U.S. President Donald Trump has asked the Arab heads of state to take in refugees from Gaza: the entire civilian population, if possible.
But in this, he seems not to be having any success.
The president of Egypt; King Abdullah of Jordan; Muhammad bin Salman, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia: they all seem to be refusing this request.
This is the position they have taken for some time now.
I would assume that they do not want the trouble having these people within their borders – not to mention Hamas sympathisers – would bring.
During the late 1960s, many Palestinian refugees were making Jordan their home, Yasser Arafat and his Palestinian Liberation Organization were close to taking over the country.
So in September 1970, King Hussein set the army against them.
Many Palestinians were killed; while the P.L.O. was forced to move into Lebanon.
To this day, the P.L.O. refers to this as ‘Black September’.
Then, in 1979, when Egypt and Israel were finalizing their peace agreement, Israel offered the Gaza Strip to Egypt.
But Egypt was not interested.
They were happy to have Israel continue to deal with Gaza.
Even when Donald Trump was having a hand in finalising what came to be called the ‘Abraham Accords’ between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrein during his first term as president, the Palestinians really did not come into the equation.
Saudi Arabia was on the point of joining in with the Abraham Accords, too.
The more forward-looking Arab nations that want to avail themselves of Western know-how and technology know that the best way to do this is to work through Israel.
This, however, no doubt sent fear into the hearts of the Islamic Shi’ite dictatorship in Iran.
A Middle East united with Israel, and against them – this would have caused them to activate their proxies against Israel: Hamas in Gaza; Hezbollah in Lebanon; and the rebel Houthis in Yemen.
In the Shi’ite view, if chaos can be fomented, this will hasten the coming of a person they call the Twelfth Imam, along with a resurrected Shi’ite Islamic Jesus.
Then, together, it is believed, they will forge a global Shi’ite Muslim caliphate.
This is a situation I don’t think even Donald Trump can do too much about.
– John Hermann
Gympie
