said privately that he would support an agreement where Russia kept some of the liberated territories and during the phone call with Putin, he had briefly touched upon the issue of territories.
As far as the Palestinian Authority is concerned, so Mr. Mahmoud Abbas spoke with Donald Trump on the phone, congratulated him and said he is looking forward to working with him to achieve a just and comprehensive peace. The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas officials have said it all in a few sentences following Trump’s victory. A statement issued by Hamas said: “Democrats’ defeat in US elections is the price of their criminal stance on Gaza. Donald Trump should learn from Joe Biden’s mistakes, end blind support for Israel.”
Trump has good relation with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, who is guilty of genocide. Trump is very soft for the occupying state of Israel. Its proofs are those decisions which were taken during the previous term of the Trump presidency. Now the question is, will Trump try to stop the ongoing Israeli war and genocide against the Palestinians? If he makes an effort, will he be successful? Will he also take care of the rights of the oppressed people of Palestine for a ceasefire or will he try to get a ceasefire based on his own terms and conditions? Trump’s commitment to occupying Israel, in his first term as president, shows that Trump’s victory is not going to do any good for the Palestinians. Trump will not talk about the legitimate rights of the Palestinians. He will try to make the Zionist state of Israel more powerful. Then Netanyahu, encouraged by Trump’s presence in the White House, will increase Israeli autonomy and new settlement construction in the West Bank. In this way, the process of annexation by Israel will continue and Palestine will shrink day by day.
The decisions taken during Trump’s first term of presidency, from 2017 to 2020, regarding the Palestinian issue were all against Palestine. Those decisions were unilaterally in favour of the occupying Zionist state. He is the first US president to talk about the one-nation theory. He held a press conference with Netanyahu on 16th February 2017. In the press conference, he said that while he is trying to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict with a “two-nation theory,” a “one-state solution” is also under his consideration. This is the same language which is used by many radical Israeli politicians. Just a few days ago, on 5th November, Gideon Sa’ar, founder of New Hope Party, has been appointed as the new foreign minister of occupying Israel. He was talking to reporters in Occupied Jerusalem on 12th November. He was asked a question that in exchange for the normalization from the Arab countries, would Israel agree with the establishment of a Palestinian state? Responding to this question, Gideon said: “Talks of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state are unrealistic. So I would say we should be realistic.”
Trump, in his previous term as president, recognized the occupied “Beitul-Maqdis” (Jerusalem) as the capital city of occupying Israel on 6th December 2017; while this is against international law and UN principles. He then ordered that the US Embassy in Tel Aviv be moved to Jerusalem. So, following his order, on 14th May 2018, the US Embassy was moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. “This is a great day for Israel,” Trump said that day.
In August 2018, the Trump administration ordered a complete freeze on US aid to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). This agency works on humanitarian grounds for Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, etc. There was a long established “Palestinian Mission” in the USA. The Trump administration shut down the mission on 10th September 2018. Moreover, the visa of the man who was serving as a head of the Palestinian Mission, was revoked and he was expelled from the United States. The US Consulate for Palestine was established in Occupied Jerusalem. It was also shut down by the Trump administration on 18th October 2018. Moreover, rubbing salt to a wound, he said that a corner, in the US embassy in Israel, will be dedicated to Palestine.
Trump talked about a peace deal between Israel and Palestine in the beginning of his first term of the Presidency. Then he presented the deal on January 28, 2020, in the presence of Netanyahu. That deal was, in other words, a unilateral and one-state solution formula. The deal was presented as the Deal of the Century and the Trump Peace Plan. In fact, there was nothing in the deal in the favour of Palestine. If that deal had been accepted by the Palestinians, Palestine would have ended that day. But the leaders and people of Palestine showed bravery and rejected the deal, Al-Hamdulillah.
In August 2020, Trump initiated a series of US-mediated normalization between some Arab countries and Israel. That normalization was carried out under the name of “Abraham Accord”. Some Arab countries started peace agreement with Israel, established diplomatic relations and the minister of one country started visiting another country. The purpose of this Abrahamic Accord was to increase the popularity of occupying Israel and marginalize Palestine. Thank God, this “Abrahamic Covenant” remained limited to only a few countries and Trump’s term of the presidency ended.
Whatever steps Trump took with regard to Palestine and occupying Israel, it was totally against the two-nation theory. So even after Trump’s victory and his claim that he will stop the ongoing war, there are many concerns over Palestine. Those concerns are valid; because Trump’s commitment to the Zionist state of Israel in his first term as president has been a bitter and painful experience for the Islamic world and the Palestinians. The decisions taken in his first term as president shows that Trump is a Zionist and can go to any extent in support of occupying Israel. May Allah make my fears and concerns wrong!
Currently the situation of the Middle East is very critical. Trump is an inflexible and vindictive man. He doesn’t listen to anyone, because it hurts his ego. He will want to prove himself a hero to the world by doing something new in the Middle East. It is possible that regarding the Israeli-Palestinian issue, he will present his old deal: “Deal of the Century” once again. Similarly, in relation to the current war, he would want to stop war on his own terms, keeping in mind the Israeli interest. If Hamas refuses to accept his terms, it is very possible that he will give the Zionist occupation state full support to demolish the whole Gaza Strip under the pretext of eliminating Hamas. May Allah provide a good, sensible and suitable adviser to Trump and may Trump be written in the history for his positive decisions in his second term as the US president! ∎∎∎∎
