Yves here. This post gives some of the high points on how Israel has continued with its utterly depraved genocide in Gaza. But it insultingly dignifies Netanyahu as ready to move on to the next phases of the peace headfake when there has been not a single day when Israel has complied with the ceasefire. Similarly, it tries to depict the removal of Tony Blair from the Trump peace scheme “board of peace” it bizarrely acts as if that’s a minor negative for Netanyahu. Huh? The Israel focus is the extermination or removal of Palestinians from their expansive notion of Israel’s boundaries. They know that talk of governance schemes is just empty prattle.
What is the reason for what comes awfully close to apologetics for Israel from Paul Rogers? Are commentators in the UK that afraid of seeming too Palestine friendly by being correctly critical of Israel? Is this an example of the chilling effect of the detention of George Galloway under the Anti-Terrorism Act?
@GeorgeGalloway on being detained by the UK Anti-Terrorism Police: “If you had told me 8 weeks ago that such a thing was even remotely possible, I would not have believed you. There is no more patriotic British citizen than me.”
Don’t miss the interview with @TuckerCarlson pic.twitter.com/CuKGr7A7V2
— HatsOff (@HatsOffff) November 28, 2025
It’s grating to see Rogers try to end on a note of hopium. Trump is a true believer in his policies and doubles down, as we see on all sorts of fronts, from the economy to ICE, when polls show they are hemorrhaging support. If Trump wanted to send a shot across Israel’s bow, he would have recalled his cringe-worthy ambassador Mike Huckabee after meeting with Jonathan Pollard:
Why would Mike Huckabee hold an off-the-books meeting with traitor Jonathan Pollard at the U.S. Embassy? This is an outrageous diplomatic lapse, and Huckabee should resign or be fired!
I discuss this with @ClaytonMorris and @Natalimorris on @RedactedNews. pic.twitter.com/hhTfcWRDyf
— John Kiriakou (@JohnKiriakou) November 20, 2025
No, Trump believes in the Israel project. His favorite daughter Ivana converted to become an Orthodox Jew. Trump is also a loud and proud supporter of ethno-supremacism in South Africa. He’s not giving up Israel, even before getting to the importance of Zionist donors to him,
By Paul Rogers, Emeritus Professor of Peace Studies in the Department of Peace Studies and International Relations at Bradford University, and an Honorary Fellow at the Joint Service Command and Staff College. He is openDemocracy’s international security correspondent. He is on Twitter at: @ProfPRogers. Originally published at openDemocracy
Two months into Israel and Hamas’s ‘ceasefire’, the name is already proving a misnomer. Violence continues in Gaza, where more than 360 Palestinians, including as many as 70 children, and three Israeli soldiers have been killed since 10 October.
Most of the Palestinians killed were families who were ‘collateral damage’ of Israeli aircraft and drone strikes on buildings, ruins or tents in pursuit of individual Hamas paramilitaries. Despite this, prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu has suggested Israel is ready to move to the next phase of the 20-point Gaza peace plan put forward by Donald Trump.
Reports from Washington, though, indicate that the plan itself is undergoing changes.
Tony Blair was this week quietly dropped from Trump’s “board of peace”, a technocratic administration of the self-proclaimed global great and good to oversee Gaza’s governance, according to the Financial Times.
The former UK prime minister was widely expected to play a major role in the programme, possibly even leading it, but some Arab and Muslim states are said to have argued that his support for and involvement in the 2003 US assault on Iraq made him an unfit candidate.
While this is no doubt a blow for Blair, for Netanyahu, it is just a minor setback. Israel is already setting the agenda on the ground, and the prime minister is confident in Trump remaining faithful due to the voting power of the many millions of Christian Zionists in the US.
His confidence can be seen in several instances of Israel acting with impunity.
First, Netanyahu has essentially annexed the majority of Gaza in a sleight of hand.
Close to two million Palestinians have been forced into the small strip of mostly ruined urban areas along the coast, known as the Red Zone, while Israeli troops occupy the Green Zone, which makes up 58% of Gaza. Yellow concrete posts mark the divide between the two, which the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) already consider to be Israel’s new border with Gaza.
