Arabs know their history and won’t let it be repeated

Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, said in a 2020 interview that he had “read 25 books” on the Middle East. Such intellectual bravado would not matter if it were not for the fact that Kushner served as the president’s Middle East adviser during his first term and was essentially the main architect of Trump’s policies in the region.

Trump’s successor did not fare any better, as the Biden administration largely adhered to Trump’s major mistakes and ultimately sustained the Israeli genocide, which killed — as per the latest estimates — more than 55,000.

Joe Biden, too, proved to be a reader; although, unlike Kushner, he did not publicly brag about his intellectual prowess. On Nov. 29, a photo emerged of him holding a book by Palestinian historian Rashid Khalidi entitled “The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017.”

Though American leaders and officials claim to base their decisions on a thorough understanding of the complexity of the Middle East, they are repeating the same mistakes over and over again.

Trump has repeatedly insisted that the US will take ownership of Gaza, displace its population and turn their destroyed homeland into a real estate opportunity, while threatening them with “hell” should they not follow his diktats. Trump is using such language based on the misguided idea that these threats will allow him to restore the political leverage that Washington lost over the course of its 15 months of blind support for the Israeli genocide in Gaza.

No rational thinker, in the Middle East or beyond, would actually imagine a scenario in which Palestinians leave en masse due to Trump’s threats. They refused to do so after more than 85,000 tonnes of mostly US-supplied explosives were dropped on Gaza, destroying nearly all of the Strip. Empty threats will certainly not change that.

Even though Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his extremist government have taken advantage of Trump’s words to repair, however temporarily, their struggling coalition, turning Trump’s supposed new doctrine on Gaza into a reality is impossible.

Israel has, in fact, tried to create the circumstances that will lead, in the words of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, to the “voluntary emigration” of Palestinians out of Gaza. Instead, on Jan. 27, nearly 1 million displaced Palestinians who had been driven to southern Gaza began their awe-inspiring march back to the north.

It behooves the US administration to stop discounting history, as any wrong move or policy could lead to disastrous outcomes.

Historically, the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians has been the main objective of all Israeli policies, even before the establishment of the Israeli state on the ruins of historic Palestine in 1948. Aside from the immorality of that act, the pain of which continues to be felt by generations of Palestinian refugees, the event was catastrophic to the Middle East region as well.

Aside from millions of refugees displaced in Palestine itself, millions more live in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, other parts of the Middle East and around the world. Currently, there are nearly 6 million registered Palestinian refugees, according to UNRWA, though a large number remain unaccounted for.

That political earthquake of 77 years ago remains one of the most decisive events that shaped, and continues to shape, the Middle East to this day. Its reversal will remain elusive unless justice finally prevails in Palestine — justice that is dictated by international and humanitarian laws, not impulsive statements from American officials.

Jordan, Lebanon and Syria were the Arab countries that hosted most Palestinian refugees and whose political dynamics, as well as conflicts, were shaped by the mass displacement of Palestinians.

Palestinian groups became part of the political fabric of these societies, sometimes becoming involved in internal struggles and sometimes being used to balance out existing demographic conflicts. Hardly a major event in the Middle East did not involve Palestinians, or the price of which was not disproportionately shouldered by them. Anyone who knows the fundamentals of modern Middle Eastern politics ought to know this.

No rational thinker would actually imagine a scenario in which Palestinians leave en masse due to Trump’s threats.

Dr. Ramzy Baroud

One can only imagine what would happen if 2.2 million more Palestinian refugees were pushed into Jordan, Egypt and other Arab countries, as per Trump’s proposal. It would arguably be the most earth-shattering event in the region since the Nakba. No Arab government can possibly entertain such a scenario under any circumstances.

While the prospects of another Gaza Nakba were born dead, the real worry is the fact that nearly 50,000 Palestinians have already been internally displaced in the West Bank. This ongoing ethnic cleansing is no less dangerous than the US-Israeli designs in Gaza.

The uninformed US policy on Palestine, which continues to be led by the extremely dangerous policies of the politically bankrupt government of Netanyahu, is once again unifying the Arabs around a common cause.

The Arabs know their history very well. It is time for them to prove to Israel that the lessons of history have been learned and will never be repeated.

• Dr. Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and author. He is editor of The Palestine Chronicle and nonresident senior research fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs. His latest book, co-edited with Ilan Pappe, is “Our Vision for Liberation: Engaged Palestinian Leaders and Intellectuals Speak Out.” X: @RamzyBaroud