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The National
20 minutes ago
- The National
Trump and Netanyahu are masters of creating the illusion of regional peace
Meetings between US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are more akin to a master class in posturing and duplicity than in diplomacy. Last week's meetings were no exception. Both men are master manipulators, products of the current media age. They create illusions that they insist are real. They often repeat an untruth over and over, and with such force, that it becomes real for those who trust them. Those who do not believe in the illusion are threatened, belittled or shunned. Both leaders have used their guile to achieve personal success in domestic politics. They have developed strong constituent bases that include followers who believe that their leadership must be supported and protected. At the same time, they are polarising figures who have contributed to creating deep fissures within their countries. Ignoring the reality that a root cause of tension in the Middle East is the Israeli dispossession of Palestinians, their proposals only add to that dispossession and the resistance it spawns in Gaza But because some of the illusions they project are often based on untruths, there are limits to their successes. In the first place, reality invariably presents a strong check to illusions. And ignoring reality can result in social unrest and political chaos. For example, Mr Trump promoted his signature budget plan – which he called the ' Big Beautiful Bill '– promising that it would be fiscally sound and bring greater prosperity to more Americans. Instead, it appears that it will dramatically increase the nation's deficit while potentially causing 17 million Americans to lose their health care. For his part, Mr Netanyahu has prolonged his war on Gaza (and Lebanon, Syria and Iran) promising that it would lead to 'total victory', making Israel more respected and secure. Instead, it has led to the International Criminal Court issuing an arrest warrant for Mr Netanyahu for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Israel, meanwhile, has seen its international standing diminished because of its war effort. Truth wins out. And so, we can expect the day to come when many of Mr Trump's voters lose their healthcare plans and see their rural hospitals forced to close and realise that the illusion of the 'Big Beautiful Bill' didn't include them. Much the same will occur in Israel when Israelis realise that 'total victory' is a farce – the conflict with Palestinians will continue as long as they are denied rights – and as tens of thousands of young Israeli soldiers return from having served several tours of duty in Gaza with PTSD, wreaking havoc at home and in their communities. With this as a backdrop, it was both fascinating and deeply disturbing to see the two leaders at work with, and on, each other last week – a bizarre exercise in flattery. As we say in colloquial English: 'They laid it on thick.' Mr Netanyahu, charged with war crimes, gave Mr Trump the letter he sent to the Norwegian Nobel Committee nominating him for the peace prize. And Mr Trump returned the compliment calling Mr Netanyahu 'the greatest man alive'. All of this can be dismissed as harmless puffery. But where the efforts of these two leaders become truly dangerous is when they and their acolytes come to believe the deceit and attempt to extend their efforts to supplant reality with illusion through policies that affect others. From what little is known of what transpired in the meetings between Mr Trump and Mr Netanyahu, it's clear that the ideas driving both are not based on reality. Mr Trump's plan was to evacuate Palestinians from Gaza to a location outside of Palestine where housing will be provided so they can live productive lives, making way for Gaza to become a Riviera-style resort. This was criticised early on as being based on ethnic-cleansing and blatant colonialism. Mr Netanyahu appears to have nothing better to offer than a slight modification of Mr Trump's idea. He wouldn't expel all of Gaza's Palestinians. But he would force as many to leave as possible to other countries that would take them. Those who remain would be 'relocated' to what Israel is calling 'a humanitarian relocation site' where Palestinians can be provided for and 'deradicalised'. Both plans share three elements. First, to sell their ideas, both Mr Trump and Mr Netanyahu clothe them in humanitarian language. Second, no matter how they try to dress them up, both plans are designed and offered without consideration for what Palestinians really want. And finally, therefore, both are delusional and destined not only to fail, but to exacerbate an already volatile situation. Maybe the biggest illusion projected by both men is the notion that their plans will create the conditions for regional peace. Ignoring the reality that a root cause of tension in the Middle East is the Israeli dispossession of Palestinians, their proposals only add to that dispossession and the resistance it spawns in Gaza (all the while compounding the same dispossession in the West Bank and East Jerusalem). As history has shown, it is perilous to ignore the humanity of Palestinians. It is also foolish for Mr Trump and Mr Netanyahu to assume that their projected illusions will be believed in the Arab world, making possible an 'era of peace'. This fantasy only exists in their minds and in the minds of their acolytes. As Abraham Lincoln, a great Republican president, is believed to have said 160 years ago: 'You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.'