Then there is Israel’s reported spying on the international security forces present at the Civil-Military Coordination Centre, the ceasefire-monitoring centre established by the US at Kiryat Gat in southern Israel, just 20 kilometres from Gaza, since 10 October.
The centre’s several hundred uniformed and civilian foreign staff are tasked with aid and logistic coordination, after the abandonment of the previous and much-criticised US/Israeli private aid distribution system. But press reports suggest tensions, with some foreign teams reportedly avoiding revealing sensitive information due to Israeli surveillance, which the base’s US commander, Patrick Frank, has called on Israeli officials to put a stop to.
Meanwhile, beyond Gaza, the IDF and the Israeli police are seen to have free rein in their treatment of the three million Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. One recent example was the shooting dead of two Palestinians who had surrendered
Since Israel’s war in Gaza started two years ago, more than a thousand Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed, while in the past 12 months, around 32,000 people have been forced from their homes in refugee camps in the north of the West Bank.
At least 34 families, totalling 175 people, currently face eviction from their houses in Batn al-Hawa, East Jerusalem, by an Israeli settler group.
“Israeli military operations have forced entire communities in areas of the northern West Bank into lockdown in their homes, keeping children out of school, jeopardising family incomes and increasing risk of physical violence and child detention from the Israeli military,” said a statement last month by Save the Children, a charity that first offered support for Palestinians in 1953 and has been a permanent presence in the region for the past 50 years.
The organisation concluded that “the futures of an entire generation are being jeopardised”, pointing to disastrous prospects for Palestinian children due to restrictions on aid, settler violence, house demolitions, land confiscation and the destruction of infrastructure.
And given Netanyahu’s determination to stay in power at least until next year’s general election, it is difficult to see an early end to the grim Palestinian predicament.
As I have previously argued in these columns, the Gaza conflict will have a longer-term, multi-generational impact on Palestinians and will most certainly not give Israeli Jews the security they desire – indeed, quite the opposite, as more traumatised and grieving Palestinians come round to Hamas’s cause.
In the more immediate future, though, one recent trend is already surprising independent analysts: the marked decrease in the US public’s support for Israel. “A majority of Americans now disapprove of the IDF’s actions in Gaza,” and, more telling still, “for the first time more support the Palestinians than Israel”, according to a report in Le Monde Diplomatique this month.
So, while for now, Netanyahu is right to be confident in Trump’s unflinching support, the US president’s attitude may change abruptly if he starts to think his domestic reputation is being threatened.
Even with multitudes of MAGAts despising all the money and favoritism given to israel, not to mention their outright anti-jewish views, there is very little Trump can do – even if he wanted (which is laughable). Zionazis have such a stranglehold on all facets of the US system that he would be shut down immediately, if not ‘epsteined’.
And why is the article framed in present tense? Israel has always acted with impunity, especially since they got away with the slaughter of servicemembers on the USS liberty.
Even earlier, with the murder of Count Bernadotte back in 1948.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folke_Bernadotte
Remember that the present State of israel is considered to be a Settler Colonial state due to the manner of its inception and construction. See the Nakba for details.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakba
Almost no group has clean hands when it comes to the displacement of indigenes during colonization.
The story goes that when Nixon was meeting with Khrushchev, the subject of Soviet policies directed against ethnic minorities was raised. Khrushchev replied that the Soviets wished they had had the idea that the Americans used to “deal with” their Native Americans, exterminate them. Fewer problems in the long run.
Israel, being an American protégé and client state adopted the American policies. Round them up on reservations. Kill those who don’t submit. Call it Manifest Destiny.
Stay safe.
… the US president’s attitude may change abruptly if he starts to think his domestic reputation is being threatened.
This is quackery because his “domestic reputation” is already threatened by his allegiance to Netanyahu … and Trump doesn’t seem to care.
