February 07, 2025
By Nasser Kandil
• The essence of what U.S. President Donald Trump stated – whether about displacing Gaza’s population or annexing the West Bank to the occupying entity – signals, regardless of the feasibility of these propositions, that negotiations are no longer seen as a pathway to resolving the Palestinian issue. In fact, from Washington and Tel Aviv’s perspective, there is no Palestinian issue at all.
• By aligning itself fully with Tel Aviv in declaring the end of the Palestinian cause and its liquidation, Washington is not throwing a challenge at the resistance forces, which have long warned against relying on the U.S. to rein in Israeli expansionism. The resistance has always asserted: Do not waste time on the illusion of negotiations, and do not believe that anything other than resistance can keep the Palestinian cause alive. Instead, this American move directly challenges Arab and Palestinian factions that built their political rhetoric around countering the resistance’s approach – those who spoke with certainty that their standing with the U.S. alone could protect Palestinian rights and restore them.
• The official responses from the so-called Arab moderate governments – particularly Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan, with the Palestinian Authority taking a more subdued stance – represent a positive step in the right direction. They have rejected settlement expansion, forced displacement, and territorial annexation while reaffirming that the establishment of a Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital, remains the sole solution based on the 1967 borders. Additionally, Saudi Arabia has explicitly linked any potential normalisation with Israel to this condition.
• The pressing question, however, is how the Arab moderates will translate their rejection of Trump’s proposals into action. Words, despite their significance, remain insufficient unless followed by tangible steps. Will we see a revival of Palestinian national unity, with a consensus government managing Gaza and receiving Arab backing that does not hinge on Israeli approval? Will the Rafah crossing be opened, reconstruction efforts in Gaza supported, and its people enabled to remain steadfast?
• The U.S. seeks to compensate the occupying entity for the losses it suffered during the war – especially its failure to secure occupation, enforce displacement, and eliminate the resistance. But for this plan to succeed, the Arab response must remain confined to rhetoric, while the Palestinian Authority must acquiesce to the annexation of the West Bank without resistance, despite effectively being erased from the equation.
