Trump Commits to Ethnic Cleansing in Gaza

Trump is delivering and then some on his commitment to be a better friend to Israel than even the Biden Administration was, which is a tall order. Recall that Blinken came to be regularly described as Netanyahu’s lawyer.

Many thought that Trump was simply throwing bouquets at Israel when he repeated the Blinken demand, that had been firmly, even fiercely, rejected by Egypt and, Jordan, that it enable Israel’s ethnic cleansing and accept what were then over 2 million Gazans. After Trump’s recent statement, the Arab League also voiced opposition. Forcibly displacing Palestinians into Jordan and Egypt would destabilize both governments and experts have said it would probably lead to their fall.

When challenged that both countries had already said no, Trump insisted the displacement would proceed. And he is going ahead. From Larry Johnson:

Trump announced tonight he wants to take over Gaza:

The US will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it, too. We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous, unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site, and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out, create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area. Do a real job, do something different. Just can’t go back. If you go back, it’s going to end up the same way it has for 100 years.

Trump also insisted that the Palestinians will be relocated to a third country (unspecified) and will not have a right to return. This was scripted. You can see Trump is reading from a note card. Trump claims he has talked this over with Arab leaders in the region and that they are in favor of the deal. That is a lie.

Powerful Arab nations rejected President Trump’s suggestion to relocate Palestiniansfrom Gaza to neighboring Egypt and Jordan.

Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, the Palestinian Authority and the Arab League released a joint statement rejecting any plans to move Palestinians out of their territories in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

Johnson, who had earlier thought the Trump talk of evicting the Gazans was bluster, now believes that Trump has gotten Netanyahu to agree to not further attacks on Iran as he tries to work out a bargain. Putting US forces in Gaza might also be intended to force Netanyahu to continue the ceasefire. But as Johnson stressed, “Any hope that Trump will help the Palestinians was dashed today.”

Some other hot takes:

I would not be optimistic that this pronouncement is Canada/Mexico tariffs 2.0. The Israel lobby will expect Trump to deliver.

I am taking the liberty of posting a new Alon Mizrahi post in full, given that he states that his aim is to get his message out to as many people around the world as quickly as possible. As you can see, he believes that time is of the essence if there is to be any hope of saving the Palestinians.

Frederick Douglass would concur with Mizrahi on the importance of a concrete demand, here, that governments sever all ties with Israel:

Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.

For those new to Mizrahi, please see his About page. Consider taking a gander though his posts. For instance, this one, Pilot Cult: The White Supremacy Behind Israel’s Ill-Fated Iran Strategy, delivered on its provocative headline.

By Alon Mizrahi, a publicist, thinker, and Israeli in exile. Originally published at his Substack

Resist *now*: this is how YOU disrupt and prevent the final catastrophe of the Palestinian people by Alon Mizrahi

The demand all of us should be making right this moment

Read on Substack

Hey everybody, as Trump takes office and this new phase of the Palestinian genocide is beginning, we need to start thinking what we’re doing wrong. Why we’re not achieving any strategic goal or advancing anywhere as a movement of people who are for humanity and for Palestine. And in this video, I’m gonna talk about what we’re doing wrong and how to write it, how to make it better. So I really want as many people as possible to watch this and understand and internalize this. So please, this one, share it with as many friends relatives, people who are part of this movement and want the Palestinian people to survive this. This is the key.

We want the Palestinians to survive Trump and Netanyahu. And if we don’t act now in a strategic, sustained manner, we may fail and we can’t afford to fail. We can’t afford to fail. This is critical. What I’m going to talk about is critical. So listen carefully and share it with everyone who is involved in this struggle.

What we lack, what the pro-Palestinian movement lacks is a clear demand. This is the first thing we are lacking. There is no demand being made by any part of this big group of people. No clear demand. Second thing is coordination. There is no coordination. Protests and groups do their thing in their own way
local small places, but they are not coordinated. So it cannot become a bigger struggle, bigger movement. I’m not going to talk about the coordination today. I am going to talk about the demand. But this goes directly to the heart of what we’re doing and what we want to achieve. So offline, we are disconnected. scattered and disconnected.

I’m not gonna get into it now, but this is enough for this video. Online, we are scattered and disconnected in our attention. We are being distracted by bits and pieces of information and innuendo. We are focusing and dedicating time and energy To two things, especially with Trump, refuting what Trump says and rebuking what Trump says.

And this may give short-term satisfaction, but strategically it’s a waste of time and energy because it gets us nowhere. It accomplishes nothing. Don’t waste time and energy on rebuking and refuting Trump. He said this about Mexico, but this is not right. He said this about Canada, but let us tell you what the truth really is.

