Latest news with #Israeli-Saudi
Chicago Tribune
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Daniel DePetris: Donald Trump is getting a reality check on his peace plans for Gaza and Ukraine
If there is one lesson President Donald Trump is learning during the first four months of his second term, it's that talking about peace isn't the same as fostering it. In Ukraine and Gaza, host to two of the most intractable wars in the world, the president is striking out. The self-professed master dealmaker devoted considerable time on the campaign trail trumpeting his ambitions for a more peaceful world and bragging about how he was the only person on the planet with the talent and stamina to end the wars his predecessor Joe Biden couldn't. On the war in Ukraine, Trump boasted how he would quickly get Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin in the same room to hash out the issues like adults, perhaps not appreciating just how difficult it would be to corral the men together. 'I will get the problem solved and I will get it solved in rapid order and it will take me no longer than one day,' Trump said during a March 2023 rally to his supporters. 'I know exactly what to say to each of them.' While the Israel-Hamas war wasn't as high on his list of priorities, Trump was adamant that he would rather have the fighting over before he took office. This was as much about his wider ambitions in the Middle East as it was about any humanitarian inkling to stop the killing; Trump's desire to expand the 2020 Abraham Accords and strike an Israeli-Saudi normalization agreement was only going to happen if a comprehensive ceasefire in Gaza was set in stone. Unfortunately, all of the braggadocio we heard during the campaign has proved to be empty. The wars in Ukraine and Gaza continue to fester like gaping wounds. To Trump's credit, he is at least actively trying on the Ukraine file. His special envoy, Steve Witkoff, has met with Putin at least four times. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has sketched out various peace proposals with the Ukrainians in Europe. Trump has met with Zelenskyy twice, the first gathering degenerating into a very public browbeating of the Ukrainian leader in the Oval Office. Rubio and Vice President JD Vance spoke with Zelenskyy last weekend at the Vatican. And this week, Trump spoke with Putin on the phone, days after Ukrainian and Russian negotiators met for their first direct talks in more than three years. Yet the meetings aren't producing much of anything — at least not yet. Every attempt to hammer out a short-term ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine has come to naught. The unconditional 30-day truce Kyiv agreed to in March was rejected by the Russians, who viewed it contrary to Moscow's position of talking about the deep issues powering the conflict in the first place. The Black Sea truce negotiated weeks later died before the ink was even dry as Putin linked Russian participation to Western sanctions relief. Trump's frustration with Putin is greater today than it once was but still not so significant that he is throwing in the towel on the entire effort. That may change if substantive progress isn't seen in a few weeks; Vance and Rubio have stated numerous times that at some point, Washington will have no choice but to walk away if Zelenskyy and Putin are unable to compromise. If Ukraine is a case study of America pursuing an out-of-reach solution, then Gaza is an example of America incessantly bashing its head against the wall. Zelenskyy is at least willing to give Trump an opportunity to pull a rabbit out his hat. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, isn't even pretending to be cooperative. Instead, he's expanding Israeli military operations in Gaza, catering to his far-right constituency to keep himself in power and demonstrating the same maximalism that Hamas has waved away in the past. Whereas the Americans are talking about a long-term ceasefire and hostage exchange, Netanyahu is talking about keeping up the pressure on Hamas until the organization agrees to disarm, demobilize and leave Gaza in self-imposed exile. Those are essentially the same terms Netanyahu presented when Biden was in the White House, and the results are as bloody today as they were back then. In Netanyahu's mind, there is no graceful exit ramp for a group that slaughtered 1,200 Israelis on Oct. 7. The only choice Hamas has is death or surrender, even if this comes at the cost of the remaining hostages and an even bigger humanitarian catastrophe to more than 2 million Palestinians in the enclave. For Hamas, surrender is unacceptable; for Israel, that's the minimum it's willing to consider. There's a moral to the story here: Third-party mediators can do only so much if the combatants are incapable of compromise, have a domestic political incentive to continue fighting or still believe they can win the entire game. This isn't the first time a U.S. commander in chief has run into this reality. Indeed, every U.S. president coming into office thinks he can resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for good, only to leave the White House with nothing to show for the effort. Ultimately the core issues — how much land the Palestinians should have for a state of their own, where the borders should be drawn, whether Palestinians displaced from their original homes should be given the right to return, the status of Jerusalem — were too much for the Israelis and Palestinians to handle, even with very capable American negotiators prodding them. At this point, short-term truces in Ukraine and Gaza might be the best Trump can hope for — and even these outcomes are hardly certain. Nobody said international diplomacy was going to be easy.
