Is Trump the answer?

GIVEN his past record, it was surprising to see endorsements for candidate Trump by Muslim Americans, including influential imams, in the swing state of Michigan and the Pakistani-American Public Affairs Committee (PAKPAC).

The disillusionment of Muslim Americans with Joe Biden’s presidency and, by extension, with Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris, given America’s staunch support for Israel despite the latter’s genocide against the Palestinian people, was clear.

PAKPAC also seemed to be equally angry at the current US administration over the Donald Lu cipher saga. However, rather than choosing not to vote or vote for the third-party candidate — the Green Party’s Jill Stein, who was the only presidential candidate to vigorously oppose US support for Israel — it was shocking to see many endorse Donald Trump.

They justified this because of the supposed promises made by candidate Trump to address the Muslim American community’s concerns, especially around the Israel-Palestine conflict. However, a review of his first term and seeing his selections for key staffing positions for his new administration should make it clear that he is not going to live up to his end of the bargain.

Under the Jerusalem Embassy Act, the US was supposed to move its embassy to Jerusalem. However, recognising how sensitive such a move would be, the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations all deferred this controversial move. In contrast, Trump, soon after taking office in his first term, not only shifted the US embassy to Jerusalem but also closed down the US consulate that provided services to Palestinians.

Later, president Trump, alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, unveiled his Middle East peace plan that proposed recognition of Israeli sovereignty over West Bank settlements and stated that Jerusalem would “remain as Israel’s undivided capital”. It recognised Palestinian statehood only over 15 per cent of what the Palestine Liberation Organisation refers to as “historic Palestine”. Understandably, the proposal was rejected by Palestinians.

His nominations for key staffing positions for his second term make it evident that president-elect Trump is going to be even more belligerently one-sided in support of Israel than previous administrations. Mike Huckabee, his choice of US ambassador to Israel, is a self-declared Zionist who has stated that there is “really no such thing as a Palestinian”. According to Huckabee, this is just a “political tool to try and force land away from Israel”.

It is clear that Trump is not going to live up to his end of the bargain with Muslim American voters.

Trump’s nominee for US ambassador to the UN, Elise Stefanik, has similar views. She gained notoriety for her confrontation with the presidents of Ivy League universities during a US House of Representatives hearing.

She accused them of being antisemitic because they refused to crack down on students participating in widespread pro-Palestinian protests on campuses. She recently also called for “[cutting] off funding to UNRWA” (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine), the main provider of humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in Gaza.

Senator Marco Rubio and Representative Mike Waltz, nominated for the positions of secretary of state and national security adviser, respectively, are long established supporters of Israel and have heavily criticised President Biden’s handling of the Israel-Gaza conflict as being too obstructive towards Israel. The latter even echoed candidate Trump’s call to “let Israel finish the job”.

Domestically, the main architect behind the infamous ‘Muslim ban’ executive order, Stephen Miller, returns to president-elect Trump’s team as his deputy chief of policy with the mandate of focusing on immigration policy for the new administration.

Given Trump’s past and current actions, Pakistanis at home and in the US should be wary. Unlike previous American presidents who purported to crusade for democracy and human rights globally (albeit who were frustratingly inconsistent when these values conflicted with perceived US strategic interests), these values do not even appear to be a consideration in Trump’s foreign policy. One need only see how he chose to loosen the rules of engagement for air strikes in Afghanistan during his first term, which led to a 330pc increase in civilian casualties.

Moreover, he is responsible for negotiating the disastrous deal with the Taliban that brought them back to power in Afghanistan and has contributed to a resurgence of militancy in Pakistan. He also withheld $1.3 billion of military aid to Pakistan in his first term, tweeting in 2018: “The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than $33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit…”.

The relationship only normalised with Pakistan in Trump’s final year in office because of the necessity of Pakistan’s support in withdrawing US troops from Afghanistan.

Involvement in Pakistan’s internal matters is contrary to Trump’s isolationist tendencies and his espoused ‘America first’ foreign policy. As Pakistan’s strategic importance to the US has waned with the conclusion of the so-called war on terror, Pakistani-Americans need to rethink their approach.

Constituting only a little over 1pc of the US population, Muslim Americans, including Pakistani-Americans, are not a large enough voting bloc to impact US policy through their votes alone. If they want to have a chance to truly influence US policy, it is, ironically, the outsized power of the Zionist lobby that can be instructive.

While the Jewish population of the US is scarcely more than that of Muslims, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee is by far one of the most influental lobbying groups in the country. It is well-funded and very strategic in how it backs or opposes candidates in both general and party primary elections as well as its aggressive lobbying around any policies affecting Israel.

PAKPAC and other Muslim groups should actively work towards fundraising and developing a more effective lobby in Washington, increasing community outreach at the grassroots level, raising public awareness through traditional and nontraditional media, and building coalitions with other politically active groups to mitigate the damage that the next four years are likely to bring.

The writer is a development practitioner and a former parliamentarian.

X: @GhaziGJ

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2024