All of this is a waste of time. This is liberal opposition. We need to be radical. We need to be radical now. to be political and to give life to our agenda, to your agenda. We need to do two things. One is focus our messaging on what our opponent is doing and not what they’re saying.

And we need to focus our efforts at disrupting our opponent’s agenda. not chasing whatever he says any moment. He has Twitter and all his people have Twitter and they can say any stupid, ridiculous thing any minute. This is not what we should be focusing our attention on. We should be doing something else entirely.

We should be focusing on what he’s doing and how we disrupt it. It should be crystal clear by now that Trump intends to allow Israel to carry out a once and for all solution to the Palestinian problem. We know this, and this is what we should be focused on globally, all of us.

Our mission is to interrupt and disrupt this, make it impossible for them to do it. How do we do that? How do we do that? So here is my task for each and every one of us, any one of you, wherever you’re watching this. Whether you’re from Singapore or anywhere, if you’re in Cairo, if you’re in Melbourne,
if you’re in Paris, we all have the same task, which I’m defining right now. What we need to do, what you need to do, any group of activists, anywhere, everywhere, is demanding This is the demand. Listen carefully. We need to demand our government, your government, wherever you are,
to commit unequivocally and publicly to cutting all ties with the state of Israel if Israel pursues the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. Do you get this? This is our demand that we should be making.

Everywhere. Everywhere. We should go. You should go. This is your main goal now. This is your main goal now. Believe me.

Go to your representative. And if you’re a journalist, make this, address this question, this demand at your representatives and at your government. And demand that they commit in a very clear and unequivocal way to sever all ties with the state of Israel, if Israel pursues, follows, tries to accomplish the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. This is a demand.

This is a demand. All ties, meaning academic, diplomatic, economic. All ties. All ties. And this is the demand we should be making and we should be making it now. We should be making it now. We should be making this demand of our governments. All governments. All governments in all countries, wherever you are.
This is what you should be demanding now. This is what you should be demanding now. This is disrupting Trump and Netanyahu now. Now, before the Holocaust, before the ethnic cleansing. And making this demand is your right as a citizen and a person. This is your right.

Don’t waste your time on making jokes on Twitter about how stupid and deranged Trump is. We know he’s stupid and deranged. We know what you should be doing. Your job is to not allow them to accomplish their plans. This is your job. This is your responsibility. This is your task. This is what you should be focusing.

Now, now, don’t wait a single day. We haven’t a single day to spare in this struggle. Netanyahu is in Washington now. They are making their plans now. Next week, they are going to start carrying them out. And this is for all countries. If you’re Chinese, ask your government this. if you’re Russian, if you’re Egyptian, if you’re Spanish, if you’re Australian, if you’re Dutch, wherever you are, whatever your identity, you need to address your government this, thus, this way, like this. Are you going to sever all ties with the state of Israel if it is trying to ethnically cleanse the Palestinian people?

Simple, this is my demand as a citizen, as a human being, as a person. Make it clear that this is your demand. Make it clear that this is your demand. Forget about Trump’s tweets and idiocy. This is his tactic of keeping you off balance and forever not on point, not political.

This should be a unifying, unified, single strategy for the near-time future. We need to make the whole world aware of Israel’s and the US’s plan to ethnically cleanse and potentially kill the Palestinian people. We are seeing what’s going on in the West Bank. This is not only Gaza. We need to make this
understanding, stance, demand, clear everywhere on this planet. And we have the power to do it. We have internet connection. We have press conferences. We can do it. We can make this present. We can talk about it and we can make this demand and it will become part of the political landscape. We have to force them

We have to force the political landscape to have this point. And we have to do it now. We have to do it right this minute. Right this minute. This is the critical, urgent mission that all of us have.

Demand your government to take actual steps. Demand it. Don’t ask it. Don’t ask for it. Demand it. Demand your government or your state if you’re in the U.S. It is your right as an American citizen not to be part of ethnic cleansing and genocide. Don’t listen to what anyone says. This is your right as a human being.

So demand it from your state. Demand it from California. Sever all ties with the state of Israel if it tries to ethnically cleanse the Palestinians. Demand it from Yom municipality. Demand it from Madrid and Rome and Istanbul. Make a demand. Make it now.

Silence is complicity.

And not making a demand and not being politically alive and aware and active now is being directly involved and supportive of the Palestinian genocide. So make this demand and make it now. Thank you.