Trump’s abject prostration to Netanyahu is part of why some Conservatives have split with him. They feel betrayed by this “America First” “populist outsider” much like Progressives felt betrayed by “Change You Can Believe In” Obama (no public option; no investigations of Bush Admin lies or rendition & torture; made most of the Bush tax cuts permanent; secret wars; HAMP; etc.).
What took Conservatives so long? LOL. Trump clearly lied/dissembled about self-funding, “draining the swamp”, defending free speech; “fighting the Deep State”; his oh-so close association with Epstein; being a peacemaker; and other matters.
Are we done with “populist outsiders” now? Can we move on to real political reform?
>>>This is quackery because his “domestic reputation” is already threatened by his allegiance to Netanyahu … and Trump doesn’t seem to care.
Very true, but if Trump loses enough supporters, he loses power, and Gaza is costing him followers.
I don’t see how he’s supposed to “lose power.’ He’s got 3 more years on his term, and AIPAC has a lock on congress and the judiciary regardless of party affiliation. Federal law enforcement and the military are on board. The Zionist agenda has broad institutional support and turning against it is a much more certain path to losing power than supporting it.
As for followers… such persons as I know either remain transfixed by “anti-woke” crusading or have been convinced by ziotubers that the Palestinians are lying / they deserved it. The fraction of Americans who really care about the war machine’s overseas carnage is not great.
President Trump would lose power as in being forced from office. Aside from Richard Nixon and the four assassinations (Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, and Kennedy) with the last being a likely successful action by the deep state, perhaps the Dulles Brothers, the amount of power that a president has varies with his reputation and general public support determining what his actual power is, aside from what is on paper. Whatever support he gets from his fellow génocidaires, fellators of the wealthy, and MAGA fanatics, it is his popularity with the general public (the two thirds of the public who are not true believers) that will enable him to do what he wants, or not, to a great amount. He will be able to use his personal support to help or hinder other politicians, even other powerful executives and billionaires. “I wonder if Mr. Joe Smith is going to vote my way (or donate/buy/agree to whatever)” And if they don’t, then the voters, the protesters, the other powerful people will push the miscreant into the right action. It’s soft power. Something nebulous, but real enough.
If he gets enough of it, he can be kingmaker even after he leaves office. If he loses too much, while his power on paper will remain, he will lose the active support of many people. The connections, and their financial and vocal support. Restated, he might be able to finish the obliteration of Gaza and the West Bank, but in doing so, he will likely lose much of his power to get the legislation that he wants passed, or the extralegal actions such as the complete and permanent transformation of ICE into both his and future presidents’ personal gestapo; his extralegal actions require the person efforts of his followers, who require him to have strong public support for their continued doing his bidding. Strong public support might even enable him to get military and deep state support. It’s confusing and it’s nebulous, but a state’s or leader’s power often is that. Which is a reason for my overlong comment in trying to explain.
I’m not so sure Trump believes in Israel or for that matter the same re the Israel supporters in Congress or the 1000 pastors currently given a free trip by the Israeli government. They are all being bribed and/or threatened. Just ask Charlie Kirk–oh wait.
Trump was reportedly quite angry with Netanyahu for congratulating Biden in 2000 while Trump was disputing the vote. And Trump like an elephant never forgets. Everything he has done so far is a riposte to his critics. He even once held up his hands on TV to prove he wasn’t a “short fingered vulgarian.” When you are a big bag of wind that thin skin must be protected.
Israel is not over confident in trumps support.
It has the full support of the US media, Congress, Trump.
Correct, he is playing the US congress as artfully as he does the Israeli congress.
“…one recent trend is already surprising independent analysts: the marked decrease in the US public’s support for Israel.”
A post on the attempts to fix that:
Pro-Israel Forces Intensify Effort To Control American Discourse
Across the American political spectrum, support for the State of Israel is steadily eroding. With the long-running, staggeringly expensive redistribution of American wealth and weapons to one of the world’s most prosperous countries under unprecedented threat, Israel’s advocates inside the United States are growing increasingly desperate to suppress the facts, opinions, questions and imagery that are causing this sea change.
