Filmgoers from the 1960s will probably remember The Visit, one of 20th century Fox’s unforgettable productions starring Ingrid Bergman and Anthony Quinn and directed by Bernhard Wicki.
Karla reappears in a European village whose inhabitants had run her out of town when she was a teenager. She is now a very wealthy woman while the village has fallen on hard times.
She offers the villagers a deal: she will help the village thrive and prosper again, but on one condition – that they kill their influential fellow villager, Serge Miller, the man who had denied paternity of her child 20 years earlier. The villagers hesitate at first, but gradually they agree to right the historical wrong. They even go so far as to prevent Serge, now viewed as a criminal, from fleeing the village. The woman then pardons Serge, sparing him a certain death, and she simultaneously condemns the villagers for condoning the injustice many years ago and then succumbing to their greed.
The film is based on the 1956 play, The Visit of the Old Lady, by Friedrich Dürrenmatt. It explores the darker side of human nature in contexts where money can buy everything. Some critics have read the film as a political allegory, reconstructing the US landing in Europe in World War II, followed by the Marshall Plan for postwar reconstruction as a “visit”—one that exposed Europe’s own moral failings.
The play and its political interpretation come to mind whenever a US president visits Europe or our region. The interpretation forces itself on the situation as Donald Trump appears here. He visited the Middle East twice during his first term and is about to undertake his first visit to the region in his second, starting with Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar. It is also believed that other Arab parties, outside the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), will be attending some of the meetings there. Regardless of who attends, one cannot help thinking of the “old lady” intoxicated by her wealth, power and sense of superiority over friend and foe alike.
The forthcoming visit already weighs heavily on the people of this region even before it begins. In contrast to the play, there is no moral or legal justification for this, because on this occasion it is the visitor – the US – that arrives bearing the weight of sins and transgressions in which it has been complicit. The gravity of the crimes is immense: the mass killing of tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians, the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Gaza and the attempts to pressure Egypt and Jordan into participating in this injustice. As if this were not enough, Washington now insists on free passage through Egypt’s Suez Canal in return for its war against the Houthis in Yemen.
The difference between the “old lady” who gave Europe the Marshall Plan in the name of “justice” and the current visitor could not be starker. This time, Trump brings neither money, nor prestige, nor peace. Instead, he demands Arab investments in the US that could amount to $3 trillion. He demands exemption from fees despite having already received services in return, such as maritime passage, protection for nuclear-powered ships, and the strategic linkage between US forces across the globe from East and West. He demands priority access to a canal still under development and intended to facilitate global trade, in another attempt to squeeze out competitors.
While drama – and above all tragedy – are underlying themes in “the visit”, it is abundantly clear that it is not the American visitor who is demanding justice, but rather the Arabs. This is why the Arabs have been coordinating closely ahead of the visit, to which testifies Egypt’s and Saudi Arabia’s contributions to last week’s proceedings at the International Court of Justice. They felt that, if lasting justice and stability is ever to prevail in this region, it is crucial to set moral and strategic boundaries for a state that has never respected either.
The US needs to hear some plain truths. Trump must be made to grasp two realities. The first is that this region is determined to continue the renaissance that is underway in several leading Arab powers. As Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman put it, these countries have resolved to transform this region into a “Europe” of a new era, building societies founded on peace, progress and cooperation with all. The US has many opportunities here, but imperialist arrogance is not the way to pursue them. Rather, the key lies in the transactional philosophy that Trump himself advocates, so long as it is based on mutual benefit, open markets, and a shared commitment to peace and development. Unlike its relationships with allies in Europe or rivals in Asia, the US does not have a trade or financial deficit with its partners in this region.
Secondly, the new Middle East will be an Arab creation. Its societies understand all too well the devastating costs of war, and their experiences confirm that genuine and lasting peace is the best path forward to resolving historical conflicts and integrating industrious minorities into emerging nation states.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 8 May, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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