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62 comments

  1. The Rev Kev

    So here are just a few points to this spectacularly stupid idea. Trump wants the US military to go in and de-mine Gaza because if they don’t, then Israel will have to pay for it. Sounds fair. What will Hamas do? Attack those teams of course. The Israelis have proven themselves monsters but here on the ground will be soldiers for the country that made the entire genocide of Palestinians possible and made it last so long. And it will be American explosives that they will be retrieving so that Hamas does not repurpose them as weapons to attack the IDF with. Of course Hamas will attack them. What are they supposed to do? Go quietly into the night? Trump will then send in military units to protect those teams and before you know it, the US military will be fighting a battle-hardened Hamas – while the IDF watches to the side munching on bamba and hummus. Didn’t Trump mumble something about not getting the US involved in Middle Eastern wars last year? Oh yeah, and Yemen will be attacking not only Israeli ships but anything that has a connection with the US.

    And Trump want to clear all that rubble of which there must be millions of tons – as well as tens of thousands of bodies. So how many bulldozers does the US have to spare at home not needed in places like mines? OK, magic happens and all that rubble has been pushed into the sea leaving all that ground clear. Trump has said that he wants the Saudis to pay for all that development there – the marinas, the exclusive hotels, the conference halls, the Trump hotel, etc. The Settlers will take care of the rest. So I ask you, why would the Saudis spend tens and tens of billions of dollars developing the infrastructure of Israel when they could be doing the same in Saudi Arabia, especially if in ten years time the Israeli Supreme Court finds that Gaza is actually Israeli territory as it says so in the bible and thus all those building belong to Israel as well. And it’s not like doing all this for Israel would make for increased stability at home in Rihyad.

    Reply
    1. noonespecial

      re Rev’s comment, “So how many bulldozers does the US have to spare at home not needed in places like mines?”

      Looks like Caterpillar company is being tasked with supplying/building some of the hardware needed.

      https://thecradle.co/articles/trump-approves-1-billion-in-new-bombs-armored-bulldozers-for-israel

      The planned weapons transfer includes 4,700 bombs that weigh 1,000 lbs each, worth more than $700 million, as well as armored bulldozers built by Caterpillar, worth more than $300 million, the White House officials said.

      Reply
    2. JP

      Well I can’t vote for Biden because he is a war criminal. I know, I will vote for Trump. He can’t be any worse. Maybe I should vote for no one who could win or not vote out of protest. I’ll just shut up and pay my taxes.

      The number of eligible voters that did not vote exceeded the number of votes for Trump. Of course the reason he can get away with this is the GOP controls both houses. If the Dems are a sh*t show (and they are) what is this? Will this hasten a reckoning? I doubt it. That would require a motivated population.

      We haven’t seen anything like the protest level inspired by the Vietnam war.

      Reply
      1. fat cat

        Charlie Brown figured out a long time ago that it always can get worse.

        P.S. You haven’t seen anything like the Vietnam war protests because someone else is doing the dying, and their lives don’t matter.

        Reply
  2. MFB

    This isn’t going to happen, as the post rightly states. Also, resistance to this ethnic cleansing as called for in the inserted rant isn’t going to happen. There is no organisation capable of standing up to the Republicans, let alone to the Zionists. Which will mean that the current administration will have made ethnic cleansing respectable in the same way that the previous administration made genocide acceptable.

    Incidentally, according to the UN definition, ethnic cleansing of a territory is genocide, so after denying being a genocidaire for two years, Netanyahu has now gone on live TV and admitted being one.

    It’s very hard to see where this is going or what this is intended to distract people away from, but it portends nothing good at all.

    Reply
  3. Dov

    Don’t elect old people, especially when there’s clear evidence of heart disease. We’ve had 2 unhealthy geriatrics in a row now, and we continuously lurch from one idiotic disaster to another.

    I don’t understand why the press gave the Israeli genocidal criminal the time of day.

    Reply
  4. Bugs

    Absolutely surreal. This is obviously a cocked-up Bibi survival suicide mission and the intellectually-challenged US president just reads it off the notecards like he’s presenting the Grammy for best genocide soundtrack. You can’t even make stuff up anymore. I may just stop reading any news at all and wait for the iodine pills to be distributed.

    Reply
    1. Chris Cosmos

      Trump is a lot of things but intellectually challenged he is not. Those of us who have investigated and talked to researchers on intelligence know that there are many kinds of intelligence other than the intelligence to go through a university education. Trump has street-smarts which is precisely what is needed in the gangster-dominated “street” of Washington–the sorts of things he is doing is what is needed to defenestrate at least some of the PTB. Not saying I agree with his policy.

      Reply
  5. bertl

    I watched the Trump-Netanyahu interview. I don’t know if Trump is staking out a negotiating position or if the power has gone to his head and it is something he stated in the moment, but if he tries to impose anything on Gaza the world – with China leading because they have a strong and long held position on one country taking territory from another because they have been on the receiving end in the recent past. India and the key South-East Asian states have felt the pain of losing territory. China did not fully back Russia on the Ukraine issue until it became obvious that Russia had tried to avoid war and was deliberately avoiding civilian casualties amongst the people living in the West of Ukraine. He may well have given the election to the AfD and strengthened the BSW and Die Linke.

