Palestine Archives - Foreign policy

Trump’s Policy Wreaks Havoc in the Middle East?

Published on April 18, 2018May 22, 2018

Many people are concerned that President Donald Trump is assembling a “war cabinet” with the addition of the new hawkish politicians to the team. With the airstrikes on Syria, Trump showed the poor Foreign Policy strategy. This kind of strategy can be defined as passive-aggressive. The United States is not doing anything concrete to solve the problems in Syria, yet the actions are aggressive enough to wreak havoc in the region.

The things which Trump and his administration are doing are not logical at all. Their goal is to rip up the Iran nuclear deal, defeat the Islamic State in Syria and prevent the Syrian government from using the chemical weapons again. However, as a country, America didn’t do anything to challenge Iran in the region, and once the Islamic State is dealt with, Trump intends to withdraw?! Furthermore, the airstrikes are launched onto Syria, but there is no clear strategy behind it. Most of the rockets were destroyed while in the sky, but as the country burns, Trump said that the mission was accomplished.

The examples of the contradictory politics are numerous. The US greeted Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman when he visited Washington, but they wrote him a blank check afterward for continued regional conflict. Just as we thought that the United States had gained an edge, the president finds a way to mess things up. Let’s not continue with the examples.

The upcoming months will be crucial for the US. In May, Trump wants to open a US Embassy in Jerusalem, which is the time when Iraqis hold the national elections. Furthermore, POTUS plans to rip up the Iran nuclear deal, but let’s not forget that this was all before the supposed chemical attack in Syria when Trump was forced to react. With so much going on in the Middle East, Trump announced that he would withdraw the US army from the region. Could these be the biggest errors made by any administration?

Iran

With ripping up the Iran nuclear deal, the tensions in the region would grow. Not only that. This deal blocks Iran from making the nuclear weapon in the upcoming years, and this is something the US must not do. While the European Union may stay in the deal together with Russia and China, the Iranians may abandon it. Trump has surrounded himself with hawkish politicians, and the changes in his cabinet are grave. The team consisting of Trump, John Bolton who is the new national security advisor and Mike Pompeo, the new CIA director who replaced Rex Tillerson after he was dismissed doesn’t look promising. Let’s not forget about newly-appointed warmongering National Secretary of State John J. Sullivan. With such a team, USA is bound to fail in diplomacy, and they can only rely on Special Forces, Air Force and the military in general. And that is not a good approach.

Anti-Islamic State

Trump has announced that he would remove the forces from eastern Syria in the future, but at the moment they are staying put. Withdrawing is not an option because this could spur further conflict in the region and let’s not forget that Turkey and Iran are also involved and not just the Syrian government, Russia, and the US. Leaving Syria would mark the beginning of bloodshed. The similar situation is in Iraq. Will the new president rely on the United States, or will he fall under the Iranian influence? The US could help the next president tackle the issues in the region and with the neighbors, but America isn’t showing too much interest. After investing so much money to combat and suppress the Islamic State, is the USA ready to withdraw from the Middle East?

Israel vs. Palestine

The conflict between Israeli and Palestinians lasts for decades. The Trump administration promised a peace plan for the two sides, but nothing has happened so far. President’s decision to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem without the consent and any response from Israel may be a huge mistake.

The upcoming month or two would be crucial for the America and its interests in the Middle East. It appears that Trump is adding insult to injury with his decisions and the moves made by his administration while he should be putting out fires. Due to this, the position of America in the region might change significantly by the end of the year.

Source: foreignpolicy.com

Palestine Popular Resistance Scares Israel

Published on April 12, 2018May 22, 2018

Israel/News/Palestine

Although unarmed Gaza protesters posed no threat to the Israeli soldiers, reports say that 15 has been killed and more than 2,000 wounded. Hundreds of Israeli soldiers were deployed to the buffer zone between the besieged Gaza and the border of Israel. The reasons for their deployment are massive protests and rallies organized by the Palestinian families.

On March 31, the Israeli army tweeted: “Yesterday we saw 30,000 people. We arrived prepared and with precise reinforcements. Nothing was carried out uncontrolled; everything was accurate and measured, and we know where every bullet landed.”

The tweet was soon deleted and posting such a thing on social media is cruel even for the Israeli soldiers. The Israeli had hoped that they would chase away the Palestinians by killing some of them and wounding a bunch, which would eventually lead the protest to quiet down, but that was not the case. The Palestinians showed that they could be powerful when they are united and that their arch enemies have every reason to be afraid. This gathering disrupted Israel’s political and military tactics, and Tel Aviv has assumed a defensive position.

But what led tens of thousands of Palestinians to camp at the border with Israel? Multiple reasons are behind this act. First of all, Gaza is being suffocated, and Israel’s ten-year blockade prevented the Palestinian factions from uniting. The people are led to the brink of starvation and political despair and inferiority. The act of mass mobilization that took place last week was not about commemorating Land Day, which united Palestinians since the protests of 1976. It was about giving the voice back to the people and reclaiming the agenda.

At this point, we need to take a look at what preceded the First Intifada or uprising in 1987 to get the idea of the mobilization. Before the uprising, the Arab governments in the region considered the Palestinian cause to be “someone else’s problem.” The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) was exiled to Lebanon, Tunisia, Algeria, Yemen and the surrounding countries together with thousands of fighters. This happened by the end of 1982, and with major forces exiled, the leadership of Palestine became irrelevant to the affairs at the time. A few years later, people stepped out of their homes, and the non-violent mobilization lasted for a year, which culminated in the signing of the Oslo Accord in 1993. Today, the leadership is irrelevant as it was back then, but it is also divided with Fatah holding the West Bank and Hamas Gaza.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) is losing credibility among its own people because of numerous corruption accusations. This caused PA leader Mahmoud Abbas to resign, and last year, Donald Trump further helped in diminishing PA, as he proclaimed Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. This was done against the international law and without the UN consensus. Hamas is also weakened by the political isolation.

However, the hope still exists. Last October, the two sides stepped closer to the reconciliation, and they signed the deal in Cairo, Egypt. Unfortunately, just like in the past, there is a great chance that this deal will break. First, there was an assassination attempt on the PA Prime Minister, Rami Hamdallah when he was on the Israeli border crossing.

And now this happened last week. The Palestinians gathered in the buffer zone peacefully, waving their flags, but the Israeli soldiers shot 15 unarmed protesters and wounded 773 people on the first day only. But the event didn’t go unnoticed. Respected figures around the world such as Pope Francis and Human Rights Watch condemned the killings, and this may give Palestinians the opportunity to do something big. But this is no consolation to the families of the dead.

To end on a positive note, Palestinians found a way to express outside the factional interests and this time the world cannot and must not turn a blind eye.