DESPITE 70 years of Arab–Israeli conflict, Arabs continue to fail in terms of learning from the past. Instead of grasping and employing opportunities for their case, they resort to shooting their feet. Based on that, the Palestinian authority refuses to receive Vice-President of the United States of America Mike Pence in protest against the decision of President Donald Trump concerning the US recognition of Jerusalem as capital of Israel and relocation of its embassy.Indeed, Trump’s move is against international conventions and does not serve the peace case. Nevertheless, this does not mean that the Arabs should help Israel in achieving its objectives by resorting to political boycott; something that leaves a huge vacuum. Without any doubt, Tel-Aviv will take advantage of such as situation in furthering its course to Judaize Jerusalem as a precursor to announcing the Jewish State.Once it comes to that, it will be almost impossible to establish a Palestinian State even on parts of occupied territories, as well as the return of Palestinians and restoration of their rights.We need to acknowledge the Arabs’ miscalculations of events since 1947 when the United Nations resolution was issued. They rejected the resolution and refused to receive the UN delegation to look into the matter.Instead, the Arabs drifted behind revolutionary slogans; whereas Israel was on the issue of being recognized by majority of countries in the world. In return, Palestinian territories were put under Arab protectorate. Since that time, the issue entered the corridors of Arab interests and ceased to be considered a priority.We all know about the Arab League Summit in Khartoum (Sudan) and its three no’s which were declared under zealous slogans caused by Jamal Abdul-Nasser. They were tailored with the objective of wiping out awareness of Arabs and to block their vision in what was transpiring on the land of Palestine.Among such slogans were, “Throwing the Jews into the seas,” and rejection of ‘Rogers Plan’. All that ended with the 1967 defeat which made the Palestinian guns turn away from the main objective on issues like sparking the armed conflict known as ‘Black September’ in 1970 in Jordan, engaging in the Lebanese war, and participation of Palestinian armed factions in Arabs civil wars.All these led to losing the rights of Palestinians, followed by relinquishment after relinquishment to get to the least of the issue. If only the Arabs grasped the lost opportunities, they would have been able to overcome Israel instead of weeping on top of debris as it is currently happening.Undoubtedly, the Zionist lobby in the United States of America, in fact in the entire Europe, is more influential than Arab influence which is almost next to nothing.Therefore, Arabs need to realize that the US leadership will do whatever it takes to serve the Zionist lobby on the account of electoral and internal interests, which are completely different from our account of issues that are limited to war of slogans.In 1917, Britain promised the Jews through the infamous Belfour Declaration that they will have their own State in Palestine. Despite that, the Arabs managed to deal with it; whereas today and after 90 years since the declaration and the factor of US influence on Middle East decisions, the Arabs have not yet acknowledged and recognized their failure in understanding the US mentality and dealing with it as it is.Hence, the decision to snub the US Vice-President is an extra service given to Israel on a silver platter for it to carry on with its schemes, while the Arabs will continue to be entertained by their inflammatory rhetoric.By Ahmed Al-Jarallah - Editor-in-Chief, the Arab Times