Gaza 4 - ISRAELS FINAL SOLUTION
Trumps America descent into Barbarism
Like many others, I am horrified by what his happening in the USA, but when it comes to Gaza, the situation is acute and horrific. So what of Trumps back of an envelope final solution?
Writing about ‘Final solutions’ in the context of the state of Israel might lead to accusations of being insensitive but would miss the point. What is happening in the middle east is not what was happening in East Europe in the middle of last century, but it seems clear that, despite the Holocaust Memorial Day being as shocking, important, and powerful as ever, I wonder what lessons have been learned in terms of state sanctioned brutality in all its forms.
I wrote previously about the relevant history, the War on Gaza, and the potential outcomes of the war on Gaza in what is ridiculously called The Holy Land. Since then, little real progress has been made, other than the ongoing intentional destruction of people and infrastructure by US weapons in Israel’s hands. The unimaginable suffering of Palestinians has faded from the news and become normalised.
Add to the terrible mix, is a second term Trump whose anti-intellectual thinking is based on doing self-interested deals. Who could have predicted this final and potentially dreadful outcome – an emptied Gaza turned into a Trump themed holiday park, as well as the almost unmentioned pogroms of Palestinians in the West Bank. Is this going to be the final solution religious extremists in both Israel and America have been yearning for?
It’s looking ominous. Trump, ever the egotist, has his eye on the biggest real-estate deal ever, with the US (him) stealing the whole of Gaza for nothing and developing it into a rich man’s paradise of hotels, beachside condos, golf courses, airport, and whatever other fantasies he now has the power to realise. In Trump’s mind, ‘everyone loves the deal’, in reality it is supported by no-one other that Israel, and not all of Israel at that.
One step forward, a thousand steps back.
The cease fire is a step forward and the release of hostages from both sides is welcome. Israel, even before the flash point of this ongoing crisis had taken thousands of Palestinians into custody, without trial or legal process, has treated them brutally, killed some and tortured many; they too are hostages. Despite this, it’s the Israeli hostages who make the news headlines. Hamas stupid, reckless use of the releases to show they still exist played into the hands of Israel’s and American extreme governments.
The universally bereaved population of Gaza has headed back home to their ruined homes and cities. There are no schools, hospitals, shops, toilets, or indeed, much left standing after Israel’s brutal bombardment. Sadly, for the even this less complex initial process is creaking and it’s clear that Trump and Israel would prefer it not to last and to get far worse in order to do the deal, Trums final solution.
The Deal
Everything in Trumpland is very simple. Since assuming power he has sold $7 billion more heavy weapons to Israel ready for the next phase of destruction when the cease fire fails – his lack of confidence in it lasting (mentioned just after -not before- his election victory) was a big hint - and he now offers impossible ultimatums to Gazeans to end the ceasefire.
When it fails this weekend or with the next problem, or the one after that, he will encourage the next wave of terror (“all hell will break loose”) to be released on the Gazean civilian population, but this time, with no escape, and no way out other than compliance with his demands. It is simple for Israel to destroy the remaining houses and infrastructure to make Gazean unliveable, while simultaneously starving them out by banning UNWRA and blocking convoys.
The two million or so Gazeans left can pack their bags and go – long columns of refugees presumably marshalled by armed Israeli soldiers will make ugly viewing for anyone with a trace of morality or an appreciation of recent history.
Although Trump clearly detests immigration, he is fine with that concept as a solution for the problems of others. The already crowded, impoverished Egypt and Jordan will take then or have their aid from the US cut off completely. Simple. “Beautiful” “Everyone loves my plan”. Trump is revealing himself as a monster.
Problematical Small Print
Jordan already suffers a high rate of unemployment and poverty so there are scarce jobs, little space and few opportunities for Gazeans there. The $1.7 billion in aid from US represents a huge bargaining chip from a president who looks like slashing it anyway.
There are already over 2 million Palestinians refugees in Jordan, representing 18% of its population. An exodus of a further (say) half the remaining Palestinians would add another million, bring the proportion of refugees to 27% of its population.
This would be equivalent to 31 million people moving to America, or about 10 million to the UK. How would that go down with the respective electorates, or planners, or anyone with what Trump calls. ‘common sense’? To complete the astonishing hypocrisy, Trump has offered refugee status to Afrikaners who feel unable to live under a democratic government.
Egypt is a teeming nation of 100 million people. Their $1.5b in aid 2023 from the US represents 8% of their Americas total aid budget, against a GDP of $380bn. It’s mainly used for support of the military, there to support a dictator who brutally rose from the ashes of the Arab Spring.