    I think it is one thing to talk about making Canada the 51 State and offering to buy Greenland or taking it by force to establish a negotiating position for mining concessions and an increased US military presence to protect the US interests in the Northern passage and threatening the world with tariffs so that the US can re-establish its industrial base, but to talk of taking over Gaza is insane and his threats against Iran will ensure that some kind soul will ensure Iran is supplied with so called tactical nuclear warheads to defend itself. Luckily for those who love justice. the US military has a stunning record of incompetence lost every war it fought in bar those against`Native Americans, and the Spanish-American and it has always had a vast capacity for losing men, despite all it’s advantage in technology and the fact that it usually fights men in sandals.

    If something is not done to roll this back the US will end up with a multi-front war and the Russians and Germany, along with the central and eastern EU members, will form a strategic alliance of necessity. I can’t see it going any other way if Trump keeps talking about Gaza as a development opportunity. It will become a place of death for US and Israeli troops, and the Lebanese will swing behind Hamas and the world will divide into two camps, the US on one hand the other clutching on to Israel, both riven with internal-conflict and, facing them, the rest of the world. It is a totally insane proposal when everything he has done until that point was going in his favour, domestically and internationally.

    I think Putin will consider him an irresponsible actor and will now speed up the operations in Ukraine and begin to destroy as much territory as he can in Western Ukraine and impose a peace on the Ukrainians, hand their historical territories back to Romania and Hungary and making sure that the areas between Russian and Poland are a fully mined, drone controlled wasteland.

    F*ck knows what Xi will make of this. China has suffered the depredations of arrogant foreigners attempting to take and control great swathes of their land and they are sticklers for observing treaties and territorial claims on another’s land, My guess is there will be a relatively peaceful agreed handover of Taiwan before the US can do anything about it. The Taiwanese know that the US intends to turn the island into a desert by destroying all its technology based industries to keep them out of Russian hands, and they also know that the PRC have made this assumption for years and has ready access to the technology necessary to kill US missile, drones and bombs.

    The hell of it is, I can’t see any gain for the US if Trump tries to take over Gaza. The US military will be in the same position as the Israelis, fighting on Hamas’ turf over an issue that will result in others more inclined to observe the norms established by international law and the Hague Conventions becoming involved, and their best fighters volunteering for Hamas who have demonstrated their abilities in house to house combat where you can’t hide behind a sniper’s ranger finder and scope.

    Personally, I’m completely nonplussed at the nonchalance with which Trump announced what must be the most stupid adventure since Hitler sent him armies careening to Russia without winter clothing or equipment, and is likely to result into the planet’s nuclear incineration. I think it is an action likely to bring on war and the first casualty will be the State of Israel. When the Jewish State flaunts a genocide to the whole world, the whole world will tolerate the genocide of the Israeli Jews, as they see them as the problem which needs to be moved on to Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Brooklyn or Los Angeles.

    Reply
    1. Max Z

      I’m gonna bet that nothing of the sort will happen and nobody will do anything apart from Arabs and the rest making loud noises about sovereignty. The tragedy of Palestinians is that nobody gives a f**k about them. Each country protects their own interests (at best! EU provinces not included) and the vast majority of countries do not have any interests in Palestine or its people. And the irony is that “doing nothing” works pretty well for almost everyone who wishes the hegemon down (apart from the ones who have to receive huge swaths of refugees). The more stupid US and Israel do, the weaker they become.

      Reply
      1. JP

        The tragedy of the Palestinians is they were intransigent when they could have made some progress. When the Zionist nazis were not in control of Israel. The tragedy of the middle east is a culture of intransigence. They don’t say the friend of my friend is my friend for nothing.

        Reply
    2. Chris Cosmos

      Trump is changing all the “scenes” in international relations so your analysis may or may not play out as you say. See my comments below.

      Reply
  6. neutrino

    As of now (UTC 2025-02-05T10:28:52Z), China, Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and other arab countries have issued a statement. But I’ve seen no reaction from any european country so far. I’m a bit puzzled by this apparent inertia.

    Reply
    1. ChrisFromGA

      “France reiterates its opposition to any forced displacement of the Palestinian population of Gaza, which would constitute a serious violation of international law, an attack on the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinians, but also a major obstacle to the two-state solution and a major destabilising factor for our close partners Egypt and Jordan as well as for the entire region,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Christophe Lemoine said in a statemen

      Not as strongly worded as I’d like but it’s something.

