The best way to lick a bully down is to stand up to him.
Israel is just finding it out from Hamas after Benjamin Netanyahu gave Hamas an ultimatum of “by-Saturday-noon-or-else” and his enabler Donald Trump echoed “all-hell-would-break-out” if Hamas was not to release the remaining Israeli hostages under the present ceasefire.
Hamas was aghast at Israel’s unceasing violation of the ceasefire, not only denying relief trucks or not setting up of mobile tents but also randomly shooting down dozens of Palestinians.
Instead of 12,000 relief truck by now, it was only 8,500 at the last count; instead of 200,000 tents only 10% of it were set up; and not a single mobile home of 60,000 stipulated were thus far seen.
The clause that 50 serious sick would accompany their family members for treatment outside Gaza, if followed, would’ve numbered over a thousand by now. Instead, only 120 thus far have benefitted.
So Hamas stood up in defiance and announced five days in advance they won’t be keeping their word of releasing hostages if Israel was to keep violating the ceasefire.
After breathing fire and hell, Israel is now scaling down and would be okay if just three hostages were to be released by Saturday!
Tel Aviv is also beginning to catch up on where it lagged on its commitment under the ceasefire: So 158 trucks of relief has shown up almost instantly; thousands of tents and caravans have rolled in in Gaza; and instead of a trickle, the aid is surging in spurts.
And Qatar has supplied 15 million litres of fuel to Gaza which wouldn’t have been possible if the patrolling Israeli forces hadn’t given way.
How did all this happen?
It happened because the disaster-duo of Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump succeeded in turning even their own allies into defiance.
For last few days, Trump has not only been insulting Egypt and Jordan but along with Israel has also been extremely condescending to Saudi Arabia.
Trump keeps barking at what the United States does for Egypt and Jordan by way of aid but that figure is pittance and these two countries could easily rake up much more if they were to seek it from elsewhere.
Egypt gets $1.3 billion from the United States every year which any day it could rustle up from its new friends in BRICS.
And what is $1.3 billion dollars to a nation of 110 million people? No better than $11 per Egyptian!
As for Trump building a “Riviera-in Gaza”, Egypt says we could do the job ourselves in 3-5 years without uprooting Palestinians from their land. So thank you and no thank you.
Cairo is also beginning to flex its muscle with regular military drills next to the Rafah border; and Egyptian defense minister has asked his brigades in the Sinai and Rafah to be at the highest level of readiness.
Egypt has also called a summit of all Arab leaders in Egypt on the 27th of this month to show a joint front against the ethnic cleansing which Netanyahu and Trump have on their mind.
Jordan is bristling no less. If the US offers aid and so-called protection, Jordan obliges no less with offering a US base on its land and securing the eastern front of the Jordan river for the Israelis.
But the biggest miscalculation Trump and Netanyahu did concern Saudi Arabia.
It’s been long believed that crown prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) basks in the patronage of Washington since the Saudi royal family have more than one heir who could take his place.
And there’s too many evidence in support.
Beginning with the covert visit to Israel in 2017, MBS expressed disdain for the Palestinian cause. He signed the Abraham Accords and even after October 7, 2023, he kept business as usual with Israel.
It didn’t matter for 15 long months that Palestinians next door were being butchered while even raising a Palestinian flag or praying for Gaza by pilgrims at Mecca was a complete no-no.
There was no question of a pro-Palestinian protest within his kingdom and no let-up in any festivities despite a genocide unfolding in neighbourhood. It didn’t matter if Lebanon was invaded and occupied West Bank was receiving a murderous assault.
MBS even kept his peace when Trump humiliated him by asking for a $500 billion worth of contracts to the US for the privilege of his presence in his kingdom.
But it all kind of snapped when Netanyahu chirped in rather condescendingly.
In an interview to Fox News, Netanyahu asked Saudis to create a Palestinian state within their kingdom. He boasted the prime purpose of Abraham Accords was to sideline the Palestinians. He said he wanted to deal with the Saudis from a position of strength as if they were not allies but one to be coerced with force after he has dealt with everyone else in the Middle East.
Trump too kept at it: He bragged that Saudi Arabia would normalise without a Palestinian state. And that the clean-up bill would go to the Gulf states with the implied suggestion on Saudi Arabia.
All this and that too in public was too much for MBS who was being humiliated in front of his own citizens and in the Muslim world.
It took only minutes for a reply to emerge from Riyadh: “His Royal Highness emphasised that Saudi Arabia will continue its relentless efforts to establish an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital and will not establish relations with Israel without that.”
MBS has travelled a long way and has a stronger hold on his kingdom now. Holding his own could give him a moral stature in the Arab and Islamic world. He is flirting with BRICS and easing up with both Turkey and Iran.
So all Trump and Netanyahu, shooting from the hip, have managed is to turn even the Gulf allies tilt towards the rest of the Middle East which largely is vocal on the Palestinian cause.
They have strengthened and not weakened a joint Arab-Muslim resistance from emerging who thus far were rather indifferent to the Palestinians.
Yet drama under Trump unfolds every minute and one doesn’t know what turns up for the world next morning.
