How do we thwart the next annexation?

After the appointments made by President-elect Donald Trump, it has become clear that the worst that we and others warned about is coming with force.

The worst means resuming normalization and integrating Israel into the region at the expense of the Palestinian cause, continuing the genocide and displacement in the Gaza Strip, working to re-engineer the Strip geographically and humanely, and crystallizing a Palestinian administration under actual occupation and Israeli control with apparent Arab, regional, and international supervision, in addition to continuing the gradual nibbling, creeping annexation, and joint aggression between the occupation army and armed settler groups on the West Bank.

In addition to this, the revival of the Deal of the Century or a worse version of it, where the reference to the Palestinian state is deleted (or not deleted). However, with a guarantee that it does not possess the components of a state except in name, while the settlements, settlement blocs, and the Jordan Valley are cut off from it, and control over water sources, vital, strategic, and archaeological sites, and nature reserves is taken away; that is, all or most of the areas classified as (C), which constitute more than 60% of the area of the West Bank, in addition to the deportation of hundreds of thousands of our people inside to the lands of the future state, as stated in the text of the Trump deal.

The essential and fateful question: Is the success of this plan inevitable and inevitable, and that all that can be done is to fall under it, or coexist with it and seek to obtain crumbs under the name of improving the standard of living of the Palestinians?

Or is there another option based on the fact that annexing the West Bank or large parts of it and displacing millions of Palestinians is not an easy goal to achieve? For the simple reason that most of the 15 million Palestinians around the world will reject this fate, and half of them are steadfast and clinging to their homeland, and are ready to continue the struggle and resistance in all forms and to make the most precious sacrifices no matter how long it takes, as has been proven since the emergence of the Palestinian cause until now, because they believe that they are right and that they have a message, and that their cause is just and morally superior and enjoys broad support from world public opinion and most countries of the world, especially in the East and South.

Even if we assume for the sake of argument that the occupying state has annexed Area C or large parts of it, and that the Trump administration has blessed this step as it did during his first term in office, through the Trump deal, recognition of the annexation of Jerusalem, the transfer of the US embassy to it, and the rest of the known steps it has taken, this will not be the end of the road. Rather, the resistance will continue, and the annexation will be illegitimate and illegal, just as colonial settlement, occupation, and apartheid are illegitimate and illegal. This will open the doors of conflict in the region wide open, because the American-Zionist plan includes fueling the conflict between Arab countries, especially in the Arabian Gulf, and Iran, and milking Arab wealth through arms purchase deals and lowering oil prices, in addition to tightening the region’s economies more closely to the American and Western economies.

These American-Israeli steps will also, at the appropriate time, open the doors to the displacement of millions of Palestinians to the surrounding countries, especially Egypt and Jordan, and this constitutes a threat to the security and stability of these countries, and to the normalization of relations between the occupying state and the Arab and Islamic countries, and the integration of Israel into the region and making it a central, dominant state, and this inflicts the most serious damage to the interests, goals and rights of the peoples and countries of the Arab region, and the Middle East as a whole.

The dilemma we face is that some influential Palestinians and Arabs believe that they have no choice but to wait and see what we will do after Trump’s policy becomes clear, or else to engage in the scheme, due to the lack of the ability to confront it, and under the pretext of saving what can be saved, and obtaining the crumbs that they see as better than nothing.

Some of these people go too far, wanting to convince themselves or mislead others that there is a new Trump who is different from the old Trump, because he is stronger after winning the popular vote and the Electoral College, and after his party obtained the majority in the Senate and the House of Representatives, and in light of his control over the Supreme Court, and because he does not need the votes of the Zionist pressure groups because he will not run again, or that he will take revenge on Netanyahu due to his betrayal of him and congratulating Biden... etc.

They repeat these nonsense despite the fact that the appointments made by Trump do not leave room for error in assessments, and that he will continue with his previous policy, perhaps in a worse way and more quickly if he does not find someone to stop him, and through the emergence of sufficient indicators that he will lose if he returns to liquidating the Palestinian cause, he, despite his doctrine, connections and madness, believes in making profitable deals and avoiding losses away from institutions, values and ethics, and this requires taking immediate measures and determining a list of measures that will be taken by the Palestinians, Arabs, regionally, Europeans and internationally if the annexation is implemented, and this includes the occupying state, the United States and all those who stand with them.

The response begins with a correct diagnosis of the reality, challenges, risks and opportunities. The correct diagnosis is half the cure. There is a difference between seeing that the new Trump is bad and perhaps worse than the previous one, and those who consider him good and will stop the wars and solve the Palestinian issue with a fair or balanced solution.

