Trump’s plan for Gaza leaves Arab nations facing an impossible choice | Nesrine Malik

Leaders are scrambling to calibrate their responses at an emergency summit on Thursday hastily convened in Saudi Arabia .

Leaders will struggle to do so without landing themselves in hot water with Trump , members of the Arab public or global opinion.

With the stakes so raised, it is impossible for Arab nations to engage with Israel and the US on Gaza and Palestine one way or the other without undoing something big.

It's not a safe bet to assume that the mass removal of Palestinians won’t set off something explosive, either in terms of popular discord, or its exploitation by competing political or extremist players.

Arab governments are being forced to confront and settle a question that goes to the very soul of the contemporary region what does Arab identity even mean any more?.