As a matter of fact, he claimed that had he not been forced out of the White House after losing elections in 2020, these wars would not have happened in the first place.

However, the shocking appointments Trump has announced for top cabinet posts that will be dealing with Middle East issues – topped with Israel’s ongoing genocidal wars in Gaza and Lebanon – are extremely alarming, with the politicians in question well-known for stands and track records guaranteed to push the region into more violence and instability should they become official US policy.

Not a single appointment so far in the new Trump administration, due to take over on 20 January, adheres to commitments made by consecutive US administrations in relation to the Arab-Israeli conflict, at least since the signing of several historic peace accords with key Arab nations bordering Israel, namely Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority.

All these accords were based on the simple equation of land for peace, and the recognition by the United States that Israel must withdraw from territories it occupied following the 1967 War and dismantle illegal settlements it has built on those lands. Following the signing of the 1993 Oslo Peace Accord between the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and late Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, there was a clear understanding this process would gradually lead to the creation of an independent Palestinian state, recognising the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination. This has recently turned into an official US policy supported by former US presidents and the current Biden administration.

Yet Trump’s picks, whether for US secretary of state, secretary of defense, or ambassadors to the United Nations and to Israel, not to mention his Middle East peace envoy, are not only known for their strong support for Israel, but have long adhered to views similar to those of the most extremist Zionist factions within Israel, which reject the term “Palestinian rights.” For them, there are only “Israeli rights” and all critics are either anti-Semitic, or supporters of terrorism.

It is thus no wonder that the key members of the current Israeli government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, seen as the most extremist in Israel’s short history and including cabinet members who have been members of groups designated terrorist by the US State Department, such as National Security Minister Itamar ben-Gvir, have all passionately welcomed the new candidates for top posts in Trump’s new administration, describing them as a “dream team.”

The nominee for US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, also former Arkansas governor, has once said that there was “no such thing as a Palestinian,” claiming that Palestinian identity was “a political tool to try and force land away from Israel.” He has proudly announced that he carried out more than 100 visits to Israel and is a hardline supporter of the extremist illegal Israeli settlement movement.

The views of Trump’s candidate for US ambassador to the UN, Elise Stefanik, are no less extremist than those of Huckabee and right-wing US politicians who blindly support Israel, even as it commits some of the worst war crimes in human history, arbitrarily killing more than 44,000 Palestinians and over 3,500 Lebanese, mostly women and children, in 13 months. She also pushed for extreme measures against American universities and students who took part in the huge protests demanding an end to Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

In Stefanik’s world, as well as that of prominent US Senator Marko Rubio of Florida – named US secretary of state – such incredible loss of Palestinian life “is 100 per cent Hamas’ fault,” a view that recognises no such thing as illegal Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, or Palestinian human rights in the first place.

Netanyahu and members of his cabinet have made no secret of the fact that they were all in favour of Trump winning the recent US elections, remaining forever grateful for the unilateral, illegal decisions he took during his first term as president to recognise occupied East Jerusalem as Israel’s alleged “united capital” and the illegal annexation of Syria’s occupied Golan Heights.

The current Biden administration spared no effort to provide Israel with unconditional military support and diplomatic cover through its genocidal war over more than 410 days. Yet Netanyahu’s government was not willing to listen to the softest US advice if that meant the mildest criticism of its conduct of the war and the massive human toll that shocked and enraged the entire world, isolating Israel and turning it into a pariah state.

Trump’s victory therefore amounted to a vindication of the current extremist government in Israel and an occasion to celebrate and prepare for plans that they believe will most likely be approved by the new US administration, topped with the annexation of the West Bank. Even before Trump announced his recent candidates for top posts, last week Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich ordered preparations for the establishment of illegal settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Smotrich told the Israeli parliament that Trump’s victory in the US election “brings an important opportunity for the state of Israel,” topped with ending once and for all any prospect to create an independent Palestinian state.  

If US President-elect Trump is truly sincere in his desire to end wars in this region, he should first recognise that the Middle East he will be dealing with after a savage Israeli genocide is not the same Middle East he dealt with when he first became president in 2017. There is certainly no room for reckless unilateral decisions backed by the current extremist Israeli government, and unfortunately by most members of his proposed administration. Annexing the West Bank is a recipe for even worse violence in the region and endless wars.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 21 November, 2024 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly