The unquiet American appears to be flexing his muscles in the Middle East. So keen is he to showcase himself as the region’s elder statesman. At least, in terms of the Gulf crisis which he may or may not exacerbate.
Yet, if we may be so bold, we put it to Donald Trump that he has his priorities all wrong. Looking at the volatile region purely in terms of US economic gains really has to stop. Far more responsible would be to focus on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. The apprentice-president, at worst, would simply match the incompetence of a certain former warmongering British PM. This week the UN released a report — “Gaza tens years on” — providing detailed accounts of the “unliveable” conditions endured by the Palestinians during the ongoing decade-long sea blockade at the hands of Israel and Egypt. As one UN man in Gaza has said: “this is a man-made political situation that requires political action”. The report itself contends that key indicators identified some five years ago and which include declining incomes, healthcare, education and electricity are only getting worse. And to top it all, Gaza’s only water source could well be “irreversibly depleted” by 2020. Unless the world acts now. This is what should be on the Trump radar, as well as that of the rest of the international community.
Yet it is too easy for the US to engage in the politics of distraction, which currently comes in the form of suddenly playing honest peace broker in the Gulf, when much of the world is convinced that the crisis is a manufactured smokescreen to target Iran. Similarly, the EU is pre-occupied with Brexiting Britain. This is not good enough.
Also not good enough is the US response to UNESCO’s designation of the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron’s Old city in the occupied West Bank as “a Palestinian World Heritage site”. The US ambassador to the UN termed the development “an affront to history”. We have to ask: whose history? Both sides revere the site — known by the Jews as the Tomb of the Patriarchs. The area is today known for the numerous Israeli military checkposts. We echo the Palestinian Tourism minister’s words when he points to the UNESCO move as signifying that Hebron and the Ibrahimi Mosque historically and categorically belong to the Palestinian people. For the West Bank has always been integral to Palestinian claims of independent statehood.
It is not often that we come out in praise of the UN given how the world body has still to recover fully from the Kofi legacy. But in this instance we do. On both counts. Meaning in its call to the global community to not let the people of Gaza suffer for another 10 years. And also for its bold outward show that says enough is enough: it is time to end the occupation.
This is soft power at its best. We hope a certain unquiet American is taking note.
