Editor's note: William Jones, a special commentator on current affairs for CGTN, is a former Washington bureau chief for Executive Intelligence Review News Service and a non-resident fellow of the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

U.S. President Donald Trump arrived back in Washington after visiting Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), billed as a "very successful" Middle East trip. He returned with promises by the Arab nations to purchase U.S. goods, primarily Boeing aircraft and military hardware, to the tune of $2 trillion.

Nevertheless, the dark side of what is now occurring in the Middle East with the slaughter of Palestinian citizens in daily Israeli attacks is an issue that refuses to go away.

In Riyadh, Trump urged his host as well as Syria to join the Abraham Accords, the 2020 series of pacts to normalize the Arab-Israeli relationship normalization signed bilaterally between Israel with several Arab signatories, including the UAE. However, it is extremely unlikely that any further Arab states would accept such an agreement while the Israeli Defense Forces continue attacks on Gaza and the West Bank. The Palestine issue, especially the need for a Palestine state, has been uppermost in the minds of Arab leaders for decades.

The "two-state solution" – the creation of the state of Israel for the Jewish people and the state of Palestine for the Palestinian people – has also been the U.S. policy. However, it was shaken by recent suggestions by Trump, including the proposal that the U.S. would transform Gaza into a "Riviera on the Mediterranean," with luxury apartments lining the shoreline. The proposal was quickly countered by Egypt, Jordan and other Arab countries who felt this was a veiled attempt to expel the Palestinian people from their homeland.

This was reiterated at the recent meeting of the Council of Heads of the League of Arab States in Baghdad, Iraq. The Baghdad Declaration the meeting issued demands an immediate halt to the Gaza war and hostilities against civilians, and opposes any move or proposal to relocate Palestinians from their land.

The question is how Trump intends to tackle this issue. The Israelis are refusing to allow humanitarian shipments to Gaza, alleging most of the international aid groups support Hamas, which Israel calls a terrorist organization. They have already forbidden the operation of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, the most important UN aid group working in Gaza, for that reason.

If Trump is serious about helping resolve this problem, he would have to take this up with the Israeli leadership, who seem intent on getting rid of the Palestinians from Gaza. The U.S. military could distribute aid in Gaza, as they often do in catastrophic situations in the United States. However, this would require Trump to put the necessary pressure on Israel to halt the fighting and allow access to food supplies.

This also means Trump would have to take the heat from the Zionist lobby in Washington. But given the growing concern among Americans about the devastation in Gaza, it could strengthen his base among Americans, and even swing some support from those who have been opposing him.

While it remains to be seen whether Trump has the will and the courage to make this happen, it would be a first step in securing peace in one of the most contentious conflicts in the world. But to do this, Trump has to return unambiguously to the traditional U.S. commitment to the two-state solution to that crisis. It is a solution that was clearly understood as a necessity by one of the most committed supporters of the state of Israel, the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin himself. This would also put Trump firmly on the right side of history and in sync with the desires of the world community.

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