Trump's plan for Gaza leaves Arab nations facing an impossible choice

A rab states are in a bind. King Abdullah of Jordan squirmed in the Oval Office last week, as the press asked him and Donald Trump about the US president's Gaza plan.

- Nesrine Malik

He is in a tight spot, wanting to keep Trump onside while at the same time not agreeing to the ethnic cleansing of Gaza. Immediately after, anonymous Egyptian "security sources" said that President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi would not accept an invitation to visit Washington as long as the Gaza displacement plan was on the agenda. Now, this was probably more for the Egyptian public's consumption than for Trump's benefit - Egypt is in no position to make an enemy of the new administration - but it nonetheless shows how hard it is for Trump to secure the acquiescence of even the US's closest allies.

Saudi Arabia also postponed a visit to the US once Trump announced his intentions for Gaza. And in a remarkable change of tune, Saudi lost its patience. When Benjamin Netanyahu quipped that maybe it would like to take Palestinians from Gaza ("They have a lot of territory," he said), Saudi state media unleashed a storm of invective against him. When Trump announced his plan, Saudi Arabian authorities put out a statement rejecting it. So keen was the government to signal that rejection that it released the statement at 4am local time.