US President Donald Trump met with Syria’s president in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday and urged him to normalize ties with longtime foe Israel after a surprise US announcement that it would lift all sanctions on the Islamist-led government.

Trump then flew to Qatar, where he oversaw the signing of a deal for the Gulf Arab country to buy jets from US manufacturer Boeing.

He did not mention a controversial separate offer by Qatar to donate a Boeing jet to serve as the US president‘s official airplane. That would be one of the most valuable gifts ever given to the United States and it has triggered alarm in Washington over its security and ethics implications.

After Trump‘s declaration that he would lift sanctions on Syria, which is seeking to rebuild after more than a decade of civil war, he met with interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who swept to power at the head of a group that Washington has called a terrorist organization and once pledged allegiance to al Qaeda.

According to the White House, Trump urged Sharaa to join the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco, which normalized relations with Israel under the US-brokered Abraham Accords in 2020.

“I told him, ‘I hope you’re going to join when it’s straightened out.’ He said, ‘Yes.’ But they have a lot of work to do,” Trump said, according to a White House pool report.

Photos posted on Saudi state television showed the two men shaking hands in the presence of Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Trump said the meeting with Sharaa, who he described as a young, attractive guy with a very strong past, was “great.”

“He’s got a real shot at holding it together,” said Trump.

BUSINESS DEALS

Trump‘s four-day visit highlights the United States’ growing ties to the oil-rich region, where his real-estate company is also developing several projects.

That has raised concerns about a conflict of interest between Trump‘s official duties as president and his business interests.

Trump has dismissed ethical concerns about his plan to accept the $400 million luxury plane from Qatar to serve as Air Force One, saying on Monday it would be “stupid” to turn down the generous offer.

Qatar has been working to build up political capital with Trump in his second term after falling the wrong side of the US president when he was first in office.

In 2017, during Trump‘s first term, the tiny but hugely wealthy gas producer was isolated by a diplomatic, trade and air embargo imposed by Gulf states and some other Arab nations which accused Doha of backing terrorism and getting too close to Iran. At the time, Trump‘s administration sided with Doha’s rivals.

In Doha, Trump and Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani announced deals that the White House said were worth $1.2 trillion. That included an agreement by Qatar Airways to buy Boeing aircraft and GE Aerospace engines.

Trump said the two leaders discussed Iran and the Ukraine-Russia war. “We always had a very special relationship,” Trump said of the emir.

Trump‘s visit to Saudi Arabia brought a $600 billion commitment from the kingdom to invest in the US and $142 billion in US arms sales to the kingdom.

ISRAELI WORRIES

Trump‘s Middle East trip – which does not include a visit to Jerusalem – has fueled doubts in Israel about where the country stands in Washington’s priorities.

Syria is one of Israel‘s biggest foes, and Israeli officials have continued to describe Sharaa as a jihadist, though he severed ties with al Qaeda in 2016. Sharaa first joined the group in Iraq, where he spent five years in a US prison. The United States removed a $10 million bounty on his head in December.

Israel opposes lifting sanctions on Syria, which would clear the way for greater engagement by humanitarian organizations and boost foreign investment. Israel has escalated military strikes in Syria since Sharaa took power after toppling former President Bashar al-Assad in December.

Trump‘s administration is also holding nuclear talks with its other enemy, Iran.

The Israeli prime minister’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump told reporters the fact he has relationships with countries in the Middle East is “very good for Israel.”

The US also hopes regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia will join the Abraham Accords, but discussions came to a halt after the Gaza war erupted and the kingdom insists there can be no normalization without Palestinian statehood.

The post Trump Meets Syrian President, Urges Him to Establish Ties With Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

At an Israeli Independence Day reception in Washington, Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff declared, “On behalf of President Trump, I pledge that we will work tirelessly this year so that next year’s Independence Day is not just a wish for happiness, but a reality of peace, prosperity and for Israel, unity.” 

Witkoff’s suggestion of the “reality of peace” came on the eve of the President’s visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE — the first official foreign trip of his second term.

