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<font size="1"><a href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/12/18/donald-trumps-final-act-snuffing-out-the-promise-of-democracy-in-the-middle-east/">https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/12/18/donald-trumps-final-act-snuffing-out-the-promise-of-democracy-in-the-middle-east/</a>
</font><h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Donald Trump’s Final Act: Snuffing Out the Promise of Democracy in the Middle East<br></h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">by Vijay Prashad - December 18, 2020<br></div>
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<div id="gmail-attachment_123866" class="gmail-wp-caption"><p><img src="http://uziiw38pmyg1ai60732c4011-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/dropzone/2020/06/IMG_2920-scaled.jpeg" alt="" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="408" height="306"></p><p id="gmail-caption-attachment-123866" class="gmail-wp-caption-text">Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair</p></div>
<p>Ten years ago, a hawker in Tunisia set himself on fire, which <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520293267/the-death-of-the-nation-and-the-future-of-the-arab-revolution">spurred</a>
on people along the entire Mediterranean Sea—from Morocco to Spain—to
rise up in revolt. They took to their squares indignant at the terrible
conditions in which they had to make their lives.</p>
<p>Little of their agenda has been advanced in the past decade.
Governments of the southern European states have one by one betrayed the
aspirations of the people; the most dramatic such failure was of the
Syriza government in Greece, which won a mandate against austerity and
then <a href="https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii97/articles/stathis-kouvelakis-syriza-s-rise-and-fall">surrendered</a> before the troika (the European Central Bank, the European Commission, and the International Monetary Fund) in 2015.</p>
<p>Uprisings in northern Africa ended with the return of the generals (<a href="https://mronline.org/2017/03/01/egypt-2016-who-was-worse-mubarak-morsi-or-sisi/">as in Egypt</a>), the destruction of states (<a href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2020/07/21/time-is-not-on-our-side-in-libya/">as in Libya</a>), and the assertion of the Arab monarchies (<a href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2012/04/26/washington-bets-on-the-gulf-royals/">from Morocco to Saudi Arabia</a>).</p>
<p>A decade later, U.S. President Donald Trump carved the obituary on
the tombstone of that “Arab Spring” rebellion when he used the immensity
of U.S. power to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-emirates-trump-deal/trump-scores-diplomatic-deal-with-middle-east-allies-before-election-idUSKCN2592XW">strengthen</a> U.S. allies—such as the Arab monarchies and Israel—to the detriment of the people of the region.</p>
<p>What remains of the Arab Spring is a distant memory of the crowds in
Cairo’s Tahrir Square; a better image of the present is that of the
monarchs of Morocco and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) kissing up to
Israel to please the United States.</p>
<p><b>Danger in the Eastern Mediterranean</b></p>
<p>In the Arabic-speaking countries, two sets of conflicts emerged as
the people in the public plazas shook up the politics in their
countries. The first was between Iran and the Gulf Arab monarchies (led
by Saudi Arabia and the UAE). This had a catastrophic impact on Lebanon
and on Syria. The second was the conflict between the countries with
affinity to the Muslim Brotherhood (Qatar and Turkey) and the Gulf Arab
monarchies. Both conflicts, inflamed by Israel, continue to threaten
regional wars.</p>
<p>It was under pressure from Saudi Arabia and Israel that the United
States concocted a “nuclear threat” from Iran and drove an agenda that
resulted in the <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/06/25/hybrid-war-against-iran">2015 Iran deal</a>. Several of the Iranian nuclear scientists were, meanwhile, assassinated from 2010 to the present; Iran <a href="https://en.mehrnews.com/news/166611/Very-clear-Israel-ordered-the-assassination-of-Fakhrizadeh">blames</a>
Israel and the United States for these killings. Sanctions and threats
of military intervention have now almost become normal. The gravity of
this conflict is undiminished and will not decrease even if U.S.
Presidential-elect Joe Biden returns his country to the framework of the
nuclear deal.</p>
<p>More sinister has been the deepening conflict against Qatar, but
especially Turkey. In 2017, Saudi Arabia and its allies began a blockade
against Qatar; the animosity is so great that Saudi Arabia <a href="https://mubasher.aljazeera.net/news/politics/2018/04/07/%D9%82%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%A9-%D8%B3%D9%84%D9%88%D9%89-%D9%85%D8%AE%D8%B7%D8%B7-%D8%B3%D8%B9%D9%88%D8%AF%D9%8A-%D8%AC%D8%AF%D9%8A%D8%AF-%D9%84%D8%AA%D8%B9%D8%B2%D9%8A%D8%B2-%D8%AD%D8%B5%D8%A7%D8%B1">planned</a> to cut the landmass around Qatar and convert it into an island.</p>
<p>Both the Gulf Arabs and the Europeans were <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520293267/the-death-of-the-nation-and-the-future-of-the-arab-revolution">disturbed</a>
by Turkey’s influence over the new governments across North Africa.
