Reaching out

According to David Friedman, a senior adviser to presumptive Republican candidate for the November presidential election Donald Trump, the real estate mogul does not share the belief that the creation of a Palestinian state is necessary for the resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. 

Friedman recently said that a Palestinian state is not an American imperative, according to Trump. What’s worse, Trump is reportedly not against Israeli annexation of parts of the West Bank. 

This makes the election of Trump as the next US president not only a disaster for the Palestinians, but also for the entire Arab world. 

Regardless of Trump’s chances against presumptive Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, the fact that a potential leader of the US thinks along these lines is enough to send alarming waves across the Arab world. 

Arabs are by now used to having their causes kicked around like a football during US presidential elections for no reason other than soliciting the blind support of the Jewish lobby in the US. 

This has been the record of all past US presidential elections and it comes as no surprise to see the two leading candidates competing for Israel’s support. 

It seems that part of the problem lies within the Palestinian ranks in particular and the Arab world as a whole, since neither side have bothered to reach out to the candidates to explain to them where the ultimate US national interest lies. 

It is mostly by default that Israeli sympathisers fill the vacuum created by the absence of an effective Arab public relations mechanism in the US to combat the one-sided propaganda machine that serves Israeli interests.  

The Arab side needs to do much more to explain Arab causes and seek support for them among US voters. This calls for a sophisticated PR bureau not only in Washington but also elsewhere across the US where American public opinion is shaped.