It came during a time of intense conflict in the Middle East. Just last week, Israel’s security cabinet voted to significantly broaden the military offensive against Hamas in Gaza, the Houthis struck Israel near Ben Gurion Airport, and Israel retaliated, striking key economic and military assets of the terror organization in Yemen. At the same time, the threat of a nuclear Iran becomes more likely with each passing day.

With the horrors of October 7, 2023, continuing to plague Israel and the Arab world, amidst the heartbreak of loved ones lost, and as we await an agreement that will finally bring the remaining hostages home, we must also look towards the future. There are two very different paths before us. One is to continue down the road of perpetual conflict, endless wars, and missed opportunities. The other is to acknowledge that violence and hate cannot and will not lead to a future of peace or prosperity — that force without a political horizon only gets you so far.

Building on the successes and stability of the Abraham Accords, President Trump has a rare opportunity to alter the reality in the Middle East by breathing new life into Israeli-Arab integration efforts. Nearly 600 days since the atrocities of October 7, expanded normalization between Israel and other Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, may be more difficult than it was during talks two or three years ago, but it is still within reach.

The reasons for this are simple. The Middle East and North Africa, with the second youngest population on the planet, is the least economically integrated region in the world, one of the most water-poor, and one of the fastest-warming regions due to climate change. The notion that any one country can successfully confront these challenges alone is a fantasy. 

Overcoming the challenges that have emerged post-October 7 is much less straightforward. 

For Israel, the heart of the Arab-Israeli conflict remains acceptance and the right to live peacefully in the only homeland of the Jewish people. For Israelis, it is indefensible that the vast majority of the Arab world cannot utter the word Hamas or publicly condemn the October 7 massacre. Israelis do not understand how Egypt, in the fifth decade of its historic peace treaty with Israel, can release a 106-page document about the day-after in Gaza, a plan then endorsed by the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and not mention Hamas. After 19 months, this selective silence has led many across Israel to feel they have no one to turn to as a partner for peace.

But potential partners do exist and have stepped forward. 

In June 2020, UAE Ambassador Yousef Al Otaiba published an op-ed directly addressing the Israeli public. He warned about the dangers of annexation and extended his hand in peace. The article is credited with being one of the drivers of the US-brokered Abraham Accords. 

While it may be more difficult for Arab leaders to address the Israeli public today, President Trump could help create a space in which key voices in the Arab world make clear that Hamas has no future and that all Israeli hostages must be released; that Israel is part of — and a contributor to — the region; that Jews are indigenous to their land; and that Israelis have a right to live in peace and security. Arab leaders could also publicly acknowledge the limitations of Palestinian governance and commit to supporting significant institutional reform and acceptance of their Jewish neighbors.

In the same breath, Arab leaders can also make clear that for this future to be secured, the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people must be addressed. The Israelis could commit to a pathway to self-governance, with necessary security conditions. And while this will not yield statehood tomorrow, the Arab world can help promote new opportunities — political, economic, and civic — for Israelis and Palestinians to work and build trust with one another, while also building recognition of the need to share the sliver of land between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea.

President Trump fostering new diplomatic and social engagement will also allow him to pick up where his first administration left off, bringing new life to the economic possibilities of a more interconnected region — which could create four million new jobs and more than $1 trillion in new economic activity over a decade, according to a 2021 Rand study. Equally important, renewing the process of regional integration will move the area toward becoming a necessary bulwark against — instead of a seething generator of — hate and extremism.

President Trump is making this visit at a time that requires Israelis and Arabs to be more interdependent in ways not previously imaginable. So while the challenges in the Middle East are clear, so too are the unprecedented opportunities. President Trump has a rare opportunity to once again make history in this too-long-troubled region. 

Benjamin Rogers is the Director of Middle East and North Africa Initiatives for American Jewish Committee (AJC).

The post Could Trump’s Trip Offer a New Hope for Israeli-Arab Alliances in the Middle East? first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom, David Lammy, confirmed last week that the UK is in talks with France to recognize a Palestinian state. Palestinian thought leaders, publications, and speakers throughout the Arab world see this as a reward for the horrific massacre of October 7, 2023, and an inducement to increase rather than decrease the level of violence and terrorism.

While Israel has long contended that this is the case, for the first time, we are able to provide proof: from Palestinian thought leaders in their own words.

