Trump makes the Gulf States powerful, but the actual test is: Can you stop Israel's war? | Nesrine Malik

DOnald Trump's visit to the Middle East last week was an exercise in disorientation. With regard to the new equalization of the relationship between the USA and the region as well as in the crawling of perceptions. In Riad he told the Saudi Royals that there would be no “lectures on life”. He picked up sanctions against Syria so that the country has a “new beginning”, and he recorded the camels and a wasteful architecture (“as Baumann”, he said in a Qatar Palace “This is perfect marble”). Trump has never appeared in his element, surrounded by the wealth of the sovereign, the Marshalle-Kraft absolute monarchies and its calculated self-orientalization and exaggerated flattering.

The same man who came into force the Muslim ban in his first term, walked through mosques and shrugged the radical path to the power of the Syrian president: his demand to recognize the new role of the Gulf States as a political and economic power plants and to take their leadership, whatever the story is, is unbearable. Because it shows how painfully sclerotic and inconsistent previous administrations were. Joe Biden promised to take a hard line with the Saudi government for her role in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi and in the Yemen war and then seemed to forget or notice that he could not hold out. There is no such mixed signal transmission from Trump: they are rich, we need them. You do you.

The Democrats gave lectures while they did not enforce the standards of international law. Trump waived the pretext of international law as a whole, ending the theater that the United States was always a virtuous protagonist in the region. The result is a transactionalism of the same, the billion dollars and the strong pro quos, which are reduced within sight. For the three golf people in which Trump visited, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, Trump's recognition of their colossal national projects in economic transformation and political positioning in relation to foreign policy solved an appetite to see. To be recognized, not only so wealthy Ignores that you manage, but also sophisticated power brokers for yourself.

There is a certain brand that is still financed to shape politics in the region and diversify from natural resources. Take the financing of a devastating war in Sudan in the United Arab Emirates to grasp the African continent, and at the other end of the spectrum as the calm creation of Qatar as the state of negotiation in the world.

It is clear that the focus of the United States changes from European capitals and transatlantic alliances in the direction of a region in which he does not disrupt him with moral convictions about Ukraine, no annoying affair of a voting publication that you have to worry about, and it enthuses that he invests to invest and flutter fluttering. Keir Starrer can have a good stabbing to bring Trump on page by offering a “historical” royal invitation for a state visit, but can he project the stars and stripes to the highest building in the world?

But Trump's journey has a fundamental disjointment that was recognizable in parts of the state media and political statements in the Middle East last week. When Israel increased his strikes in Gaza and meant his lack of interest in a sensible ceasefire, there was an increasing lying down to convict the attack. When Trump was recorded with the US flag, a severe problem could not be addressed – that he leads the country that delivers weapons and political support for a military campaign that destabilizes the region.

It was a separation that characterized the entire trip. Under all the emphatic languages ​​and pictures of a block of rising forces, the question remained what exactly this force could be used for. Is it just one that gives these states the right to end their economies through cheaper trade relationships with the United States? And gives you the license, foreign policy escapades and projects on your own lawn without being afraid of criticism or “lecture”? Or is it the power that can be selected to influence the political results sensibly and convince the United States to change the course on Israel-Palestine, a topic that is now not only in the heart of the Middle East, but only Arab politics.

The war has now expanded to Lebanon and Syria, Jordan and Egypt are under extreme pressure, and even in allegedly undisputed monarchies, it is a public opinion and a PR hot potato that needs to be treated very carefully. Trump still buys his ethnic cleaning plan, which aims to resettle people from Gaza this time to Libya, and the dynamics of the early day of his administration to secure a ceasefire, has now disappeared because Israel strengthens its campaign to fill more parts of the Gaza. When lavish scenes developed over the Golf and Trump commented on the quality of marble, there was an inevitable idea – no food, water or medicine in Gaza has been allowed in months.

The question of the limits of this new US teacher offering is crucial to correctly appreciate what has just happened. Because although it looked like something historical had taken place that Trump had broken the cobbles of old foreign policy in the region with orthodoxes and made overtures that overturn the decades old tropics and perceptions, there is still nothing to happen where it is most important. If these forces still have no ability to determine what happens in their own backyards, no ability to stabilize and determine the political future of the region, or actually take over the coat of leadership in which they have power and responsibility to save other Arabs from hunger, repression and bullying, then everything is detailed theater with a level of economic impression. No lecture is nice, but the master of her own fate is everything that is really important.