US president Donald Trump promised Arab and Muslim leaders that Israel would not annex the occupied West Bank and presented a plan for an end to Israel’s Gaza war during a closed meeting in New York this week.
They told him addressing the Gaza war is an urgent matter and Israeli absorption of the West Bank is a “red line.” They warned crossing the line could prompt the Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco to suspend or revoke normalisation with Israel, which was Trump’s main foreign policy achievement during his first term. Saudi Arabia could also stall or cancel $600 billion (€514 billion) in US investment and commercial deals Trump reached in 2017.
The leaders he met on the sidelines of the United Nations general assembly were from a wide range of countries from the Middle East and East Asia. They represented heavyweight Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the Emirates, Turkey, Pakistan and Indonesia as well as Jordan and wealthy Qatar. The latter had assumed the role of mediator between Hamas and Israel until attacked by Israel while allegedly under US protection.
Trump’s peace plan relies on Arab and Muslim approval and participation. This calls for a permanent ceasefire, release of Israeli hostages, Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, exclusion of Hamas from governance, a security force formed by Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims, and Arab and Muslim funding for administration and reconstruction.
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However, Trump’s opposition to international recognition of a Palestinian state and his unswerving support for Netanyahu have undermined the US as the “forever friend” of the Arabs since 1945, when president Franklin D Roosevelt promised protection to Saudi king Abdul Aziz ibn Saud in exchange for oil.
Thereafter, West-allied Arabs relied on US support despite its close connection with Israel after it emerged in 1948 and the expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians from their homeland.
Arabs and Muslims were deeply disappointed with Trump during his first term. He upended traditional US policy by recognising occupied Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and shifted the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Trump refused to designate as illegal Israeli West Bank settlers, although they are regarded as illegal under international law.
He also closed the East Jerusalem US consulate, which served Palestinians, and the Palestinian mission in Washington, and cut funds to the UN agency caring for Palestinian refugees.
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Trump’s attempt to reassure sceptical Arab and Muslim leaders will be tested on Monday when he meets Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, with whom the US president has a sometimes testy relationship.
Netanyahu – whose flight to the US on Thursday avoided flying over France and much of continental Europe following a diplomatic rupture between the historic allies – has been increasingly isolated internationally.
Trump has so far refused to exercise leverage only the US possesses over Netanyahu to halt the Gaza war, check violent West Bank settlers, and cease attacks on Lebanon and Syria. Next week will show if he is prepared to.