      France response

      Reply
      1. Chris Cosmos

        Well, whatever, France is a vassal state so who cares–maybe they’ll be forced to show some moxey but I doubt it. Anyway there is no such thing as international law except as a fantasy and notional concept at this time. It’s been violated in stunningly obvious ways by both the USA and Israel (and others) so many times I don’t see why people keep bringing it up.

        Reply
    2. The Rev Kev

      Russia has come out with a statement opposing this stupid idea too-

      ‘Moscow’s position is that the only way to resolve the Middle East conflict is to create a Palestinian state to exist side-by-side with Israel, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated during a press briefing on Wednesday.

      ”This is the thesis that is enshrined in the relevant UN Security Council resolution, this is the thesis that is shared by the overwhelming majority of countries involved in this problem. We proceed from it, we support it and believe that this is the only possible option,” he told reporters.’

      https://www.rt.com/news/612224-moscow-rejects-trump-gaza-plan/

      Reply
        1. fat cat

          Russians aren’t promoting fantasies, but acting diplomatic in order to stay aside. They have their own existential stuff to attend to, and are not interested in overextending (as RAND would put it). People expecting Russians (or someone else) to solve their problems are setting themselves for disappointment (or maybe for making excuses).

          Reply
  7. Mikerw0

    Putting aside how appalling this is at a base humanitarian level, I think this analysis needs to include the Trump grift factor.

    He and the family get a potentially valuable peace of land to develop. The US government foots a big part of the bill. His son-in-law can use his Saudi backed PE fund to build on the site once we have cleaned it up. Presto, change-o, instant billions more in their pockets. And, if he gets his way, ignore the logic and the how, and forms something that nominally behaves like a sovereign wealth fund he controls, all the better for him in enriching himself.

    He remains transactional in his own self interests. To assume this is the distraction de jour is a mistake in my view.

    Reply
    1. The Rev Kev

      Of course if it is developed, none of us plebs will get a look in as it will be a luxury area reserved only for millionaires and billionaires. Something like a Davos on the Mediterranean.

      Reply
      1. Timbuktoo

        How about we redevelop Mar a Lago into a nice little complex of homes for the homeless instead? And instead of sending US armed forces to Gaza, how about we send Trump and Musk to Gaza for the next 4 years to experience a real on-the-ground perspective of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Sounds like a win-win to me.

        Reply
  8. Es s Ce Tera

    I’m in favour of American servicemen counting the bodies of those their country was responsible for killing.

    Reply
    1. Erstwhile

      But if you want an honest count, american servicemen aren’t up to the task. Lying walks hand-in-hand with genocide.

      Reply
      1. Es s Ce Tera

        If the UN does it, the US will dispute everything. There needs to be some form of witness, regardless, and the scale is such that they won’t be able to hide this.

        Reply
  9. ChrisFromGA

    The term “aghastitude” describes my initial reaction last night … having had some sleep, I think this is likely an extreme negotiating ploy. Suggest something so awful and macabre that Hamas will look at the current “phased” cease-fire and hostage release plan as positively warm and fuzzy. At least they get to keep their Bakhmut.

    Trump is stupid but he isn’t that stupid. Without the support of the Gulf States, this is going nowhere. Al-Jazeera called it what it is, ethnic cleansing, and they represent the views of the Qataris. The Saudis have unequivocally stated that it is a non-starter. Turkey (the strongest military in the region) isn’t going to play either.

    Practically speaking, boots on the ground would require Congress’ authorization. The Syrian oil grab was illegally justified using an existing AUMF for fighting terrorism from back in the G.W. Bush days. If Trump tries to bypass Congress, as he likely would, the Dems might find a spine, and you have Rand Paul, Thomas Massie, and a few other troublemakers, enough to probably stop it in the House or Senate.

    And practically speaking, getting entangled in another forever war. Lindsey Graham might even object, as it will divert more resources away from “Project Ukraine.”

    More importantly, this is political suicide for the GOP. While Trump doesn’t have to face the voters again, JD Vance might, and the entire House and 1/3rd of the Senate will in 2026. Paying to rebuild a place Israel destroyed, how does that jibe with tearing down USAID and cutting off foreign aid?

    Nobody voted for this – what happened to “America First”, no more wars, Biden screwed up the planet? Has Trump forgotten that he won Michigan because Muslim voters either sat it out or voted for Stein?

    Reply
    1. Carolinian

      Lindsey has already objected and said he doesn’t think South Carolinians are going to want to go fight in the Middle East.

      As for Trump, I think we have to allow for the possibility that he isn’t just fooling around and it’s already time for the 25th Amendment. Everything that has gone on for the past year is a bit insane and after all the lawfare and two assassination attempts Trump may think he has been spared for some divine purpose that ends with him being raptured up.

