The Arab world stands at a crossroads – a moment of truth which depends on the unified leadership of the region and moral clarity. While President Trump arrives in the Gulf this week, seeking strategic investments and partnerships, the opportunity for regional peace and security is extremely clear. Arab leaders should clearly explain to President Trump that peace and economic development in the Middle East are at hand and depend on a critical condition: the admission of Palestine to the United Nations as its 194th Member State.
In order for this to become a reality, the United States must lift its veto on the entrance to Palestine to the UN. While the president meets regional partners, he should hear an unambiguous message of his counterparts: all the Arab partnerships with the United States and of course with Israel depend on lasting peace through the solution to two states, which the United States can cause.
What is at stake is not simply a diplomatic negotiation. The two -state solution is a practical imperative and an international determination test. There can be no peace in the region, and no long -term development, if Israel continues to make its way through Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and others. Israel must be forced – by diplomacy – to live within its own borders and to allow Palestine to live within its legal borders, those of June 4, 1967. If the United States supported the admission of Palestine to the UN, this will happen.
The issues could not be higher. The United States would receive an investment windfall. The Middle East would reach normality and the basis of a wave of economic development, and Israel and Palestine would live in peace.
The Trump administration, in a significant difference in previous administrations, is heading towards a foreign policy focused on the pragmatic diplomacy of the agreement.
Under his direction, the diplomatic negotiation channels were opened with Iran – while the two countries enter their fourth cycle of negotiations in Oman concerning nuclear talks. President Trump has repeatedly declared his desire to reach a consensus: “I think we are going to conclude an agreement with Iran”, and is even willing to meet the Iranian president. Likewise, the United States has concluded a cease-fire agreement with the Houthis in Yemen last week, an encouraging step for world trade and stability. Another daring diplomatic maneuver is the direct negotiations of the United States with Hamas, which led to the Liberation of Storm Edan Alexander.
He has become more and more clear that President Trump above all hold strategic interests and that he correctly considers peace as a global strategic interest of his country. This results in real peace potential in the Middle East.
The enemies of peace in the extremist government of Israel want us to believe that there is an intrinsic and almost innate reason for the war against Palestine to continue. In essentially racist terms, Netanyahu and his fellow men argue that peace with the Palestinians, based on Palestinian political self -determination and autonomy, is impossible. The result is the brutal destruction of Israel and the de facto annexation of Gaza and the current war of Israel against the Palestinians in the West Bank.
The Netanyahu government has two main interests: continuing the war in Gaza and in the West Bank to block a Palestinian state and lead the United States in the direct confrontation with Iran. Both are contrary to American interests.
This Israeli government is now completely isolated in the international community. Even the United Kingdom, previously a fervent supporter of the Netanyahu War, has moved its position. The Minister of the Middle East, Hamish Falconer, said that the government’s position was “clear”: “We firmly oppose the expansion of Israel’s operations. Any attempt to annex land to Gaza would be unacceptable. “
The vast majority of UN member states have already demonstrated their support for the two -state solution, more recently by adopting the resolution of the United Nations General Assembly. The will of the global community is clear: the illegal occupation of Israel must end and a Palestinian state must be established in accordance with international law. This is possible under the United Nations coat, this next June, at the high -level international conference on Palestine.
Peace was the clear generational position of the Arab States League, the organization of Islamic cooperation and all regional partners. The Arab Peace Initiative (API), adopted at the top of Beirut in 2002 and reiterated in a coherent manner over the years, requires the withdrawal of Israel from the occupied territory and the establishment of a Palestinian State as a basis for peace and diplomatic normalization with Israel.
President Trump and Arab leaders have a historic opportunity this week to end a conflict that has raged for a century. By adopting the two -state solution, Trump would not only bring peace to Israel and Palestine, but also in Lebanon, Syria and Iran. An agreement between the United States and Iran concerning nuclear non-proliferation and the end of American sanctions against Iran would be immediately at hand. The belligerents could lay down their weapons and reconstruction and economic development could reach the fore. In short, this week offers the United States and the Arab world to make history, for the benefit of the entire Middle East, especially in Israel and Palestine, and for the benefit of the whole world.
The opinions expressed in this article are the own authors and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Tel Aviv Tribune.