London: In what supporters call solidarity and detractors, this week Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed that he nominated Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Netanyahu's decision appears to be designed to help strengthen relations between the two long-term allies, facilitating tensions over Israel's 21-month war in Gaza and 12-day conflict with Iran last month.
Netanyahu submitted a nomination to Trump at the White House on Monday, meeting the shocking expressions from the US president.
“It's nominating you with a Peace Prize, but that's obvious. You should get it,” Netanyahu said.
“Wow, this makes a lot of sense, especially coming from you. Thank you so much, Vivi,” Trump replied.
fastfact:
•The Nobel Peace Prize was founded by Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite.
• His regret over his inventions partially drove Nobel to create awards to promote peace.
•Carl von Ossietzky, Aung San Suu Kyi and Liu Xiaobo were jailed when they were awarded.
•The youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner is Malala Yousafzai, who received it in 2014 at the age of 17.
Netanyahu is also seeking our assurance on weapons supply, particularly after Iran's ballistic missile barrage of fire last month put a lot of pressure on Israeli air defense systems, Katib said.
“He wants to show Trump that he is the best ally he can have. He also knows what Trump really sees after winning the Nobel Peace Prize,” she added.
In the case of American relations expert Dania Koreilat Katib, Netanyahu's decision to nominate the president is based on his desire to “do anything to Trump.”
She told Arab News that Netanyahu has arrived in Washington and has a series of requests covering files in almost every region of interest in Israel, Syria, Torkiye, Gaza, the West Bank and Iran.
While Trump has kept a secret that he longs for prestigious awards, the nomination itself is just the first part of a broad, secret process where he gets caught up in the stately committee room of the Nobel Institute in Oslo.
However, the distinction and tradition of Nobel names is undoubtedly far from the reputation of Trump nominees.
Netanyahu, along with former defense minister Joab Gallant, is subject to an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity related to Israeli military conduct in Gaza.
That fact will doubt the hearts of the five Norwegian Nobel Committee members deliberating on the award.
For Khatib, the ICC's arrest warrant means Netanyahu's gesture is “less worth.”
She told Arab News: “I don't know if the nomination will be scrapped, but it's ironic that someone is hoping by the ICC on suspicion of war crimes and that Genocide could nominate someone for the Nobel Peace Prize.”
Guidelines About Nobel Nominations
•Only candidates proposed by qualified candidates will be considered.
• Self-nominations are not accepted.
•The award may be awarded to an individual or an organization.
Supporting the reputation of the award is a high order due to the strictness of its rules. The committee's selection for the annual awards effectively links the Nobel name to the recipient's future reputation. The Nobel Foundation law also prohibits revocation of the award.
Burmese democratic icon Aung San Suu Ki has fallen from bounty over the treatment of Rohingya Muslim minorities in the decades after winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.
Former US President Barack Obama was awarded the award just nine months after his first term, and for the disappointment of those including Trump.
The decision to award Obama for “an extraordinary effort to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between people” quickly seemed stupid after revealing that the president mentioned the use of drone strikes. “I'm really good at killing people.”
Gaia Lundestad, then secretary of the Nobel Committee, later expressed regret over the decision. “Even many Obama supporters believed the award was wrong,” he said. “In that sense, the committee did not achieve what they wanted.”
Khatib told Arab News that the most fundamental requirement of the award is that recipients contribute to peace.
“I personally don't know why Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize,” she told Arab News. “What was his achievement in winning the award?”
Obama's controversy may have sparked Trump's desire to win the award. He has since mentioned the 2009 awards many times, and regularly expresses his dissatisfaction with the achievements he feels have escaped.
But Netanyahu's Trump nomination is just the latest received by American leaders. He was appointed separately in 2018 by a US House Republican and two Norwegian lawmakers to ease nuclear tensions with North Korea.
Who can do it Nomination?
•National assembly and government members.
•Member of the International Court.
•University amendmentist, professor, and director of peace studies or foreign policy institutions.
•Previous recipients and officers of award-winning organizations.
•Current and former Nobel Committee Member and former advisor.
In 2021, Trump was also appointed two Norwegian lawmakers and a Swedish official for his peace efforts in the Middle East, including the Abraham Agreement, which established formal ties between Israel and several Arab countries.
The late Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo also nominated Trump in 2019.
Earlier this year, Pakistan said it had nominated Trump in recognition of his work to end the brief conflict with India. New Delhi later denied that Washington had a role in mediation.
Trump is also working towards a diplomatic solution to the Russian-Ukraine conflict, which has denied his negotiators.
The day after Monday's White House meeting, Netanyahu's office released a copy of the July 1 nomination letter that Trump saw.
“President Trump demonstrates his unwavering and extraordinary dedication to promoting peace, security and stability around the world,” he said.
“In the Middle East, his efforts have led to dramatic change and created new opportunities to expand the circle of peace and normalization.”
The Prime Minister's letter picked out Abraham Accord as Trump's “first-hand achievement” in the region.
“These breakthroughs have formed the Middle East and marked historic advances in peace, security and regional stability.”
Descriptions of regions that have experienced historic progress towards peace raise eyebrows in many parts of the Middle East.
However, the strange circumstances of alleged war crimes acting as a nominee for the Peace Prize are similar to the unique past of the Nobel name.
The prize was founded through the will of Alfred Nobel, a Swedish chemist, inventor and industrialist who invented dynamite and accumulated property after obtaining a patent. Explosives were rapidly adopted for industrial use, but soon received high praise for their usefulness as a tool for war.
The first award to have a Nobel name was handed out shortly after the turn of the century in 1901, five years after the death of the Swedish visionary.
They cover medicine, physics, chemistry, literature, and peace. The Economic Award was later founded in 1968 by the Central Bank of Sweden, but in the same way it is not considered a Nobel Prize.
Nobel's hope was for the Peace Prize to go “for the one who did the most or best work for inter-national fraternity, for the abolition or reduction of standing troops, and for the preservation and promotion of the peace parliament.”
in Numbers:
• 142 Individuals and organizations have been awarded since 1901.
• 19 A woman was awarded.
• 28 The organization has received an award.
• 19 No awards were awarded.
(sauce: nobelprize.org))
The strict codification of Nobel's will led to the Nobel Law. This is a set of rules that follow by the Nobel Foundation, which oversees the secret process behind the five awards. Judges are forbidden from discussing their deliberations for the past half century after they happened.
The Peace Committee is Norway's only Nobel Prize organization, with five members appointed by the country's parliament.
Nominations for respected awards can only be submitted by certain people and organizations, including heads of state, national politicians, academic professors, and company directors. People are prohibited from nominating themselves.
A well-known Arab politician has won the Peace Prize.
Yasser Arafat was awarded the award in 1994 for his efforts to reach a peaceful reconciliation to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In 1978, Egyptian Anwar Sadat was recognized for signing the Camp David Accord, where then-US President Jimmy Carter was spotted.
But for Trump, his long-standing award hopes will have to wait until next year. To win an award in the same year, you must submit your nomination two months in advance.
At the time of publication, the Nobel Committee did not comment on whether Netanyahu had any appointments, reservations or acceptance.