      And finally, shame on those around Trump for not telling him how much is too much. Our entire elite class seems to live in a bubble of unreality. Bubbles burst.

      Reply
      1. ChrisFromGA

        Thanks for the Lindsey update. I think that’s a tell – when Lindsey becomes the voice of reason, you’ve really gone too far.

        I just don’t see anyone able to be reign in Trump. He’s surrounded with loyalists and yes-men. This is the end of both parties, unless someone emerges as competent political opposition.

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      2. Es s Ce Tera

        I think thats probably the Israel lobby putting its marionettes into overdrive. More than anyone else, Israel wouldn’t want US boots on the ground. Hamas will oppose ethnic cleansing, of course, and I’m insure how anyone would do it (round everyone up, load them in cattle cars?) but would probably welcome any non-Israeli parties bearing witness to the atrocity.

        Reply
      3. wendigo

        Not the strongest objection.

        From Politico.

        “We’ll see what our Arab friends say about that. I think most South Carolinians would probably not be excited about sending Americans to take over Gaza. I think that might be problematic, but I’ll keep an open mind,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).

        Asked about sending U.S. troops, he added that Gaza “would be a tough place to be stationed as an American.”

        Reply
        1. Carolinian

          Before yesterday he had made a statement that it was a bad idea. But Graham doesn’t seem to be in the inner circle this time.

          Of course if Trump needs some SC support there’s always Nikki “finish them” Haley. She’s startng to look like the perfect fit.

          Reply
  10. Chris Cosmos

    We live and have lived in a different world order for some time. As I commented above, there is no such thing as “international law” except as a notional concept. The US, if it decides to take over Gaza will do so and nobody can stop them other than Hamas who, despite all the talk of “the resistance axis” is alone other than Yemen. Hezbullah is, at the moment, at low ebb. Iran is not in a warlike mood but wants to decrease tensions in the region. The Russians and the Chinese, the only possible forces that could oppose the US/Israel have other concerns and don’t want to go to war against the Empire.

    The reality is that there is absolutely no way the Palestinian/Israel issue can be solved without moving the Palestinians or the Israelis out. Israelis viscerally and ideologically hate Arabs with a burning passion–or at least most of them do. How do you f**king solve that? The ideology of Israel is that Gaza and the WB is theirs and the Palestinians need to leave. There is no possibility of a “Palestinian State” or the status-quo ante. Trump offers the only possible realistic solution for peace in theory. My own preference would be for a “one state” solution in a new country called Palestine/Israel but how can that happen when Israelis don’t even consider Palestinians (or, in some cases, any non-Jew) as fully human. The Israeli society isn’t going to change–they either have to be appeased or destroyed. Moral whining based on a common international morality wastes energy–Israelis don’t recognize the morality that is implicit in all the comments.

    A possible alternative comes to mind. Rebuild Gaza and make it a territory of the US who will clean up the place, rebuild it and resettle Palestinians and Jews into the place offering them aid of all kinds to show that Palestinians and Jews can live together and carefully policy the place so that violent instigators are deported or whatever.

    Please note here that the other Arab states are weak and corrupt. Jordan is virtually a CIA statelet, Egypt a US dependency. To be frank, they will do as they are told and also to be frank, the rich oil states support Israel always on the down-low. Power is power. Had the surrounding states been serious about supporting Palestinians Israel would already have been destroyed. But the fact is the Palestinians have no real friends and morality is no longer a factor in international politics.

    Reply
    1. tet vet

      … the fact is the Palestinians have no real friends and morality is no longer a factor in international politics.
      One could add that sentence to what Trump said to clarify where Trump is coming from. Obviously the transactional Trump and not the political one.

      You want the truth? You can’t handle the truth.

      Reply
    2. Kouros

      If the US will be in charge of ethnically cleansing the Palestinians, with US troops, I would like to see how said troops will react participating in this human misery, and how all those images will affect the US population. Will there be full on jingoism displayed, as I have seen with the issue of US taking over Canada?

      Reply
      1. Chris Cosmos

        One thing would be clear–the true nature of Zionism. I think that what Trump has in mind is something a bit more creative than rounding up Palestinians and putting them on trucks. My guess is that there would be a lot of positive incentives, for example, a guaranteed annual income for X number of years, maybe creating a Gaza territory under US rule that would include some Palestinian inhabitants and some Israelis, some Euros and Americans to create a kind of Abu Dabi or something like that. Everyone benefits and the money we spend on Israel could flow in that direction as part of a complete and integral peace agreement in the region instead of more and more armaments. I think that is what Trump’s vision is, i.e., a peaceful international arrangement all over the world not just Palestine.

