Why two men from opposite sides see Donald Trump as a ‘saviour'

The Age

23-05-2025

While Trump has so far given Netanyahu carte blanche to resume the war in Gaza, there are growing signs that Trump is becoming impatient with the war. 'The president is frustrated about what is happening in Gaza. He wants the war to end, he wants the hostages to come home, he wants aid to go in, and he wants to start rebuilding Gaza,' a White House official told US website Axios this week. Baskin says: 'I think we can expect, if Trump doesn't get distracted, which is always possible, he will tell Netanyahu in a couple of weeks, 'Finish the war and do a deal'.' Baskin knows this is a striking thing for someone on the political left to believe: 'It's a very bizarre reality where I come to the conclusion that our saviour is Donald Trump.'
On the Palestinian side, Sinijlawi loathes Hamas' use of violence to achieve its goals. He is also a passionate internal opponent of Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president who leads Hamas' more moderate political rival, Fatah. Abbas, aged 89, has been in power for 20 years and is widely perceived as ineffectual and corrupt. 'We Palestinians are contributing to the continuation of what's happening because of our internal politics,' Sinijlawi argues. 'The majority of the Palestinian people are fed up with both Abbas and Hamas, they are fed up with the corruption that Abbas has brought upon them in the West Bank, and they are fed up with the destruction that Hamas has brought upon them in Gaza.' He is heartened by the recent protests that have sprung up against Hamas in Gaza, saying they reflect widespread fury at the group among Palestinian civilians.
The only solution to the leadership crisis, he says, is for Palestinians to be allowed to vote in elections for the first time since 2006 – even at the risk of Hamas winning significant support. 'The international community needs to understand that elections are a must,' he says. 'They should be done now, even with the current situation in Gaza. People would go from their plastic tents to vote because they are looking for different leadership, they are looking for change.'
Both men are urging the Albanese government to be bold and officially recognise Palestinian statehood, a move it toyed with during its first term but ultimately shied away from. Labor's national policy platform calls on the Australian government to 'recognise Palestine as a state' and calls the issue an 'important priority'. Sinijlawi argues: 'Countries who support the two-state solution need to recognise both states. It would be a positive step and help everybody understand that the international community is very much dedicated to the two-state solution.'
Baskin says: 'I think it is legitimate to call for all 193 member states of the United Nations to recognise both the State of Israel and the state of Palestine.'
Hopes for a two-state solution appear to have reached a nadir following the attacks of October 7 and the war in Gaza. Gallup polling conducted last year found 64 per cent of Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem do not support a two-state solution. The numbers represent a dramatic turnaround from 2012, when the majority of Israelis and Palestinians backed the idea. Nasser Mashni, head of the Australia Palestinian Advocacy Network, said last year that the 'two-state solution is absolutely dead' – in part because of the rapid expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.