Trump’s regional priorities
Yet Netanyahu offers nothing in return. He wants unconditional and open- ended negotiations to take place with the Palestinians.
Under President Trump, Israel’s right- wing parties see a golden opportunity to bury the two- state solution and, with it, the principle of an independent Palestinian state. For them the West Bank, which they call Judea and Samaria, is an organic component of the state of Israel. If the Palestinians want a state of their own they should go to Gaza or Jordan. Those who stay can enjoy limited self- rule, a proposal that goes back to the 1970s, while ceding all other rights.
Netanyahu is an opportunist and while he may agree ideologically with his right- wing partners, he will not slam the door shut in the face of Palestinian aspirations — at least not now. He has used the regional chaos that resulted from the socalled Arab Spring to marginalize President Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian issue. He has successfully diverted attention from his aggressive settlement expansion to the growing Iranian influence in the region and the threat of “Islamist terror.”
While the Europeans continue to insist on the veracity of the twostate solution, this is not the case in the US. A pro- Israel US Congress and now a prejudiced tenant of the White House provide the perfect opportunity to wage a final assault on the two- state solution and the concept of a negotiated settlement.
With Trump showing indifference to the two- state solution, Israel’s far right is putting pressure on Netanyahu to go as far as annexing major chunks of the West Bank and undercutting any hope for the creation of a viable and contiguous Palestinian state.
Meanwhile, Trump is considering holding a regional peace conference this summer that aims at cobbling together a coalition that includes Arab states and Israel to confront Iranian expansion. He sees a growing role for Egypt as was evident in the recent meeting with President Abdel Fattah El- Sisi in the Oval Office.
How this approach will reflect on the fate of the Arab Peace Initiative, and by extension the Palestinian issue, is unclear. More will come out when Trump meets Abbas later this month. Trump promised to strike a bigger and better deal between Israel and the Palestinians, but that remains improbable if the legal parameters are abandoned. What is evident is that Trump’s priorities — Iran and terror — override any other issue. Osama Al-Sharif is a journalist and political commentator based in Amman.