        Reply
      2. Chris Cosmos

        I think the troops will see it as a humanitarian project and, I believe, the generals and Trump will make sure some orderly agreement will precede the stationing of troops. There has to be a deal where the Palestinians are rewarded and paid for their suffering and dislocation in some way. You can’t just round them up and put them on trucks and insert them into a concentration camp—there has to be a pot of gold at the end of this for the displaced and, frankly, courageous people of Gaza.

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    3. WJ

      This makes sense to me. However, I would be very surprised if the U.S. did not encounter armed resistance from Hamas, and suffered as a consequences dozens and perhaps hundreds of casualties. I just do not see Trump being willing to go all the way here. And if he’s not willing to go all the way, then it won’t happen.

      Reply
  11. Jason Boxman

    The US will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it, too. We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous, unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site, and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out, create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area. Do a real job, do something different. Just can’t go back. If you go back, it’s going to end up the same way it has for 100 years.

    LOL, but will do no such a thing in either Western NC or LA.

    America is going great!

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  12. Keith Howard

    What DJT thinks, means, or intends is frequently obscure. But this latest piece of nonsense can function, in fact, as a reductio ad absurdum for the whole of US policy with respect to the State of Israel. If the zionist state could have a pony, this would be it, and why not, since the US spinelessly accepts every other crime, abuse, and degradation?

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  13. JustTheFacts

    On the one hand, if he actually does this, the consequences are hard to judge, but if he doesn’t now that he’s made these statements, they are also hard to judge.

    On the other hand: the place is rubble, and needs help. It’s hard to live in such a place, as the people who rebuilt German cities after WW2 know. But at least, once WW2 was over it made sense to rebuild them. Gaza is different: every time the Palestinians rebuild Gaza, the Israelis blow it up and no one stops them, so what’s the point?

    If this forces all the other countries to stop virtue signalling while doing nothing beyond the cosmetic, and instead step in and actually solve the problem, it could be a success. But it seems like a very high risk strategy to solve an intractable problem. The other states might, for instance, decide that their solution is to wipe out the state of Israel, and have a one state solution.

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    1. Chris Cosmos

      Amen to that! All the hand waving and virtue signals of the “world” does nothing to help real people with real problems. Most Israelis hate the Palenstinians and want to kill all of them–this should be made clear to the people of the Empire where criticism of Israel and, in particular, Israeli society is forbidden.

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    2. no one

      You want to force other countries to step in, and actually solve the problem that is intentionally caused by USA+Israel. How? By destroying both of them maybe, because nothing less would be enough. How does one do that? Maybe citizens of USA+Israel should stop virtue signalling while doing nothing beyond the cosmetic, because they are part of the problem (and also stop blaming the “world” for their own wrongdoings).

      Reply
  14. MicaT

    A suggestion as to what Trump and BIBI have in mind.

    Bait and switch

    They will take over all of the West Bank and resettle them to the Gaza.

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  15. David in Friday Harbor

    but will do no such a thing in either Western NC or LA.

    Orange Foolius has been trying since his first term to leverage the Saudis into buying American infrastructure lock, stock, and barrel. I’m sure that his addled (syphilis?) ploy is to somehow draw Saudi investment into rebuilding Gaza, NC, and LA, with fat kickbacks to his kids.

    The problem is that the Ibn Saud dynasty are Kings of the Hejaz and guardians of Mecca. A sell-off infidel American infrastructure was one thing, but betraying the people of a part of the vague British promise of a greater Hejaz is quite another. The billion Muslims of the global Ummah would be very unhappy.

    Today’s headlines in the Communist Party of China’s mouthpiece Global Times are reiteration of the two-state solution of Palestinian sovereignty in the West Bank and Gaza along with presidential visits from the Muslim nations of Pakistan and Kyrgyz.

    My concern is that when China finally rouses itself to take action at the UN the tools available will be sanctions of their own. If they are joined by other countries — in particular Canada and Mexico — Americans are going to suffer serious consequences. Life can be very unpleasant if hospitals lack basic medical equipment and medicines sole-sourced from those countries and logistics will crater without spare parts. Then the armed looting starts and January 6 will look like the child’s play that it actually was…

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  16. bertl

    States pursue interests, and international law is notional. Sometimes supporting a principle which is central to international law coincides with the interests of every state which does not wishes to allow any basis or precedent for one state asserting a claim to territory owned by any other state and attempting to take it over by force of arms or other forms of coersive behaviour means that even the most war averse states will make the most unlikely alliances and use all the political, economic and military power at their means to check the aggressor. Think of it: te endless twisting tale of Taiwan, Ukraine post 2014, Canada, Greenland, Panama and now Gaza. Trump’s second Presidency, which so many of us non-Americans had great hopes for as a great power contributing to a peaceful multipolar world as part of the foundations of an emerging effective post-Westphalian Concert of Nations, has turned out to be a conflict prone real estate hustle and a more than willing partner in grabbing the spoils of a genocide in which Trump has now made himself complicit.

