Why Trump's Middle East tour is about money, not peace

Australia Broadcast Center

14-05-2025

Sam Hawley: So far he's secured a new luxury jet and billions of dollars in investment deals. But as Donald Trump continues his tour of the Middle East, there's been no talk of a plan for peace in Gaza. Today Hussein Ibish from the Arab Gulf States Institute on Trump's tour and why he won't be meeting the Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu. I'm Sam Hawley on Gadigal land in Sydney. This is ABC News Daily. Hussein, Donald Trump, he's gone to the Middle East, but this trip seems to be much more about money than peace. Is that fair enough?
Hussein Ibish: It is fair and it is accurate. There are a few diplomatic manoeuvres going on. There was the release of the American hostage that was still held in Gaza by Hamas, the lifting of sanctions on Syria. But behind it, the main agenda is money, money, money. And there's the national interest money. And the other economic agenda is his private personal agenda. Where there is this enormous set of investments related to Trump incorporated. The privately owned family company now being nominally run by his sons. And he stands to make billions off of Trump Tower in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Trump Tower in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, a Trump Tower in Dubai in the UAE, and a Trump golf course and resort in Qatar. They will reap billions.
Donald Trump: With this trip, we're adding over $1 trillion more in terms of investment and investment into our country and buying our products. I've never seen anything like it. There's no better place to make a future, make a fortune.
Sam Hawley: And before he started his trip, of course, the big news story was that he had actually accepted a luxury jet, Donald Trump, from the Qatari government worth $400 million US dollars.
Jounalist: Mr. President, what do you say to people who view that luxury jet as a personal gift to you?
Donald Trump: You should be embarrassed asking that question. They're giving us a free jet. I could say, no, no, no, don't give us, I want to pay you a billion or 400 million or whatever it is. Or I could say, thank you very much.
Hussein Ibish: That's not a gift to him personally, although he'll be using it. It's a gift to the United States.
Sam Hawley: Sounds nice if you can get it though.
Hussein Ibish: Well, it's still the case that all these other deals that are private and personal are all being done because there is a generalized suspension of the usual rules and laws against corruption, self-dealing, bribery, and many other laws that would prevent this kind of outrageous corruption, which normally in any Western country would be considered criminally actionable.
Sam Hawley: Well, of course, his first stop was to Saudi Arabia to meet the Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman. Right. And they've signed deals that could be investment deals that could be worth eventually up around a trillion dollars. And they did sign an arms deal, a $142 billion arms deal.
Hussein Ibish: Here's what Trump is doing. He's doing what he did in 2017, but he's going to do it three times. Once in Saudi Arabia, and then again, he's going to do the same thing in the UAE. And then one more time in Qatar. He's going to take real deals like the missile sale that you mentioned, $138 billion, I think it is, something like that, plus aspirational deals, plus fake deals and pledges that everyone who is well-informed knows is never going to happen. And he's going to add all of that up in the most fanciful way and come up with a figure like a trillion dollars or something absurd like that, when the real figure is big, but not anything like that size in order to secure a political win. Trump has gone to the Gulf to get wins. He's desperately in need of wins.
Sam Hawley: All right. So, as you mentioned, he will also visit Qatar and the UAE. He will not, though, be meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu on this trip. That relationship's really headed south, I think you can say, since that very cordial meeting that they had in February.
Hussein Ibish: Yeah, it's in bad shape. I mean, look, I wouldn't want to overstate things because the U.S.-Israeli relationship is very strong and Trump's relationship with Israel and with Netanyahu's right-wing government is very strong. It's true there are many issues that are irritants between Trump and Netanyahu, and they include things like the negotiations with Hamas over the release of the American hostage, which was done without Israel's knowledge or consent or involvement, the negotiations with the Houthis for a ceasefire, which did not include Israel, and also the, I think the Israelis will be unhappy about the lifting of sanctions against Syria. In addition, there is a big gap on Gaza where Trump wants the war to end and Israel is preparing to ramp it up to its most intense phase ever thus far. And another big issue, maybe the biggest one, is Trump's negotiations with Iran, where both Iran and Trump are very keen on getting a deal. The Israelis are very upset about this.
Sam Hawley: All right, so Benjamin Netanyahu is clearly unhappy with some of the deals that Donald Trump is doing, including in relation to Iran. You mentioned the U.S. citizen, of course, that was freed by Hamas this week. Arab mediators say that release is a really encouraging step towards a return to ceasefire talks. But what do you think? Is that really the case? What has Benjamin Netanyahu been saying in relation to peace?
Hussein Ibish: Well, he's very clear that as soon as Trump leaves the Middle East, he's going to launch a major offensive, drive the 2.2 million Palestinians in Gaza into a small enclave and try to crush and kill Hamas and the rest of the territory.