The disconnect between the “elites” and “citizens” is staggering, not simply regarding Israel, but on issues across the socioeconomic spectrum. No doubt the shot-callers are going to have their hands full with attempts to manage growing discontent, and their efforts will certainly become ever more viscious and desperate as their curtains are rend into tatters.
The US and UK are today closer to the likes of Arab regimes like Egypt, Jordan, or Saudi Arabia. Weak, unpopular, delusional comprador ruling classes, all but divorced from their populations and eager to serve foreign interests for hire. Let’s not even mention the debt and unemployment rates.
Sounds about right, but instead of head-chopping we’ll go with public hangings:
Billionaire Palantir co-founder calls for return of public hangings to show ‘masculine leadership’ in America
That’ll teach the riff-raff to stay in their place.
I usually refrain from commenting here simply because there are so many more incisive commentators than me, but in this case I’m honestly puzzled that the elephant in the room hasn’t been mentioned once: Epstein.
If there’s pictures of Orangey doing underage girls, he’ll do whatever they ask, as long as they ask.
And if there’s even a scintilla of truth in the rumors and reports that Charlie Kirk signed his own death warrant by turning against our “ally,” Trump is in full possession of that information and know’s he’s not safe either.
probably not orangey (who has said he likes young girls), but orangey’s kids are the weak link.
However many photos Epstein took there are 100,000s of people in Washington and he can’t have blackmailed them all. No one was blackmailing SS regiments or German leadership into slaughtering civilians in the eastern front and no one needs to blackmail Washington to support mass slaughter today. They may ask for a bribe of course, but little more drama is needed.
I still want to know who Bubba was.
The whole of Washington ‘believes’ in Israel. It’s not a Trump thing. The state of Israel is the overlord of the US and the UK. How this happened I don’t know but the facts speak for themselves.
This is wishful thinking. One may as well speak of the likes of Abbas or Jolani changing their minds. The fate of the US is more likely to be closer to the UK, increased censorship, erosion of the rule of law, police state tactics, essential fascism into support of mass slaughter. The ultimate fate of the US and the UK is to become as Israel is now, especially in the West Bank. A deranged dystopia, where ravings about biblical prophecies and military juntism veto all rights, reason or justice. Though it must be said that none of their public has signed up for this.
In my view its not about Trump support its the UN vote that made it legal for Israel to eliminate all Palestine’s in Gaza. This what people was trying to explain when Russia and china didn’t veto the bill .
he’s on the dinner party circuit and wants to stay there
Israel is not isolated, so the USA won’t be turning its back.
And it’s only other countries that get that “need to be able to defend themselves” trope thrown at them.
Israel has recently developed a lock on the British political system now almost as strong as AIPACs. They sponsor the ‘Labour (or) Conservative friends of Israel’ group for MPs which I’d estimate 80% of MPs belong to. They get there obligatory weeks – brainwashing – trip to Israel and future financial contributions from Israel and/or British zionists and our politicians are easily bribed/ persuaded.
Just out of interest I wonder if Starmers wife is a mossad honeytrap?
For decades Britain was able to keep an arms length relationship with Israel, but no longer. Our late much missed Queen used to refer to Israeli leaders as terrorists or sons of terrorists and refuse to meet them. Now Charles,,,,,he’s more easily persuaded than our MPs, especially since he gave away any political powers just to keep his tax free fortune.
Wondering the same about the Kirk woman.
Aren’t Americans just inherently Judeophiles?
Almost everything popular from American media and culture just seems to imply this for me
Israel and Jews are not the same thing.
Americans are not natural Israelophiles. If they were, it would not be necessary for supporters of Israel to take such incredible pains to paint Israel in a positive light.
another ridiculous claim in the article is that
Trump’s approval rating with his base is already in the basement. The idea that he cares about what christian zionists think is ridiculous. the only thing that matters are his zionist donors. Christian zionists are not going to vote him out of the hole he has dug for himself but he doesn’t care. Trump also knows that once you take money from the mafia, you don’t have the option to change your mind, as Charlie Kirk found out.