Leaders
19-02-2025
- Politics
- Leaders
Blour: Future of Greater Israel: Geopolitical Shifts,Corporate-Driven Conflict
Former U.S. government adviser and environmental activist Gregory de Blour said: 'A question was asked to me: If the Zionists get their way with the Greater Israel project, what comes next? First of all, I don't see the Greater Israel project going much further. I don't believe—by watching, not the tea leaves, but the dynamics of what's happening in the world between BRICS, the consolidation of economic blocs—America's dead on arrival. Meaning, we are not going to be the nation that we all thought we were. They are bankrupting us—the corporations. So, we're on a road to termination when it comes to a greater America. @dashimoelle 🌬what comes next🙇♂️ #dashimoelle #thewitch🧙♂️ #داشيمولي #اكسبلورexplore #fyp #مصر #احا_يا_مولي #ترند #wakeup #canada #usa🇺🇸 #humanity #free #foryou ♬ original sound – moelle We're sacrificing our peace, our once-held prosperity in our country, and it's gone because they don't care about the American people. They care about profits for corporations. So, that's what they are doing—they are sending our kids off to fight their wars, stealing resources. They are paying our young kids handsomely, but they are just collateral damage. They don't care what happens when these kids come home and have to live with what they committed—which is genocide and ethnic cleansing. If this goes too far, millions of people will suffer, just so a few corporations can make profits and control resources.' Related Topics : Israeli-Saudi Normalization Not To Happen Without Comprehensive peace deal with Palestinians INTERVIEW-Saudi Arabia Plays Pivotal Role in Promoting Regional Stability: Dr. Hesham Alghannam Unveiled: Rabbi Exposes Zionist Conspiracy to Divide Jews, Muslims INTERVIEW-Saudi Arabia Plays Pivotal Role in Promoting Regional Stability: Dr. Hesham Alghannam Short link : Post Views: 1 Related Stories
The Guardian
06-02-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Trump's Gaza power-trip tells us this: he is just another coward denying the need for a Palestinian state
It's easy to mistake sheer ignorance for brilliance. Seeming empathy conceals unfeeling stupidity. In demanding the permanent emptying of Gaza and the forcible resettlement of Palestinian civilians on a wholly imaginary 'good, fresh, beautiful piece of land', Donald Trump tried to break the mould. Instead, he broke hearts – and the US's word. His so-called simple, brilliant big idea is for the simple-minded only – unworkable, unjust and tainted by wilful deceit, recklessness and the monstrous weight of his unleashed ego. Trump's incoherent rambling does not amount to groundbreaking thinking, as Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggests, let alone a plan. It's more akin to bar-room talk by a loudmouthed boor. And yet it's very dangerous. The fundamentalist aim lurking beneath his mock concern is an enlarged and consolidated Israel occupying and 'owning', through some bizarre form of US lend-lease, all of Gaza and possibly the West Bank. It means death to hopes of a Palestinian state. No wonder far-right Jewish nationalists and religious extremists cheer. No wonder today's stern warning against 'ethnic cleansing' from UN secretary general, António Guterres and today's prediction from Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas that any such move would 'put oil on the fire' in the region. Take Trump's basic premise. Gaza is a hellish demolition site, he says, unfit for human habitation. 'Gaza is not a place for people to be living, and the only reason they want to go back … is because they have no alternative.' Yet who does he think is responsible for turning Gaza into a smoking wasteland where at least 47,000 people died in 15 murderous months? It's the man standing next to him. Step forward Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel, slayer of children and indicted war crimes suspect. Who else but Netanyahu, like-minded allies (and himself) does Trump think might benefit from a Gaza 'clean-out'? Neighbouring Arab states such as Egypt and Jordan will not. They are understandably terrified at the prospect of importing into their territory up to 2 million Palestinians, with all the associated humanitarian, economic and security problems. And millions more may follow if the West Bank is 'cleaned out', too. Saudi Arabia's leadership is plainly unimpressed, and possibly quietly angry. Within hours of Trump's claim to the contrary, Riyadh stressed it remained firmly committed to a viable Palestinian state as a condition for giving Trump and Netanyahu what they dearly want – Israeli-Saudi normalisation. Trump blithely assumes the Saudis and Gulf states will willingly fund his Gaza 'Riviera' redevelopment as well as possibly providing land. Wrong again. Trump's proposals ignore the Palestinians' basic right to self-determination, as enshrined in international law and UN resolutions. They overturn decades of US and western policy – and his own first-term 'peace plan' backing a two-state solution. Enforced