Of course this is dwarfed by the $3 trillion of ‘aid’ to Israel, all of which is for weapons of mass destruction. The cost of safe movement and integration of such vast numbers of refugees into the ‘lovely homes’ Trump has promised them would dwarf the resources spent on the destruction of Gaza.
Spanners in his works
The USA is not the only player Trumps genocidal game. The Arab world and China, have their own views. Most regional aid comes from the oil rich nations, who could afford to compensate reluctant nations for the loss of US aid - but would Trump simply counter this by using Saudis dependency on American weapon sales amounting to $2.8billionlast year as a powerful bargaining chip. Of course he would.
The there are the American boots on the ground in the Middle East – heaven only knows how these bases will be used as a part of this deal?
Would China expand its influence with its huge sovereign wealth fund as the US shrinks from its international role? Might the Arabs finally be forced to collectively offer a better and more compelling for governance and reconstruction of Gaza? They had better be quick!
The Smallest print in the world.
It is clear that Palestinians are regarded as sub-human by Israel and now America. Thus they have no human rights and are not recognised as a people. They can be murdered with impunity, tortured, bombed, burnt with phosphorous, and have their schools, hospitals, health centres and markets intentionally destroyed. They can be denied access to food, medicines and even, viciously, tents during storms. Every item of the Geneva code, or international law seems not apply to them.
Their machinery of their persecution has been delivered by America and oiled by Britain and others. Yet they are human beings, each one as important as any one of us. Sadly, it seems this needs to be said.
Other Final Solutions
A friend suggested this. Israel, and all Israelis who don’t want to be subjects, move out of the West Bank, henceforth to be knows as Palestine. Gazeans settle in the West Bank and leave Gaza to be rebuilt by those who destroyed it.
This is a potential solution, and if Trump willed it possible - but of course the Israelis want everything. A Palestinian state might just signal the beginning of the end of hatred and conflict. There are genuine solutions.
Yet the Zionist march to a greater Israel now seems inevitable with the suffering of Palestinians irrelevant to Netanyahu and the vulture like settlers who with their own form of extreme racism, regard the Palestinians akin to pus in a wound to be cleared out before they move in.
Any other outcome, including a Palestinian state living peacefully alongside Israel now seems little more than an escapist mantra still trotted out by the west without any mechanism for its realisation.
Apocalypse please
There is an ugly religious background to this with many Americans in Trumps evangelical base seeing these events as a continuum dictated by god. This is called dispensationalism and driven by John Darby who had a big role in founding the Plymouth Brethren, a religious sect with its roots close to where I sit right now.
It had, it would appear, nothing to do with anything from the New Testament or Christ’s actual teaching, but its origin in a twisted sort of compensation for the perceived failing of the “first coming” to lead to paradise on Earth, by making predictions about the next, a sort of Jesus Christ 2.0. For them the state of Israel is at the centre of gods Christian plan and gaining political power amongst evangelical Americans since the days of Reagan, now mainstream with Trump.
Many in power, and a significant number in Trumps base, believe that when Israel extends its territory to its allegedly biblical extent, expelling the Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank, there will be a second coming of Christ, or the Rapture, when sinners will be punished, and the world will enter a new phase of the righteous. Everyone else will be damned. Thats me, and probably you.
This is literally insane, but an astonishing 40% of Americans believe that Christ will return before 2050. An early Catechism of the Catholic Church states: “The glorious Messiah's coming is suspended at every moment of history until his recognition by "all Israel"
If I heard these sorts of delusions expressed by an individual coming to my surgery, I would have considered them symptoms of serious psychiatric disorder. When expressed by a collective, it becomes a different phenomenon, a sort of embedded madness which bears no relation to the reality of everything we know about evolution, human history, science, logic or reason, and harmful.
We cannot use insight to enlighten the frankly psychotic patient, and nor can we use science and reason to counter religious fanaticism which seems to be outpacing poorly regulated capitalism in the race to Armageddon.
A pinch of reality
Meanwhile I experience feeling of horror when I think of the children in Gaza with medical problems. One example comes to mind. Israel has been using splinter bombs in crowded civilian areas.
These are intentionally packed with shrapnel to maximise injuries to flesh and bone, so survivors require complex treatment in the hospitals Israel has simultaneously made inoperable. Even when they were, half of those with bone infections, even after amputations will be dead after 24 months of pain and misery.
We can expect more of this.
How anyone can believe in god is simply beyond me.
Thanks for your report Colin. Truly horrifying times
Your religious analysis is correct. It has a very long history and I first came across it first hand in 1978. Check out his spiritual advisor Paula White-Cain, a tongues speaking apocalyptic nutter.