Loading ...The Case for Trump from a Palestinian
Sam Oudeh
The Civil Arab
I must preface this with the statement that I am not a Donald Trump supporter. I am writing this article to simply make an argument why Donald Trump would be the best candidate for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, from a Palestinian point of view.
Looking at the remaining Republican candidates in this presidential race, Donald Trump is the best one for Palestinians. If you were bored last week, you may have watched what seemed like the 150th Republican presidential debate. Most of these debates have the same outcome. Trump, Cruz and Rubio sling mud at each other while Ben Carson stands there invisible and John Kasich says the only rational thoughts on the stage while being ignored by everyone.
However, this debate was a little different because the Palestinian/Israeli conflict came up for the first time. John Kasich and Ben Carson basically said the same thing, the general “Israel is our ally and we should support them” line. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio had a mini-contest over who loves Israel more. It started as Cruz said that the United States should support Israel unapologetically and unequivocally no matter what they want to do, because the Palestinian people strap bombs to their chests and blow up Israelis. Rubio took it a step further and said that Palestinians teach their kids to kill Jews in grade school. When it came time for Trump to speak, he said something that we have never heard a presidential candidate say: The United States should be neutral in negotiations with the Palestinians and Israelis. It is no secret that Donald Trump loves Israel, but even muttering these words drew harsh criticism as Rubio and Cruz called him anti-Israel for his stance. Trump said that in order to start negotiations, it is not beneficial to demonize one side and favor the other, because peace will not be achievable that way.
Donald Trump possesses one quality that can benefit the Palestinians in negotiating peace with Israel: his monstrous ego. Donald Trump has made abhorrent comments about every minority group in this country, but we have to give credit where credit is due. He is a successful businessman, and he knows how to negotiate. There is nothing that would feed Donald Trump’s ego more than negotiating a successful deal between Palestine and Israel. He can envision the headlines now: “Donald Trump, the greatest negotiator ever brings peace to the Middle East.”
There is very little known about Bernie Sanders and his views on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, other than that he believes they should be treated equally. On the other hand, we have plenty of material on Hillary Clinton. If you want to believe that Hillary is the best candidate for the Palestinians, read this article. Do I believe that peace is achievable with Bernie or Hillary? Possible with Bernie, but definitely not with Hillary.
Donald Trump may say crazy things, perhaps to the point where we get desensitized to it, but at least he’s honest. It is evident that he believes what he says. I also have to commend Bernie Sanders for the exact same thing. Donald Trump has a brain and he sees what is going on. While he reiterated he is a staunch supporter of Israel, he isn’t dumb. He knows the conflict and is too stubborn to listen to others about it. For these reasons, I think that Donald Trump would be the best candidate for the Palestinian people and a path to peace.
Source: www.civilarab.com