Drawing new lines

Trump may see the US as the indisputable hegemon in the region, but a lot has changed in the past few years. Russia and China have gained considerable global influence. China used its economic might and global rise to gain a potent voice. Russian president Vladimir Putin will not accept any deal in Ukraine which will scuttle his gains in Ukraine. At the end of Trump's term, China will be far more formidable. Europe will refuse to play his master's voice

- ASH NARAIN ROY

In November 2017, after a lengthy meeting with Chinese president Xi Jinping, Donald Trump boasted that he and Xi can solve "probably all" the world's problems. Today, he believes he alone can solve all the world's problems. That explains his boast in the company of his friend Benjamin Netanyahu that US "will take over Gaza" and "own it." The king believes he has the right to single-handedly redraw the world map as he sees fit.

Trump believes, so does Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, that the strong are destined to gobble up the weak. Redrawing the world map is very much on their agenda. The Israeli leader claims that the war has "already changed the face of the Middle East."

The irony of Netanyahu's pompous claim is too stark to miss. He is the first foreign dignitary to meet President Trump which is "a testimony not only to the strength of the Israeli-American alliance" but also the vitality of their friendship.

In fact, Netanyahu boasts that Israeli soldiers "have redrawn the map." He is confident that together with President Trump, they "can redraw it even further, and for the better." This is Trump's "golden age of peace" in the Middle East! Netanyahu has his own dream of bringing about a new regional order in the Middle East.

Redrawing the map is a sinister game with disastrous consequences. Africa is still paying the price for the colonial carve-up of the continent.

During the colonial period, European powers drew up these borders according to their own interests and without much consideration for the natural or cultural landscape of the region. This resulted in many countries having straight line boundaries that do not align with the natural or ethnic divisions within Africa.

The Middle East has its own share of the problem. The 1916 Sykes-Picot map of the division of territorial spoils between Britain and France of what is today the modern Middle East hasn't fared any better.