eviction of millions of people from their homes and property smells like ethnic cleansing, as enacted in Bosnia in the 1990s and, recently, by lawless Jewish settlers in the West Bank. Trump's real-estate takeover wheeze would encourage extremists on all sides. Does he really believe Hamas, still in control of most of Gaza, would tamely concur? Any attempt to permanently remove the mass of Gaza's population would become a rallying cause for Israel's enemies. And it would embolden the far-right Jewish political groups that are most viscerally opposed to Palestinian rights and whose bigotry has fuelled mass killing in Gaza since the 7 October attacks. Trump's bird-brained scheme also drives a coach and horses, or a phalanx of US army Humvees, through solemn campaign promises to end US involvement in Middle East 'forever wars'. The Arabs, the Europeans and the UK are unanimous in their condemnation. None would assist a US military takeover of Gaza. Large numbers of US troops would be required there, on a long-term basis. They would inevitably be targeted by Islamists. Gaza could become Trump's Iraq. What a generous geopolitical gift that would be to the much-battered, Iranian-directed 'axis of resistance'. Hezbollah in Lebanon and assorted militias in Iraq and Yemen could be expected to join Hamas in a reviving anti-US, anti-western jihad. Islamic State, rebuilding strength and reach in the ungoverned eastern deserts of post-Assad Syria, would not stay silent for long. Russia would welcome the distraction and the chaos, too. As for Iran itself, Trump reintroduced 'maximum pressure' sanctions this week. A US intelligence report suggested Tehran was considering a short-cut pathway to building a nuclear bomb. Netanyahu tells the White House ignoramus-in-chief at every turn that Iran poses an existential threat. Given his head, he would like to attack. Which way Trump jumps could be devastatingly consequential. Netanyahu is emerging stronger as a result of Trump's intervention. Going into this week's White House meeting, he was squeezed between far-right coalition parties, which want the war to resume and would like to seize and resettle Gaza and the West Bank, and the US, which ostensibly wants a permanent ceasefire and the return of all living hostages. Now, with Trump's wildcard in his pocket, Netanyahu potentially escapes the trap. Opponents may find it harder to bring him down, even if he sabotages the ceasefire (which he is shaping up to do). Hamas, too, now has additional incentives to walk away from the second phase of the truce, as some if its members would plainly prefer. With every hostage and prisoner swap, it has made a big show of having survived the Israeli onslaught and being back in charge. There is still no agreed, alternative 'day after' plan for running Gaza. As in Lebanon, where the ceasefire is similarly fragile, renewed warfare may be only one bomb, killing or airstrike away. Trump's absurdly impractical, unjust and illegal Gaza fantasy power trip is already exacerbating chronic instability in the Middle East. As is usual with him, this latest piece of self-indulgent idiocy will make a bad situation worse, even if it eventually comes to nothing. It is also a prime example of what happens when scheming politicians tortuously twist and turn, desperately distort facts, deny obvious realities and flout common sense in order to avoid doing the right thing. In this case, the right thing is the only thing that can end the 77-year-long conflict: accepting the creation, in the land of Palestine, of a sovereign, independent Palestine state alongside Israel. They just will not do it. Simon Tisdall is the Observer's foreign affairs commentator
South China Morning Post
04-02-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
Trump calls Gaza a demolition site, wants to permanently displace Palestinians
US President Donald Trump proposed the permanent resettlement of Palestinians from war-shattered Gaza to neighbouring countries, calling the enclave a 'demolition site' on Tuesday as he held pivotal talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump repeated his call for Jordan, Egypt and other Arab states to take in Gazans, saying Palestinians there had no alternative but to leave the coastal strip, which must be rebuilt after nearly 16 months of a devastating war between Israel and Hamas militants. But this time Trump said he would support resettling Palestinians 'permanently', going beyond his previous suggestions that Arab leaders had already steadfastly rejected. Just two weeks into his second term, Trump was hosting Netanyahu at the White House to discuss the future of the fragile Gaza ceasefire, strategies to counter Iran and hopes for a renewed push for an Israeli-Saudi normalisation deal. 'It's a pure demolition site,' Trump, speaking shortly before Netanyahu arrived, said of Gaza. 'If we could find the right piece of land, or numerous pieces of land, and build them some really nice places with plenty of money in the area, that's for sure. I think that would be a lot better than going back to Gaza.'