The other required step is to put the Palestinian house in order, based on a realistic national program that embodies common denominators, and achieves unity of authority, political system and leadership, and the subordination of weapons and all forms of work and struggle to a single agreed-upon national strategy, and through the implementation of the Beijing Declaration, and focusing on stopping the genocide, relief, withdrawal and reconstruction, and opening a political horizon capable of ending the occupation and achieving independence, because stopping the aggression alone, despite its importance, without reconstruction opens the doors to displacement that will take the name of immigration.

It is not the way to escape to say that the Palestinian leadership has chosen a policy of waiting and distancing itself to avoid genocide, and that it will not put its head under the guillotine alongside Hamas’s head. The plan to liquidate the Palestinian cause began before October 7 and will continue after it if the requirements to thwart it are not available. Therefore, we see the leadership evading completing the end of the division and restoring unity, and aiming through internal communications and meetings to convince Hamas to give up everything, even any real participation from above or under the table; this is by not participating in the national consensus government, which is a matter of national consensus, nor in anything, including the formation of the administrative committee or the community support committee, which is supposed to be formed by President Mahmoud Abbas alone by presidential decree and its reference and budget are from the disputed government, without activating the temporary leadership framework on the path to rebuilding the institutions of the PLO, and even without compensation or the approval of the occupying state or guaranteeing Washington’s approval, especially the new Trump administration.

There is absolutely no need to form an administrative committee or community support, but forming it before or without forming a national unity government is a grave mistake, as it creates a governmental framework separate from the authority after the president issues a decree regarding it, and it is intended to be an alternative to Hamas and Abbas and under Arab, regional and international supervision (guardianship) and under Israeli control.

The policy of disassociation and not giving priority to achieving unity will not save the leadership, will not preserve power, will not prevent the revival of the Trump deal, and will not prevent the annexation and even the coming genocide and displacement in the West Bank if the plan is successful. Rather, it will help the leadership achieve it quickly and at the lowest cost.

The Palestinian role required of the current leadership, American and Israeli, is that of the male bee; that is, pollination and then getting rid of it. The Authority is not wanted to return to Gaza, nor is there a single authority in the West Bank, nor does it want to lead a state, because the Israelis do not want any embodiment of a single national identity that keeps the road to establishing a Palestinian state open.

Steps required to confront Trump and Israel:

First: Withdraw recognition of the occupying state that does not recognize any Palestinian rights and is committing genocide in Gaza and creeping annexation and gradual extermination in the West Bank, within a real unity based on a new comprehensive approach that includes changing the balance of power to pave the way for a political process that is radically different from the previous one, and begin forming a unified Palestinian delegation to negotiate the cessation of aggression, the prisoner exchange deal, and everything else. This is a war on all Palestinians, and Hamas should not negotiate alone. This will reduce the pressure on Hamas and strengthen the Palestinian negotiating position. If any party fails to do so, unity and joint action must begin between all those who believe that unity is a necessity and the law of victory for any national liberation movement.

Second: Building a comprehensive Arab position that defends Palestinian and Arab rights, especially the Saudi role, because the focus will be on dragging Riyadh into normalization, and blocking the path to integrating Israel into the region by skipping the Palestinian issue. If this happens - that is, integrating Israel - it will dwarf Saudi Arabia, fragment the Arabs even more, and cause the most serious damage to Arab interests and rights.

This common Arab position is based on the fact that a new world is advancing, albeit slowly, and an old world is collapsing, and that the Arab countries, especially the Gulf countries, are now in a better position, and that they have economic relations with China, Russia, and Iran that are much greater than their relations with America.

Third: Building an alliance, or at least good neighborly relations and Arab-Iranian-Turkish cooperation, to block the blackmail of the Gulf states and milk their wealth, under the pretext of protecting them from the Iranian threat that portrays Tehran as an enemy of the Arabs, by continuing the path of improving Saudi-Arab-Iranian relations that began with the Beijing Declaration in March 2023. Perhaps the improvement in relations between a number of Arab countries and Iran, and what was stated in the statement of the recent Arab-Islamic summit regarding condemning the aggression against Iran, and the readiness, as reported in the news, for a joint Iranian-Saudi military maneuver are indications of this path.

Fourth: Establishing a global alliance that includes Europe, China, Russia, and the countries of the South, which will all be harmed by Trump’s “America First” policy, as well as all supporters of the Palestinian cause, in order to end the occupation and achieve the independence of the State of Palestine on the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital, as a step towards a radical and historic solution that achieves justice. A comprehensive solution to all dimensions of the Palestinian cause, based on defeating the colonial-settler project and dismantling the apartheid system.

Let us begin taking the necessary steps immediately, and determine and prepare to take the necessary steps if the Trump deal is re-introduced, or if the genocidal war continues and annexation is implemented, and we ask the Arabs, the region, Europe and the world to follow suit.