Many European nations believe that recognizing Palestinian statehood will bring an end to war and terrorism, and will result in widespread peace. This flawed notion is based in part on European memory of negotiating the 1998 Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement between the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, which ended decades of conflict. Indeed, even Israel and the United States adopted similar historical views during the Oslo peace process of the 1990s. Yet this analogy is flawed, as can be seen from events of the past year.

In May of 2024, Spain, Ireland and Norway officially recognized a Palestinian state, followed shortly thereafter by Slovenia.

Palestinian society, and the Arab world at large, declared this recognition to be a successful result of the October 7 massacre against Israel, and an indication that such massacres are the appropriate direction for Palestinian society.

For example:

Then Hamas leader Ismael Haniyeh boasted that, “Operation Flood of Al-Aqsa [the October 7 massacre] raised the Palestinian cause to an unprecedented level” and that it “opened the door to recognition of the Palestinian state.”

Palestinian society, and the Arab world at large, widely agreed.

Dr. Mahmoud Samir Al-Rantisi, writing in Al Sharq, a major Arabic newspaper out of Qatar, echoes a commonly held belief that unilateral recognition through massacre is preferable to peace talks because it will result in “liberating” all “Palestinian lands” from Israel, rather than having to settle for a mere “two state solution.” By way of support for this prediction, Al-Rantisi cites the May 2024 recognition of Palestinian statehood by several European countries, and he (accurately) notes that, “[the] Spanish Deputy Prime Minister clearly announced that the Palestinians will regain their land from the river to the sea [a reference to the entirety of Israel] and will liberate their country and return to it.”

Alghad TV, a London-based Arab language television network broadcasting to the Middle East and North Africa, credits the October 7 massacre as bringing about Palestinian statehood via “blood and martyrs.”

Popular news site Arab21 credits the October 7 massacre (which it calls “the Battle of the Flood of Al-Aqsa”) for “[bringing] the Palestinian cause back to the international stage after years of international silence” including “recognition of the State of Palestine … an event that has been absent from current generations.”

Al Jazeera describes the recognition of Palestinian statehood as a sign of the “disintegration of the European position supporting Israel,” stating that “the acceptance of the Palestinian state is not only due to what happened during the Al-Aqsa Intifada [the October 7 massacre] … rather, there is a desire among the world’s countries to punish the entity [Israel].”

Popular news site Palestinian Information Center (PIC) credits European recognition of a Palestinian state to the October 7 massacre, which it refers to as “the blessed Flood of Al Aqsa,” noting “the Flood of Al Aqsa alone turned the scales and restored the Palestinian cause to the top of the agenda of the unjust world.”

PIC included similar quotes by numerous Palestinian thought leaders, among them Majid Al-Zir, CEO of the Brussels-based “Palestinian Council for Political Relations” and president of the General Assembly of the Popular Conference of Palestinians Abroad, as well as writers and political analysts Yasser Al-Zaatara, Ibrahim Al-Madhoun, and Hazem Ayad.

Al-Zaatara emphasized that credit goes to the Hamas terror organization and not to the “catastrophic” official leadership of the Palestinian Authority, which has “abandoned future generations,” while Ayad described the international recognition as a “step towards comprehensive war of liberation.”

These views are nothing new.

The 1990s saw widespread Israeli and Palestinian support for the Oslo peace process but there was a critical difference between the two sides: whereas Israelis envisioned the peace process as bringing an end to the conflict, both Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat as well as over 72% of Palestinians did not.

To this day, according to Arab research sources, 74.7% of Palestinians desire a Palestinian-only state that entirely supplants Israel, while 72% support the October 7 massacre.

In short, the prevailing opinion within the Arab world, including within Palestinian society, is that recognition of a Palestinian state is a reward for the October 7 massacre. European countries are therefore sending a dangerous message: one that Palestinian society understands to be not only support for the October 7 massacre, but also encouragement to carry out even more bloodshed in the future.

Daniel Pomerantz is the CEO of RealityCheck, an organization dedicated to deepening public conversation through robust research studies and public speaking.

The post UK/France to Recognize Palestinian State: Palestinians See it as a Reward for Oct. 7 Massacre first appeared on Algemeiner.com.