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    1. Kouros

      Why so much hope for Trump’s second presidency? Wasn’t the first one providing a nice blue-print for what might be on the works:
      – exiting nuclear treaty with Russia;
      – exiting nuclear treaty with Iran;
      – sidelining Palestine issue with the Abrahms Accords (bribing Morocco with West Sahara)
      – arming Ukraine to the teeth
      – tax cuts for the rich
      – etc.

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    2. user1234

      As a non-American, I fell insulted by claim that “many of us non-Americans had great hopes”. I never bought any of his crap, and am sure that billions of others did not too. Those that did, should wear a MAGA hat for the rest of his presidency. Also, invest all their money in Trumpcoin, or whatever the name is.

      Reply
  17. hk

    My hunch is that we might be overreacting too soon (with the proviso that I may very well regret being willing to give Trump a benefit of the doubt soon).

    Trump’s MO has always been to yell loudly things that are seemingly outrageous but not too different from what was already being done under the table (it was, after all, Antony Blinken that tried to arrange for ethnic cleansing with gusto, just quietly, soon after Oct 7.) Then, after setting people up to react predictably, Trump turns around and does something else (I’m thinking about his policy towards NK.) 90% of what Trump and his underlings say are BS, but, unlike many politicians’ BS, they utter BS for the sake of uttering BS, not out of seriousness. Sometimes, the BS is part of some strategy. We don’t really know what that stratgegy is yet.

    Two things that struck me as peculiar in Trump’s statements.

    1. That it would be the US that would take over Gaza, not that we’d let Israel take it over. That’s different from the Blinken formula and not something that would make Israeli hard liners happy–recall the recollections of Alastair Crooke (I think I heard it from him) that Ariel Sharon thought, in the long run, US was the enemy to Israel. This attitude certainly has been in the back of Israeli mindset at least going back to their attack on USS Liberty. The idea that Gaza might become an actual American outpost at the doorsteps of Israel has to bother friends of Netanyahu as much as Ukraine in NATO–but, unlike the Russians, they can’t publicly say they are opposed. But, that’s fine–there are plenty of people who would oppose the idea very loudly, now that it’s publicly–including most people who were silently cheering the idea when Blinken was going about it quietly. This actually gives Trump a freedom of action to change his course unpredictably if he chooses to. (No, I’m not saying that he would, but only that he could.)

    2. I think Larry Johnson noticed that Trump quietly recognized that the death count in Gaza is about 10 times as high as the official figures, in the neighborhood of half a million. He can’t be the only person who saw the figures. I think this is a bit analogous to the way Trump nonchalantly threw about very large figures for deaths in Ukraine–at least some people, including those in knowledgeable places, will talk about this.

    Not suggesting, to repeat, that Trump is about to do something good and admirable–he’s not a nice guy and no one should expect that. BUT, taking Trump’s words literally is something that nobody should be doing either, I should think. There’s something going on behind the curtain and his antics are the distraction (what’s really going on may not be very clever at all, so there’s that.)

    Reply
  18. Ashburn

    Still find it somewhat unfathomable that the Arab countries have not instituted an oil embargo as they did during the Yom Kippur war 1973. The embargo targeted countries that had supported Israel during that war. The embargo lasted for six months from October 1973 – March 1974. It raised the price of oil over 300 percent.

    Imagine if they did that today. The US and Europe would be staring at a major recession if not a depression. The trillions in derivatives on Wall Street would be immediately at risk. US pro-Israel politicians would quickly realize the cost of supporting Israel.

    After millions of dead and displaced Arabs from US regime change wars and support for the genocide of the Palestinians, it seems such a comeuppance is long overdue.

    Reply
  19. WillD

    And so many thought Trump could not be nearly as subservient to the Israeli horror story as Biden was. Even though it highly unlikely he can do what he claims, it is evidence of just how low he can stoop to please his Zionist overlords.

    Reply
  20. Alice X

    My heart cries out unappeasablely for the Palestinians; as they live and die in the split concentration camps of historic Palestine. They live oppressed and are ruthlessly murdered in their own country. Murdered by colonial power.

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  21. Matthew

    No, what we lack is power.

    .

    “What we lack, what the pro-Palestinian movement lacks is a clear demand. This is the first thing we are lacking. There is no demand being made by any part of this big group of people. No clear demand.”

    Reply

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