Gaza takeover plan: Biden couldn't finish us off, nor will Trump
Less than three weeks into his second administration, US President Donald Trump dealt a death blow to his keystone campaign slogan, “America First”, with his stated plans to “take over Gaza” and build a “Riviera of the Middle East”.
Next to him, smirking from ear to ear, stood the butcher of Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who told the world that this plan could “change history”.
In a move aiming to blur the lines of accountability for Washington’s “greatest friend and ally in the Middle East”, Trump suggested the US military could clear and secure Gaza.
What does clearing mean? The removal of 50 million tonnes of debris left after Israel’s mass destruction of the Palestinian territory - or the people of Gaza themselves?
The latter would be the logical extension of the genocidal policy enacted by Israel and made possible by American munitions. The answer to this question was largely left to the imagination of the audience.
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Based on the genocidal appetite of the Israeli public writ large, along with Netanyahu’s hunger to stay in power, there is an abundance of fuel and scope for this killing machine, its sights fixed firmly on a civilian population of more than two million Palestinian survivors of ethnic cleansing.
Over the weekend, Trump said: "I'm committed to buying and owning Gaza...We'll make it into a very good site for future development."
US interventionism in the Middle East has cost millions of Arab and Muslim lives. This latest excursion brings into sharp focus the American uni-party: Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative, Biden or Trump, the bloodlust that fuels the American military industrial complex remains at its core.
Two sides of the same coin
Both Egypt and Jordan have strongly opposed Trump’s proposal to resettle the Palestinians of Gaza within their borders, underscoring the importance of a two-state solution. The extent to which Trump is willing to pursue his theory of peace through “prosperity” remains to be seen.
Predictably, his prospects for success are slim, with Jordan vowing it would go to war with Israel if any moves were made to push Palestinians into its territory. And just a day after Trump’s announcement, a comically nervous secretary of state, Marco Rubio, backtracked by saying the displacement would only be temporary.
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Both former President Joe Biden and Trump have demonstrated strong support for Israel through all levels of its sordid treatment of the Palestinian people, from land seizures to dropping the equivalent of two nuclear bombs on Gaza. Their approaches are two sides of the same coin.
Both administrations have backed Israel’s right to “self-defence” at the cost of international isolation. Under Biden, Israel was able to cross arbitrary red lines, starve the population of northern Gaza, and destroy every single university in the territory.
Both Biden and Trump have expressed concerns about the civilian population of Gaza, while facilitating their murder through the unconditional supply of American munitions. Both welcomed to Washington a man accused of war crimes by the International Criminal Court, and both cut funding to the UN agency for Palestinians in their time of greatest need.
The proposal to transform Gaza into a tourist destination adds grotesque insult to injury. It assumes that a people who survived 15 months of war, famine and displacement would not only vacate their homes, but allow for the graves of their massacred loved ones to be desecrated by the vapid, capitalistic hedonism of commercial beachfront real estate.
The notion that economic incentives or improved infrastructure could erase decades of struggle and dispossession is delusional. It further exposes the detachment from reality of both Trump and Netanyahu.
I’ve said it before, and I will reiterate it here: Biden couldn’t finish us off, nor will Trump. He thinks that Gaza is “unlucky” for Palestinians, who are “living in hell”. He thinks that they stay because there is “no alternative”.
What the western imperialist mind cannot comprehend is what inspires and drives Palestinians. They wouldn’t leave if they were offered gold or glory. True glory comes from Palestinians’ love and sacrifice for their homeland, no matter what its condition, nor what depraved, high-tech enemy it confronts.
The Palestinian people have endured decades of occupation, blockades and systemic oppression; forcing them to abandon their homeland would be the ultimate violation of their right to self-determination.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
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