Middle East Eye
an hour ago
- Middle East Eye
Former Israeli prime minister calls Gaza 'humanitarian city' a concentration camp
Israel's plan to forcibly confine more than two million Palestinians to a small area in the southern Gaza Strip amounts to a "concentration camp", former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said. "It is a concentration camp. I am sorry," the 79-year-old told The Guardian on Sunday, when asked about a plan outlined by Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz last week, which would see an initial 600,000 Palestinians held in an area built on the ruins of Rafah city. According to Katz, Palestinians in the area would undergo security screenings and would not be allowed to leave. Eventually, the entire civilian population would be concentrated in the same location. Katz also said Palestinians would then be encouraged to "voluntarily" leave the Gaza Strip for other countries as part of an "emigration plan". Responding to the proposal, Olmert said: "If [Palestinians] will be deported into the new 'humanitarian city', then you can say that this is part of an ethnic cleansing," adding that ethnic cleansing was the "inevitable interpretation" of the plan. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters 'When they build a camp where they 'clean' more than half of Gaza, then the inevitable understanding of the strategy of this [is that] it is not to save [Palestinians]," he said. "It is to deport them, to push them and to throw them away. There is no other understanding that I have, at least," he added. Israel's newspaper of record, Haaretz, reported last week that Katz's plan has the backing of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. As of 14 July, it remains unclear when construction for the proposed city would begin or whether it could proceed without international backing. Katz envisaged that, if conditions permitted, the city would be built during a two-month pause in hostilities. Such a ceasefire is currently being negotiated between Israel and Hamas through intermediaries, but remains far from agreement. 'Concentration camp': Israel's planned new city in Rafah, explained Read More » International law and genocide experts told Middle East Eye last week that the plans would violate multiple provisions of international law. Under the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, populations in occupied territories "shall at all times be humanely treated" and may only exceptionally be placed under assigned residence or internment when there are "imperative reasons of security". "A blanket decision to enclose hundreds of thousands of people in a concentration camp or zone clearly falls well outside the lawful exception and would entail an unlawful deprivation of liberty in breach of IHL and of human rights law," Eitan Diamond, a senior legal expert based in Jerusalem with the Diakonia International Humanitarian Law Centre, told MEE. Experts also said that Katz's so-called "voluntary emigration" plan - a manifestation of US President Donald Trump's proposal to ethnically cleanse the enclave - was far from "voluntary". "There is nothing voluntary about any emigration scheme that Israel devises in these circumstances," Martin Shaw, a prominent sociologist and author of several books on the subject of genocide, told MEE. "The people of Gaza have been bombed out of their homes, lost their loved ones, starved and shot at when they try to get food. "Israel will be using all this cruelty to force people to leave and to remove their right to return, as they have from previous generations of Palestinians." Olmert says he is 'ashamed and heartbroken' Olmert spoke to The Guardian on the same day that funerals were held in the occupied West Bank for two Palestinian men, including a US citizen, killed by Israeli settlers. "[It is] unforgivable. Unacceptable. There are continuous operations organised, orchestrated in the most brutal, criminal manner by a large group," the former premier said. "There is no way that they can operate in such a consistent, massive and widespread manner without a framework of support and protection which is provided by the [Israeli] authorities in the [occupied Palestinian] territories." Olmert said that extremist figures within Israel's cabinet, who have backed violence in the occupied West Bank and Gaza and authorised settlement expansion, are more dangerous for Israel's long-term security than any external foes. "These guys are the enemy from within," he said. He added that growing anger at Israel internationally could not all be dismissed as antisemitism. 