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After Donald Trump was sworn in as America’s 45th president in 2017, the Arab American community made the mistake of joining the Democrats’ attacks on him, refusing to meet him or engage with him on policies. This was despite the fact that one of Trump’s closest business friends on his hit TV shows “The Apprentice” and “The Celebrity Apprentice” was a Palestinian, Farouk Shami.

Many Arab Americans incredulously expected Trump to do what their own Democratic allies refused to do: undermine the extremist government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and elevate the interests of Palestinian rights.

Instead of engaging with Trump, they joined in the personal attacks and confrontation orchestrated by Democrats, including defeated presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who was responsible for many failures in the Middle East when she was secretary of state.

One of the consequences was that Palestinians boycotted the 2019 “Peace to Prosperity” conference organized in Bahrain by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, an Orthodox Jew with strong ties to Israel. With no Palestinians present to push back, the conference strengthened the agenda of Israel and Netanyahu with Trump and the White House. As a result, Trump pursued policies that gave a clear signal of marginalizing Palestinian needs.

Eight years later, Trump today not only has an Orthodox Jewish son-in-law who has his ear, but also an Arab American son-in-law, Michael Boulos, the husband of Tiffany Trump, and his influential father, Dr. Massad Boulos, who both also have the new president-elect’s ear.

Trump and Jill Stein took a great deal of Arab American votes away from Democratic candidate Kamala Harris

Ray Hanania

More importantly, Trump and pro-Arab Jewish American candidate Jill Stein took a great deal of Arab American votes away from Democratic candidate Kamala Harris. For example, in Dearborn, Michigan, which has one of the largest Arab American populations in the country, Trump won nearly 42 percent of the vote, beating Harris’ 40 percent, with Stein third with 15 percent.

Arab Americans are on a precipice. They can again turn away from Trump, angered by his statements of support for Israel, or they can engage with him and attempt to influence his policies.

Politics is a game of diplomacy and competition, much like a football match. Arab Americans can either be on the field and compete with Israel, or they can walk off the field in protest and leave the entire diplomatic arena to Israel’s control.

They do not have the luxury of taking umbrage or showing their anger at Trump’s past and the current Israeli genocide in Gaza and violence in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Lebanon. They need to set aside their personal feelings and emotions, step up to the political plate and play ball.

That is their responsibility. Politics may be like a football game that two sides are striving to win, but Arab Americans do not have to win. All they have to do is turn up and play to minimize what Trump will do in the Middle East if the only people speaking to him are Israelis.

There is a great imbalance in America when it comes to the truth on Middle East issues, mainly because Israel has dominated the playing field for more than 75 years. They are better at media manipulation and spin, as we saw with the distorted coverage of last week’s violence in Amsterdam, in which Israeli football fans went on the rampage and clashed with locals. However, the media described the incidents as “antisemitic” and highlighted claims of a new “pogrom” against Jews in Europe.

They need to set aside their personal feelings and emotions, step up to the political plate and play ball

Ray Hanania

Despite the spin, and their support for Trump, Arab Americans were not the factor that gave Trump his election victory. Although they played an important role, Trump won because he was able to cut into the Democratic base at every level, including among Hispanics and African Americans. Trump succeeded in not only winning the Electoral College, which determines who becomes president, but he is also poised to win the popular vote.

Arab Americans need to recognize the political reality and adapt to it. They need to set aside their emotions, no matter how grievous the pain coming from Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Lebanon, and engage Trump fully and strategically.

They have often been reduced to playing the victim card, attempting to push back against political and media bias and the false narratives spun by Israel’s public relations mastery. However, it is easier to be the victim and be angry than to work hard to change the dynamics of the forces driving that suffering.

To change that dynamic, Arab Americans need to be better not just at organizing among themselves, but also at engaging the mainstream news media using professional public relations and communications strategies rather than street protests or angry confrontations.

Can Arab Americans set aside the pain of Gaza, Lebanon and historic discrimination in America to replace their emotions with a strategic plan to change America’s foreign policy the right way? We have yet to see that happen.

• Ray Hanania is an award-winning former Chicago City Hall political reporter and columnist. He can be reached on his personal website at www.Hanania.com. X: @RayHanania