We may not soon, or perhaps never, reach negotiations on the eighteenth point of U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war of extermination in Gaza and pave the way for a “peace” between Israel and the Palestinians. However, inserting what is called “interfaith dialogue” as one of the foundations for “opening the horizon for the Palestinian people to exercise their right to self-determination” is not an innocent phrase. It aims to overturn the roots of the conflict.
According to the eighteenth clause of the “Twenty-Step Plan,” Washington will launch an interfaith dialogue process to understand the parties to the conflict – meaning Jews and Muslims – in order to change ways of thinking and narratives, and to plant the values of “peaceful coexistence” within a distorted concept of “accepting the other.” In the Israeli-Palestinian context, “accepting the other” does not require any change in the Zionist project, but rather its continuation with Palestinian acceptance, presented as evidence of the Palestinians’ willingness to renounce hatred and accept what Israel imposes.
In other words, the vision – regardless of who drafted it for Trump – neither acknowledges nor leads to the Palestinian people’s exercise of their right to self-determination. Instead, it treats this right as a favour, a charitable gesture bestowed by Israel upon the Palestinian people after they have proven their “good behaviour.”
Most importantly, accepting America’s initiation of an interfaith dialogue would shield Israel from any judicial or international sanctions, since the Palestinian cause would then be reduced to a religious conflict – one not to be resolved through international legitimacy or U.N. Security Council resolutions, but through “understanding between religions.”
[by LameesAndouni in Al-Araby Al-Jadeed]
Why No Nobel for Trump?
I wondered, like many others, why Donald Trump did not win the Nobel Peace Prize this year, even though he played ‘important roles’ in achieving and establishing peace in various parts of the world. It wasn’t only Trump himself who said this, but others repeated it as well. As mentioned in an article in The Washington Post on October 9, “Trump not only deserves the prize, but he is more worthy of it than any of the American presidents who have previously received it.”
During his first term, he succeeded in securing four Arab–Israeli peace agreements; and in his second term, he contributed to peace between Congo and Rwanda, India and Pakistan, Thailand and Cambodia, and Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Finally, Trump’s ‘peace plan’ between Israel and Hamas came, which is according to the paper, “cornered the Palestinian movement – either to accept the deal, or bear alone the responsibility for the continued suffering of Gaza’s people.”
However, what The Washington Post saw as achievements did not persuade the Nobel Committee that Trump met the prize’s standards namely, the pursuit of peace, disarmament, and international solidarity, for he did not strive to achieve them. On the international level, Trump sought isolation from the global community: he withdrew his country from the World Health Organisation, from the Paris Climate Agreement, and from international tax accords.
He also drastically reduced U.S. foreign aid and dissolved the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which had contributed to vaccination campaigns and hunger relief efforts in sub-Saharan Africa – an action that could lead to the loss of 14 million lives, including 4 million children under the age of five.
[by Usamah Al-Ghazali Harb in Al-Ahram]
Compiled and translated by Faizul Haque