'I cannot refrain from accusing this government of being responsible for war crimes committed' - Ehud Olmert, former Israeli prime minister "In the United States, there is more and more and more expanding expressions of hatred to Israel," he said. "We make a discount to ourselves, saying: 'They are antisemites.' I don't think that they are only antisemites, I think many of them are anti-Israel because of what they watch on television, what they watch on social networks. "This is a painful but normal reaction of people who say: 'Hey, you guys have crossed every possible line'." Olmert called for stronger international pressure on Israel in the absence of any serious opposition in Israel. He also criticised Israel's media for failing to report on Israeli violence against Palestinians. He said he initially backed Israel's war following Hamas' surprise attack on 7 October, which killed around 1,200 people. But he later became "ashamed and heartbroken" by the Israeli government's actions, which he says amount to war crimes. "What can I do to change the attitude, except for number one, recognising these evils, and number two, to criticise them and to make sure the international public opinion knows there are [other] voices, many voices in Israel?" he said. He said Israeli commanders had looked away as actions were taken that would "cause the killing of a large number of non-involved people". "That is why I cannot refrain from accusing this government of being responsible for war crimes committed." Israeli forces have killed more than 58,000 Palestinians since the war on Gaza began in October 2023, and wounded at least 138,500 more.
Middle East Eye
an hour ago
- Middle East Eye
Mahmoud Abbas says Hamas will not rule post-war Gaza during meeting with Tony Blair
Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas told reporters on Sunday that Hamas will not rule Gaza after Israel ends its 21-month-long war on the besieged enclave. During a meeting with former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair in the Jordanian capital, Amman, Abbas also said Hamas must hand over its weapons to the PA and "engage in political work under a unified legal system - one authority, one law, and one legitimate weapon". Abbas, 89, and his administration are deeply unpopular among ordinary Palestinians due to allegations of corruption and their close ties with Israel. Since the start of the year, PA security forces have intensified a crackdown on armed groups in the occupied West Bank, killing dozens of fighters opposed to Israel. Earlier this year, in a development first reported by Middle East Eye, Abbas visited Lebanon, where he agreed to a framework under which Palestinian factions would disarm. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Palestinian groups have argued that bearing arms is essential due to threats posed by Israel and continued political marginalisation. At Sunday's meeting with Blair, Abbas said the only viable solution after the war was for a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, with the PA assuming full responsibility of the territory - supported by Arab countries and the international community. He also called for an international conference to be held in New York to implement a two-state solution based on the Arab Peace Initiative. In March, Arab states endorsed a 91-page proposal for the future of Gaza, with a $53bn budget for reconstruction over a five-year period. The initiative, led by Egypt, was presented as an alternative to a plan to forcibly expel Palestinians from Gaza proposed by US President Donald Trump. Cairo's plan states that for the first six months, the territory would be run by a non-partisan technocratic committee, overseen by the PA. Hamas, which has controlled Gaza since 2007, has reiterated in recent months that it is not interested in being part of any administrative structure in post-war Gaza. Tony Blair Institute mired in controversy The Palestinian president's meeting with the former UK premier comes just days after the Tony Blair Institute (TBI) was linked to a project widely condemned for proposing the ethnic cleansing of Gaza. The vision, outlined in a slide deck titled "The Great Trust", was created by a group of Israeli businessmen with support from consultants at Boston Consulting Group (BCG). BCG's plan assumed that at least 25 percent of Palestinians would leave "voluntarily", with most never returning. While it remains unclear whether Palestinians would have any choice in the matter, the proposal has been widely condemned as ethnic cleansing of Gaza's population. The project aimed to transform the enclave, which has been reduced to rubble by Israeli bombardment, into a lucrative investment hub. Central to the proposal were blockchain-based trade schemes, special economic zones with low taxes, and artificial islands modelled after Dubai's coastline. Although TBI insists it neither endorsed nor authored the slide deck, two of its staff members participated in discussions related to the initiative.
