Skip to main content

What do Trump's comments mean for the future of the Middle East?


Throughout the media in the last week, there has been widespread criticism of President Trump’s recent comments, recognising Jerusalem as the true capital of Israel.

There has remained conflict between Israel and their neighbours Palestine on this issue, and many more underlying ones at that, for most of modern history so far as we know it.

And by choosing to side with the Israelis, Trump has put America against the rest of the international community – all the most significant governments in the world back Palestine in the long-running struggle.

Not only this, but he has also further unsettled a region that the Western powers have already significantly interfered with, and unsurprisingly, riots have broken out in Palestine, Turkey and other countries in the area. Their governments are understandably likely to take a more robust stance on this issue, as most are Islamic – and Jerusalem is their Holy Land. The President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan has claimed that Trump’s comments are ‘throwing the region into a ring of fire’.

So, this is understandably another perilous complication to the already very politically fragile area, but what does it mean for the future of the Middle East and Western relations with them?

Obviously, it has had the exact adverse effect that Trump either wanted or anticipated (presuming he advocates an end to conflict there). It is hard to say what his motives are, if perhaps it was part of a longer-term project to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Middle Eastern leaders wouldn’t be as shocked as they are.

Most depends on whether his international allies back him up, and the attitude of the Arab Gulf rulers in and around the area. Many of these rulers publicly support Palestine, and this brings issues when it comes to both diplomacy between America and these Middle Eastern countries.

Trump’s decisions to go against their beliefs will always cast doubt into these leaders’ minds now as to whether they can trust the Americans to be acting in their best interests – key to any settled relations with them.

On a closer front, many of Trump’s European allies have condemned his actions, and this further casts a doubt over him as President. Seemingly he is isolating himself and probably the most powerful country in the world from many other influential countries – except Israel.

Another point to perhaps touch on briefly, would be the impact on terrorism that acts like these have. Most people naturally conclude that terrorism is at an ever-increasing alarmingly high rate in the West, and it can only be said that making unnecessary strife like this in the area is clearly detrimental in this regard – it would not surprise me if Trump’s comments are used as hate propaganda by extremist groups in many of the countries that oppose his decision.

All considered, with fresh violent clashes emerging between Israelis and Palestinians this weekend, Trump’s motives are hard to identify.

In a wider context, violence is only increasing in the Middle East, and confusion grows within as to who their supporters are. With the EU on the side of the Palestinians and America supporting the Israelis, for the people that reside there, it must seem like there is no organised foreign policy from the Western world.

Of course, that is just guesswork. But the suggestion alone does signify the danger of meddling in their affairs.

We don’t often realise it, but Western authority isn’t popular in that region. And further interference might create more problems than it solves.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

As Western governments wilfully ignore events in Palestine, they have lost the trust of their own people - and crucially, the Global South

It does not take a genius to spot the obvious contradictions in geopolitical narratives of Western governments and media evident over the past few decades. The US' post-9/11 botched "war on terror", that created a generation of instability in the Middle East, has served as the driver for European countries to lament the subsequent influx of migrants and legitimise the xenophobic desires of far-right parties. More recently, the same states have rightfully isolated Russia for their invasion of Ukraine - despite the similarity to their atrocities after 2001. Yet in the past three months, they have managed to brazenly exhibit their hypocrisy to an extent that I, and evidently many others, find astounding. And any long-time readers will know I've been more than happy to highlight duplicity of Western countries on this blog, so that should tell you something about how bizarre recent events feel. Source: UNRWA, via The Wire In response to the militant group Hamas' terror...
Post a Comment
Read more

With an election upon us, we must make sure to get some long-awaited change

 Hasn’t the last five years felt like a long time?  In the run up to the December 2019 General Election four and a half years ago, I remember using social media to say “do your own research, and go vote for whatever you believe in”. There was, and still is, some reason in that - youth turnout in politics is still so lamentably low, and it’s partly why we see political change that does nothing to help young people. So do please vote on Thursday. But perhaps I was overly naïve in the run-up to that election, because things are a lot different now. In 2019, I was disenfranchised with the political system, cynical of all politicians looking to support their own political careers. After the wave of Jeremy Corbyn’s unexpected result in 2017,  why was it to be too different this time? And would it have had that much of a consequence? The last five years have laid bare everything I could - and maybe should - have learnt before. There are no positive words to describe what Boris J...
Post a Comment
Read more

Divisive politics: In defence of the "woke"

Waking up the morning of November 8th, to the new of Donald Trump's re-election as U.S President - I sighed. There was none of the shock or disappointment of his initial election eight years earlier, or the anger and incredulity of 6th January 2021, where Trump's emboldened supporters stormed the U.S Capitol building for the most ridiculous coup d'état attempt.  No, instead, there was a grim sense of inevitability about the most divisive figure in modern global politics becoming the most powerful man in the world for a second time.  Trump's election is symbolic. For this is a man who, since his formal intention to run for President in 2015 - has thrived on propelling division and hatred. Some of his many moments include  questioning  the legitimacy of Obama's birth certificate, making policy announcements on social media, and telling people to drink bleach to protect against COVID-19.  It comes at a time where society seems at a crossroads, as social media misin...
Post a Comment
Read more