On the Middle East Trump has no diplomatic strategy but economic interests

Donald Trump's plan to 'move' 2 million Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Egypt and Jordan 'is impossible. That is why it has provoked reactions from all the Arab countries'. Just to dispose of the debris caused by the bombs 'the World Bank has estimated that it will take 10 years, plus $53 billion for reconstruction'. But the American president 'needs a new Middle East in which the Palestinian issue is resolved' because 'it is from there that the Indo-European corridor passes that Trump looks to as an alternative to the Silk Road between China and Europe'. In an economic logic, typical of the tycoon, one can better understand the US administration's latest moves in the Middle East. They may have given 'an accelerating blow to the evolution of events in a region in need of stability'. This and Trump's recent trip to the region were discussed at the Festival dell'Economia by Paolo Magri, president of Ispi's scientific committee, Valeria Talbot, head of Ispi's Middle East observatory, and Pejman Abdolmohammadi, professor at the School of International Studies at the University of Trento and Middle East expert. "Israel remains a key ally of the United States, even if Netanyahu is not Donald Trump's best friend who looks more to the Emirates, the Gulf monarchies, and Qatar. The American president has no real strategy in the Middle East,' said Valeria Talbot, 'but he has industrial and commercial interests that are part of the ongoing confrontation with China. So he needs stability in that area'.

"It is necessary for Israel to take steps backwards on many things that are excessive," Abdolmohammadi argued, "but at the same time it is necessary for a new ruling class to emerge among the Palestinians that can lead the country. This is possible but 'we need to go back to the 1967 situation', before the Six-Day War. Only in this way can one reason about the prospect of a Palestinian state, "perhaps passing through a transitional phase in which Palestine is a sort of autonomous region within the State of Israel. Many Palestinians living abroad but not only, trained professionals, can do this. But it is enough to pat the bums of the extremists. From this point of view,' he adds, 'the Western Left in Palestine has done so much damage'.

But where is Europe and what is it doing or can it do, is the question that again arose from the audience. "Three things, all very symbolic," replied Paolo Magri: "The first is to stop the trade negotiations with Israel; the second is to suspend the association agreement, which in fact is a trade agreement; third, it can recognise the State of Palestine. With what borders? "That is why even this last thing is little more than symbolic". Finally, EU states could 'stop selling arms to Israel', as one speaker from the floor recalled. But even this measure would be ineffective, since almost all military supplies come from the United States.