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister: Last night, we stayed up late in the cabinet and decided on an intensified operation in Gaza. It was the chief of staff's recommendation to proceed, as he put it, towards the defeat of Hamas. And along the way, he believes this will also help us rescue the hostages. And I agree with him. The population will be moved for its own protection.
Hussein Ibish: It's really the closest thing Israel has done so far, if they do it, to fully justify South Africa's genocide case at the International Court of Justice. Over time, Israel's use of food and medicine and water as a weapon of war and the rising death toll of women and children and other non-combatants, civilians, has contributed to a reality where that case is now strong. If Israel goes ahead with this offensive as they've described it, it'll become very strong. Not that Netanyahu is ever going to be arrested and dragged in front of the Hague, more's the pity, since he certainly, he and the Hamas leaders belong there, perhaps in adjacent courtrooms. But the point is that they're hoping that Trump will intervene to either prevent or mitigate this, to put some sort of limits on Israel. And that very much remains to be seen.
Sam Hawley: The real fear now, of course, is that Gaza is on the brink of starvation because Israel has blockaded food and fuel.
Hussein Ibish: For over 70 days now, they've allowed no food, fuel, water, medicine, anything into Gaza.
Sam Hawley: Well, Israel says that all Hamas needs to do is disarm and the war could end, that it's hiding fighters among the community. That's Israel's argument.
Hussein Ibish: Well, even if all that were true, let's stipulate that that's true. And Hamas is a very ruthless group of people who don't care about the population of Gaza. And they've made that very clear through word and deed over time. In fact, they say when challenged, oh, we're a nation of martyrs. Even if all this were true, Israel is still responsible for its actions. The fact that Hamas does bad things does not give Israel the right to engage in the massive breaking of international law, the taking of all of the people of Gaza hostage in effect by cutting off food and water to them for months on end, and massacring them in large numbers without caring about which of them live or die. All of that is criminal behavior. It may rise to the level of crimes against... certainly war crimes, and it may rise to the level of crimes against humanity and possibly genocide. And Israel's behavior in Gaza in the past year and a half has been among the most reprehensible of any developed state since World War II. I just think there's no doubt about it whatsoever.
Sam Hawley: Well, Hussein, Benjamin Netanyahu says he will use full force to finish the job and eliminate Hamas. So what does that look like? And will the world and for that matter Israelis allow it?
Hussein Ibish: Well, Israelis will allow it. The world can't do much except for Trump. Will Trump allow it? As I say, I don't know. Trump doesn't have the absolute power to stop it. But if he were to intervene, he could make life extremely difficult for Netanyahu. And he could certainly attenuate it and make the Israelis think twice. And probably he can restrain them. You know, what would it look like? What Israel has described is unimaginable. So it's something we've never seen before. The herding of 2 million people into a small enclave, a giant prison camp, a large concentration camp, with 'inadequate' (the UN has said, and I'm sure they're right) structures for food, medicine, health care, shelter, etc. And it'll look like a massacre is what it'll look like. The second thing is that even that scenario will not eliminate Hamas from Gaza. The Israeli military cannot be everywhere. And recent history shows very clearly in Afghanistan, Iraq, many places, that it is possible in the modern world to, and possibly before that, but certainly in the modern world, it's readily possible to run an insurgency under the most onerous circumstances and on a shoestring if your fighters are willing to die. And that's the crucial point. And I think Hamas has proven that its fighters are willing to die. And I think they'll be more ready now than ever. What's there to live for in Gaza? Winston Churchill had the sort of motto of the insurgent down to a T, when he had, you know, keep calm and carry on, was the British slogan during the Blitz. But Churchill had worked out a next phase slogan. If the Germans had invaded Britain, he would have rolled out the slogan "You can always take one with you." And he was thinking about everyone in Britain grabbing a kitchen knife or some other implement and finding a German soldier and saying, right, I may go, but, you know, I'll take one of them with me. And, you know, that spirit is going to seize many of the people of Gaza, even if it's unwise, even if it's irrational. I'm just saying if it could be the spirit of Britain in the 40s, why wouldn't it be the spirit of Gaza now? I mean, I think it would be. The Israelis are going to find it impossible to remove Hamas from Gaza unless they depopulate Gaza. And I think in the end, that's where the Israeli plan is going to go. By making conditions on the ground unendurable and rendering Gaza uninhabitable and then sort of forcing the outside world to take Palestinians on a piecemeal basis. Oh, you know, a thousand here, 10,000 there, you know, 2,000 in Finland and another 300 in Chile and bit by bit, individual by individual, family by family, group by group. And meanwhile, Israel will be probably reestablishing at least symbolic settlements in Gaza's north and probably moving towards annexation of part or all of Gaza in the foreseeable future. Permanent dispossession, permanent exile, permanent expulsion.
Sam Hawley: Hussein Ibish is from the Arab Gulf States Institute, a Washington D.C based think tank. This episode was produced by Sydney Pead and Adair Sheppard. Audio production by Sam Dunn. Our supervising producer is David Coady. I'm Sam Hawley. Thanks for listening.