Your Excellency, US President Donald Trump, for the first time in the Arab world since the Tripartite Aggression against Egypt in 1956 and President Dwight Eisenhower’s position that forced Britain, France and Israel to halt the attack, the Arab world witnessed an initiative of the magnitude you imposed to halt the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip.
You deserve thanks for that, as it has done justice to the Arab allies of the United States. For the second time since 1956, Tel Aviv knows the limits of American support and has stopped there. Meanwhile, it exploited Hamas’ reckless adventure on Oct 7, 2023 to put imaginary plans on the table based on the illusion of ‘Greater Israel’ and rule of the Middle East, seeing this as its greatest opportunity. Today, the world is much different than it was during the Tripartite Aggression or the 1967 War.
Consequently, any step toward peace in this region is fraught with risks unless a leader is available who can impose his will, and this is what you did in halting the Gaza War. As Your Excellency said before, this is the basis of your efforts to end a conflict that has lasted for 3,000 years and has gone through many stages.
Many states and empires have passed through the Middle East, prevailing and then vanishing. Geography and civilizations have remained, while the people have changed. Today, you are writing a new page in the history of this region, the title of which is your initiative, which put things in their proper place, even if it is late, for several reasons that cannot be discussed this time.
Had the will been present weeks after the war began, humanity might have saved thousands of lives on both sides. Here, it must be noted that the leaders of the region are not prophets, and each has his own calculations. Nevertheless, a fair solution was imposed on both sides – the Arabs and Palestinians on one side, and Israel on the other side.
This, in itself, is a major achievement and an important step in the quest for peace in the region. For eight decades, Tel Aviv has been trading peace and seeking war in order to force further concessions from the Arabs and seize territory, so that its enemies could forget their previous losses. The first time it stopped at the limits of its ambitions was when the late President Anwar Sadat imposed peace.
In contrast, the Arabs were losing their cards every time, because they rejected solutions and exploited war despite the lack of a force that could enable them to enter the negotiating table from a winning position. On the other hand, Israeli leaders exploited Arab rhetoric to gain more western and international support -- both material and moral. They achieved this by exploiting the Jewish influence globally and attempting to atone for the guilt of the West in World War II.
Mr. President, an Arab proverb says, “Greed destroys what it has gathered.” This is the case in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu deluded himself into believing that the more he persisted in the war, the more he could achieve Jewish ambitions in the Middle East. However, what happened over the past few days was the greatest shift in the Israeli path.
The cessation of war in the Gaza Strip is, in effect, a prelude to halting Israeli ambitions in the region. The United Nations’ unanimous recognition of the Palestinian state, as well as the global public opinion’s shift against Israel due to its brutal practices, have proven once again that violence cannot resolve conflicts, and that no party, no matter how powerful, can impose its terms. Only dialogue and realistic peace initiatives can achieve peaceful coexistence in the Middle East and stop the bloodshed between Arabs and Israelis. Mr. Trump has achieved this. Mr. White House, the Middle East has a vast geography, and 400 million people of all races, religions and ethnicities live here.
