Daily Times

In the rush of one Muslim state after another formally recognising Israel it is easy to forget how the Palestinians must be feeling about all this. US President Trump might be about to leave the White House but his legacy in the Middle East will echo for a long time to come. For even as he reluctantly bows out, and a very different administration prepares to settle down, his influence on some Muslim states at least with regard to Israel has not lessened. And news reports now indicate that two more countries are preparing to make very significant announcements.

No doubt the Palestinians feel betrayed by these developments. For the longest time they had relied on the prospect of recognition by Muslim countries, especially that surround Israel, as the bargaining chip that would ultimately deliver them the so-called two-state solution. Alas that is no longer possible and it is pretty clear that Arab countries have adopted Donald Trump’s way of thinking; that the Palestinians should finally accept the status quo and stop making such a fuss about their homeland. One would think that they would be grateful to countries like Pakistan and Malaysia, which simply refuse to have anything to do with the Jewish state till the Palestinian issue is settled once and for all, but realistically this is also just symbolic help and cannot really help them in any way at all.

The fact is that the two-state solution died before it could ever come to life. And the only plausible solution that could have been worked towards was in fact a one-state solution with Jerusalem as the capital of both the Jewish and the Muslim state. But now that is also no longer possible. And poor, dispossessed Palestinians now have no choice but to accept their refugee camps scattered across more than a dozen countries as their permanent residences. To be fair, it was only a matter of time before Muslim, especially Arab, countries came out like this. Everybody knew about Israel’s deep and effective leverage over the White House and the US State Department. And all that was needed was somebody like Donald Trump to win the US election for all the chips to fall into place. Now everyone is looking forward to a better future; everyone except the Palestinians, unfortunately. *