Trump, Netanyahu Rekindling Ties Signal Chaos

As US President Donald Trump completes a month in office, his words and actions continue to perilously destabilize the internal politics of America and the country’s diplomatic and social ties triggering grave repercussions.

Within a short time span, he has acquired the new tag of a callous and arrogant dictator from that of an immature president due to his own actions. The trump era began with measures that stoked up controversies. It started with rolling back ObamaCare, followed by banning people and immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries, imposing restrictions along the borders, constructing a border wall between US and Mexico, policies against the European Union, the clandestine ties with Russian president Vladimir Putin, the open war with the Western media, his immature, indecent and ill-timed tweets, abusing the office of President by mixing the Trump family business with presidency, favoritism in appointments to higher positions, dismantling the environment pollution regulations enacted by the Obama administration, moves to curb the foreign employees and policies to cut down tax for corporate companies. The latest stance of Trump administration that the US would no longer insist on the creation of a Palestinian state as part of the peace accord between Israel and Palestinians, to achieve peace in West Asia, has sparked off another debate.

The Oslo Accords were jointly signed in 1993 by Yasser Arafat, and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in Washington backed by the then US president Bill Clinton and was aimed at achieving the two-state solution for restoring peace in the region. The agreement was sharply criticized within Palestine and outside as it was believed to intensify Israel’s occupation of the region and violation of rights of the Palestinians.

Other than Arafat, Shimon Peres and Rabin receiving the Nobel Prize for Peace, it did not in any way benefit the Palestinians. According to the report released by a human rights organization B’Tselem, functioning in Israel, the largest demolition of Palestinian homes and occupation in the region in the last 12 years, took place in 2016. America would not criticize or oppose the illegal settlement activity going on in West Bank and East Jerusalem. At the same time, recognising the Israeli occupation till 1967, and leaving the region to Palestine with Gaza and West Bank forming a permanent independent Palestine state with East Jerusalem as its capital has been the stance of the US for the past two decades. After Trump-Netanyahu meeting, the US president has dropped the decades-long policy insisting on a two-state solution. The incidents are seen as a start of shifting the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

US under the Obama administration had notably abstained when the UN passed a resolution last year end prohibiting Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestine territory. Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu has struck back through Trump’s latest declaration. UN Secretary General António Guterres and Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit have come down heavily against the US withdrawing from the two-state solution. In the wake of the transition of power, US alleging bias on part of UN over Palestine defies logic. The new policy of the Donald Trump administration will pave way for Israel, the Zionist nation driven by racism to continue violating international laws and aggravate racial discriminations destabilizing the West Asian politics. Israel is prepping for military offensives against Iran.

The West Asian visit of the new Defence Secretary of the US, James Mattis, who holds a strong grudge towards Iran, is aimed at forming an alliance against Iran. Given the changed political scenario, the Gulf visits of Iran President Hassan Rouhani is for charting out strategies for the safety of Iran. Turkey’s president Erdogan paying a visit to King Salman in Riyadh might be foreseeing the mounting clouds of political challenges. He continues to stick to his diplomatic moves for restoring political stability in Syria and Yemen. The remarks during the joint press conference at the White House by Trump and Netanyahu could be the first shot signaling the lurking crisis, of the West Asian politics being plunged into chaos by Israel’s new political agenda with Trump in the forefront.