Trump, ironically, nominated David Beasley, a former Republican governor of South Carolina, to run the Nobel prize-winning WFP, the United Nation’s food assistance body, which has outshone other UN quangos simply by doing its job.
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Worse, Palestinian victimhood would have risen up the ranks of social injustice as the left finally recognised the meaning of the accords signed on the South Lawn of White House a month ago by Israel, Bahrain and the UAE.
The normalisation of relations between Israel and two more Arab states again bypasses Palestinian demands for the right of return to Israel.
It is inconceivable that the accords would have been struck without a nod from Saudi Arabia, the most influential Arab state. Chances are the Saudis will also sign if Trump is re-elected. Other Arab states — Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Morocco, Sudan — would likely follow.
The thawing of relations has had an immediate effect. Last week the Israeli and Emirati foreign ministers paid a joint visit to the Holocaust memorial in Berlin. Israeli midfielder Dia Saba has signed for Dubai’s main soccer club, al-Nasr.
Emirates airlines has scheduled direct flights from Dubai to Tel Aviv from January.
The left’s insistence on rubbishing anything in which Trump has a hand has blinded them to the implications of this development for the status of their cause celebre, the liberation of Palestine.
Should the accords run their predicted course, their virtuous anti-colonial crusade would become just other sectarian and nationalistic dispute.
The demotion of the Arab cause would ill suit the Palestinian leadership which has turned a historical grievance into a successful business model.
Their vested interest in perpetuating resentment has been one of the largest obstacles to peace. Now it finds itself out in the cold.
Read the commentary by Nick Cater in The Australian.