Trump in the service of the Palestinian cause!!

Although US President Donald Trump clearly seeks to serve Israel by escalating threats against the Palestinians, these policies may lead to unexpected results that ultimately serve the Palestinian cause rather than weaken it. Rather than pushing the Palestinians to surrender or emigrate, the threats generate new ideas for resistance, strengthen internal unity, and reveal Israel’s true face to the world, thus returning the Palestinian cause to the center of international attention.

The more threats to the Palestinian existence increase, the more Palestinians invent new ways to confront the occupation. At every critical stage, Palestinians face challenges with unconventional methods, whether at the level of popular, military, or even legal and diplomatic resistance. For example, the long siege on the Gaza Strip did not lead to the surrender of the population, but rather turned the Strip into a center for innovation in means of defense and attack, despite all the restrictions imposed on it. The return marches that began in 2018 were another model for re-imposing the issue of the right of return on the international agenda, after the Trump administration tried to undermine it by stopping support for UNRWA and moving the US embassy to Jerusalem.

The direct threat of deporting Palestinians or annexing large parts of the West Bank is reordering priorities within the Palestinian ranks, as political differences recede in the face of the existential danger that threatens everyone. In previous crises, such as the first and second intifadas, repressive Israeli policies strengthened unity among Palestinians and made resistance to the occupation the top priority. Today, as threats escalate, calls are increasing to unify the Palestinian ranks, whether among factions or among Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza, and the occupied territories, because everyone realizes that the conflict is no longer merely political, but has become a struggle for survival.

Internationally, the Trump administration appears to be doing the Palestinians an unintended favor by exposing Israel’s true face to the world. For years, Israel has tried to present itself as a peace-seeking nation, but when the United States adopts a public discourse that talks about forcibly displacing Palestinians or annexing their lands, Israel loses the moral cover it had been hiding behind. These policies strengthen Palestinian positions in international institutions, and prompt organizations like the United Nations and the International Criminal Court to reconsider escalating pressure on Israel, as happened when the Trump administration moved the US embassy to Jerusalem, which led to a broad international consensus against the decision and politically isolated Washington.

In parallel, Trump’s policies are helping to bring the Palestinian cause back to the forefront of the world, after continuous attempts to marginalize it. In recent years, it seemed as if some Arab and Western countries were moving towards normalizing their relations with Israel, ignoring the Palestinian cause. But with the escalation of threats of displacement and annexation, governments and peoples are now faced with an undeniable reality: the Israeli threat does not only threaten the Palestinians, but may destabilize the entire region. This reality is prompting many parties to reconsider their positions and reaffirm the centrality of the Palestinian cause.

In the end, it seems that Trump, who believes he is exerting maximum pressure on the Palestinians, is inadvertently pushing them toward greater cohesion and renewed methods of confrontation. If Trump’s intention was to eliminate the Palestinian cause, his policies may achieve the exact opposite, as the Palestinians become more determined to survive and more able to impose their cause on the international stage, supported by growing internal unity and a renewed global awareness of their rights.

Trump and returning the initiative to the Palestinian people

Despite US President Donald Trump’s attempts to undermine and weaken the Palestinian entity politically and geographically, these pressures may lead to the opposite of what he seeks, as they return the initiative to the Palestinian people themselves, who have always proven their ability to adapt to different stages and respond to challenges in innovative ways. Every time the major powers tried to impose solutions that diminished Palestinian rights, the response came from the Palestinian street itself, which was able to turn the equation around and reformulate the political scene according to its priorities.

Throughout history, the Palestinian political leadership has not been the primary driver of major transformations, but rather popular action has determined the course and forced everyone to recalculate. In the 1987 Intifada, there was no central decision to ignite the confrontation, but it started from the street and imposed itself on the Palestinian leadership and the entire world, which later led to a strategic change in the form of the conflict. In the Second Intifada in 2000, the popular response came to redraw the rules of the game after it became clear that the political path had not achieved Palestinian aspirations. Today, with the escalation of American-backed Israeli threats, the Palestinians find themselves facing a similar moment, where popular action has become the primary driver of the next stage.

Israel’s attempts, with American support, to dismantle the Palestinian identity or undermine its components may push the Palestinian people to develop new forms of resistance and adapt to the new reality. Just as the Palestinians succeeded in confronting the displacement in 1948 by adhering to the right of return despite the passage of decades, and just as they were able to transform the siege imposed on Gaza into an incentive to develop their capabilities, they are capable of transforming current threats into an opportunity to enhance their political and field presence. The next stage may be the stage of “reinventing the resistance,” where mass action is combined with technological innovation and legal and diplomatic pressure, creating a new dynamic that the occupation will find difficult to confront.

As the challenges continue, the features of a new Palestinian phase are becoming clear that goes beyond the imposed political restrictions. The Palestinians have become more aware of the need to build their own tools away from regional and international calculations, which may lead to the emergence of a new Palestinian state capable of regaining the initiative. This continuous adaptation to the requirements of the different phases is what has made the Palestinian cause remain despite all attempts to end it, and it will make it impose itself again on the scene, no matter how intense the pressures and challenges are.

Netanyahu's policies and the return of the one-state option to the fore

The approach being pushed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which is to deepen the occupation and reject the two-state solution, may ultimately lead to results that are completely opposite to what he seeks. Instead of paving the way for the consolidation of Israeli hegemony and imposing a new reality on the Palestinians, he is bringing back to the fore dormant ideas, such as the option of a single democratic state, which may in the future become the most reasonable alternative in light of the collapse of the two-state solution.

The two-state solution has long been the basis of international efforts to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. However, Netanyahu’s policies, sometimes backed by the Trump administration, have systematically undermined this solution through settlement expansion, attempts to annex parts of the West Bank, and the treatment of Palestinians as a people who can be bypassed or even displaced. As the prospects for an independent Palestinian state erode due to settlement expansion and the dismantling of Palestinian institutions, a completely different equation emerges: Israel itself is pushing for an option it never wanted to discuss: a one-state solution between Palestinians and Israelis.

Although Israel has long rejected this option for fear of losing its Jewish character, Netanyahu’s policies are making the two-state solution impossible, thus forcing future generations to confront an existential question: If there are no two states, what is the alternative? Palestinians who find themselves trapped between occupation and settlement will sooner or later begin to adopt a different discourse, demanding full equality within a single state extending from the sea to the river, which may become more attractive to international parties that support human rights and democracy.

Instead of leading a project that ends the Palestinian issue, Netanyahu is in fact unintentionally contributing to transforming it from a national liberation issue into a civil and political rights issue within a single entity, which may be more dangerous to the Zionist project itself. If Israel continues to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state, the Palestinians will find themselves faced with the option of demanding full citizenship rights, which threatens the demographic structure of Israel and undermines its foundations as a Jewish state.

Ultimately, the longer Israel continues to close the horizon of a two-state solution, the more likely it is that the conflict will turn into a battle for rights and equality in one state, which could impose a new reality on everyone.