A Palestinian Report Card on Trump

GRACE UNDER FIRE Jalal Ayoub a popular Israeli Arab radio host suggests Arabs give President Trump a grace period instead of attacking him but not all of his colleagues agree

H alfway through the first 100 days of Donald Trump’s presidency Palestinian leaders are feeling just as alarmed worried and confused as on Election Day. Trump’s warm embrace of Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his repeated statements in support of Israel have led many Arabs to despair.

That forlornness has been reflected in the Palestinian media where Trump has been compared to a Nazi according to a Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) report released in February. In one article a columnist for the Palestinian Authority daily Al-Ayyam writes:

“If the Americans do not manage to drive Donald Trump out of the White House he will drive democracy out of their land. ‘Germany above all’ was the slogan of the Nazi [Hitler]. Anyone who followed Trump’s election campaign and listened to his first speech as president needs only to replace the word ‘Germany’ in this slogan with the word ‘America’ in order to understand the meaning of the Trump phenomenon in the US. The Nazi [Hitler] rose to power through democratic elections and so did Trump…”