More ominous than many before

US President-elect Donald Trump seems to have some ominous surprises up his sleeve for the Palestinians, in particular, and the Arab world, in general. He asked his long-time adviser and friend David Friedman, a hardline pro-Israel lawyer, to be the US ambassador to Israel.

Friedman is a vocal opponent of the “two-state” solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and a strong supporter of an undivided Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

He will work hard to deliver on Trump’s promise to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, having already said that he was looking forward to taking up his post at the US embassy “in Israel’s eternal capital, Jerusalem”.

Such a move, if indeed it happens, will certainly draw the anger of the Arab countries and the rest of the Muslim world, besides going against customary US policy of keeping the embassy in Tel Aviv.

Moreover, unfortunately, the “surprises” do not end here.

Friedman is an unwavering supporter of Israel’s settlement activities in the West Bank; he is the president of the American Friends of Bet El Institution, which funds Jewish settlements, and that will probably translate into more Jewish colonists on Palestinian soil.

Prominent Israeli settler leader, and Friedman’s friend, Yossi Dagan, welcomed the news and said Friedman was “a true friend and partner of the state of Israel and the settlements”.

Impeccable credentials, for the settlers, no doubt, utterly tainted for the Palestinians

A great admirer of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s style of using raw power to pursue his policies, in November, after Senator Marco Rubio described Putin as a thug, Friedman had this to say: “He may be a ‘thug’ ... but he knows how to identify a national objective, execute a military plan, and ultimately prevail.”

That gives one a taste of his mindset and plans, if there were still doubts.

In a plan of action he issued with another Trump adviser in November, he mentions ensuring “that Israel receives maximum military, strategic and tactical cooperation from the United States” and declares war on the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement and pro-Palestinian campus activism.

If there are still doubts on where Friedman stands on the Palestinian cause, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz makes it clear; it described him as being on the far right of the Israeli political spectrum, more extreme than Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

During the presidential election campaign, Friedman wrote in The Jerusalem Post that Israel would feel “no pressure” under a Trump administration, that “America and Israel will enjoy unprecedented military and strategic cooperation, and there will be no daylight between the two countries”.

It will definitely be night pitch for the Palestinians, who will have to reckon no longer with the frustrating, wavering US policy vis-à-vis their cause, but with a hardline US administration manipulated by Friedman himself.

There is not much that Palestinians and the rest of the Arabs can do to change the direction the next US president appears to take on Middle Eastern issues, but they can surely make it known that such blatantly offensive stand would come at a price for Washington’s status and image in the region.