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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.

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