GRACE UNDER FIRE Jalal Ayoub a popular Israeli Arab radio host suggests Arabs give President Trump a grace period instead of attacking him but not all of his colleagues agree

H alfway through the first 100 days of Donald Trump’s presidency Palestinian leaders are feeling just as alarmed worried and confused as on Election Day. Trump’s warm embrace of Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his repeated statements in support of Israel have led many Arabs to despair.

That forlornness has been reflected in the Palestinian media where Trump has been compared to a Nazi according to a Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) report released in February. In one article a columnist for the Palestinian Authority daily Al-Ayyam writes:

“If the Americans do not manage to drive Donald Trump out of the White House he will drive democracy out of their land. ‘Germany above all’ was the slogan of the Nazi [Hitler]. Anyone who followed Trump’s election campaign and listened to his first speech as president needs only to replace the word ‘Germany’ in this slogan with the word ‘America’ in order to understand the meaning of the Trump phenomenon in the US. The Nazi [Hitler] rose to power through democratic elections and so did Trump...”

Publicly however the Palestinian Authority led by President Mahmoud Abbas is taking a wait-and-see approach. Mohammad Darawshe a well-known Arab Israeli activist who is currently the director of the Planning Equality & Shared Society at the NGO Givat Haviva Center said most Palestinians are puzzled by Trump unsure of how he will relate to the region. Statements made during the campaign do not necessarily become policy he said.

“I hope that very quickly he will realize that the only real role for America to play here is a fair one that serves the interests of both the Palestinians and the Israelis and not one group over the other ” he said.

Asked about the relatively calm PA reaction to Trump Darawshe responded that the Palestinian leadership is waiting to judge the administration’s actions and not its words. “They are going through quiet diplomatic channels. This is wise.”

Ahmad Asmar a former journalist who is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Middle East history at Hebrew University in Jerusalem argued that former president Barack Obama did not help the Palestinians and Trump won’t either. “When Trump said that he could solve the conflict it showed that he does not understand the region ” he said. He added however that Palestinians hold out hope that Trump could bring change.