They colluded to overthrow the Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt in
2013 and to prosecute a war in Libya against Turkish influence over the
UN-recognized government in Tripoli.</p>
<p>The discovery of massive natural gas fields in the eastern Mediterranean in 2009 <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/comment/why-offshore-gas-in-the-eastern-mediterranean-has-a-complicated-road-ahead-1.1033237">changed</a>
the equation of old rivalries in the area, particularly between Israel
and its neighbors, and between Turkey and Greece over Cyprus. In the
past decade, alliances across the Mediterranean have cemented around
control over these gas fields. Maps with conflicting claims have been
published, and near-military conflicts have been hard to avert. Turkish
arming of troops in Libya gave both <a href="https://www.sabah.com.tr/yazarlar/hilalkaplan/2020/06/24/erdogan-macronu-nasil-aglatti">French</a> (June 2020) and <a href="https://www.yenicaggazetesi.com.tr/alman-askerleri-libyada-turk-kargo-gemisine-cikti-buyuk-skandal-ankaradan-jet-nota-317484h.htm">German</a>
(November 2020) ships the opportunity to try to board Turkish vessels.
The European Union threatened to put harsh sanctions against Turkey at
its summit on December 10-11, but then <a href="https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/meetings/european-council/2020/12/10-11/">decided</a> to put off any decision on sanctions until the next meeting in March 2021.</p>
<p>France, which has <a href="https://www.humanite.fr/afrique-limpossible-mission-barkhane-au-sahel-680964">exerted</a>
itself south of the Sahara Desert in the Sahel region, has now
strengthened its links to the countries that stand against Turkey. Arms <a href="https://www.capital.fr/economie-politique/la-grece-commande-des-rafale-a-la-france-sous-fond-de-tensions-avec-la-turquie-1380294">deals</a> with Greece have come alongside military exercises with Egypt and with the UAE (the <a href="https://www.defense.gouv.fr/actualites/international/mediterranee-orientale-fin-d-exercice-medusa-10-pour-l-aconit">MEDUSA</a> exercises that include Cyprus and Greece). France’s Emmanuel Macron <a href="https://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/le-president-sissi-a-recu-la-plus-haute-distinction-francaise-a-paris-20201210">honored</a> Egypt’s President (a former general) Abdel Fattah el-Sisi with France’s highest award.</p>
<p>When U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited France in November, he <a href="https://www.lefigaro.fr/international/mike-pompeo-on-nous-a-accuses-de-nous-retirer-du-monde-c-est-l-exact-contraire-20201116">complained</a> to Le Figaro about Turkey’s actions in the eastern Mediterranean. During his visit to Turkey after France, Pompeo <a href="https://www.birgun.net/haber/pompeo-turkiye-de-bolgeye-gelip-gorusme-yapmadigi-ucuncu-ziyaret-323261">avoided</a> senior Turkish officials. The snub was clear. Israel, backed by the U.S., has now <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-greece-and-cyprus-agree-to-boost-defense-cooperation/">announced</a> that it will increase military cooperation with Cyprus and Greece.</p>
<p>Turkey, meanwhile, has increased its cooperation with Russia
and—interestingly—with the United Kingdom, increasingly alienated from
the Europeans by its spluttering Brexit negotiations.</p>
<p><b>Crushing of Palestine, Western Sahara, and Yemen</b></p>
<p>Trump has proposed a hallucinatory “<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/peacetoprosperity/">deal</a>
of the century” that promised to sort out the long-standing occupation
of the Palestinians by Israel. Nothing of the sort has been
accomplished. What Trump and Pompeo have done instead is to discard a
series of UN resolutions to hand Israel many of its maximum demands on a
platter.</p>
<p>An early gesture was the announcement that the U.S. embassy would <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/president-donald-j-trump-keeps-promise-open-u-s-embassy-jerusalem-israel/">move</a> from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem; then came the nod for the possible full-scale <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/president-donald-j-trumps-vision-peace-prosperity-brighter-future-israel-palestinian-people/">annexation</a> of East Jerusalem and the West Bank by Israel and U.S. <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/proclamation-recognizing-golan-heights-part-state-israel/">recognition</a> of the Israeli occupation of Syria’s Golan Heights. The U.S. threw around favors—such as <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-united-arab-emirates-middle-east-bills-mike-pompeo-f6e113dc6ff35d344270da4e900e9f32">sales</a> of $23 billion of arms to the UAE and the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/khartoum.usembassy/posts/4333790849998794">removal</a>
of Sudan from the list of state sponsors of terrorism—to gain their
public recognition of Israel. These weapons—particularly the F-35s—sold
to the UAE allow the Gulf Arabs to continue their cruel war against
Yemen.</p>
<p>Then, almost out of nowhere, the U.S. <a href="https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/12/14/isra-d14.html">recognized</a>
the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara in exchange for Morocco’s
recognition of Israel and for the Moroccan king buying $1 billion worth
of arms from the United States. This deal was brokered by the UAE.</p>
<p>The hopes of the Palestinian, Sahrawi and Yemeni people have been seriously compromised by these cynical deals.</p>
<p><b>Cynical Times</b></p>
<p>Recently, I’ve spent time on the phone with friends with whom I
walked the length of the Arab Spring. There is little to celebrate.
Friends were killed from Syria to Libya, while others remain in prison
in Egypt. Great hopes have been set aside. Old cynicisms have returned,
the cynicisms of arms deals and of energy deals, the cynicism of
brutality.</p>
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<em><strong>Vijay Prashad’s</strong> most recent book is No Free Left: The Futures of Indian Communism (New Delhi: LeftWord Books, 2015).</em>
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