Trump and Netanyahu: Gazan Evacuation or Ethnic Cleansing?

The ceasefire between Hamas and Israel is holding still. Prisoners and hostages have been swapped. However, in phase 2 more hostages and prisoners must be released according to the stipulations of this deal. Israeli soldiers are expected to withdraw from the Netzarim Corridor and the border between Gaza and Egypt.

Since the ceasefire worked on by Trump and Biden, Israelis have celebrated their family's release. However, they await phase 2 expecting more hostages to be released from Gaza. Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank also await more of their families to return home. So the ceasefire, so far, so good, it seems!

Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, have been declared war criminals. The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants. Hamas leaders like Ismail Haniya now no longer with us were under threat of arrest too. Israelis have suffered kidnapping, death, and destruction. Those not on the far right must be glad of a ceasefire. It cannot be good running for shelters every time an air raid siren goes off. People will be scarred mentally forever more, especially, kids. Many Israelis have yet to return to northern Israel where 60,000 or so were displaced by Hezbollah.

Gazans too have suffered in a most inhumane way with everything they have known destroyed. Gazan civilians, journalists, medical workers, as well as Hamas operatives, have paid the price. Gaza has been reduced to rubble. Those returning to their homes will find little left of their former lives. Hamas is still in control of the strip. They emerged from their tunnels after the ceasefire, was announced. In beaming SUVS wearing their green and black uniforms. Armed to the teeth, as they paraded through Gaza.

Hamas paid a heavy price in losses but they remain a potent force. They fought the IDF with everything they had. Like any guerilla army, they fought an asymmetric war against a much more powerful enemy in the IDF. Causing losses in Israeli tanks, bulldozers, and personnel. So the very fact, that Hamas is still around having withstood everything Israel could throw at them for them, is a victory.

Whereas for Israel is it a victory or a loss? Yes, Israel stopped Hamas from firing rockets into Israel, they killed thousands of their fighters and took out two of their main leaders. Much of their infrastructure like the tunnels has been destroyed. However, the fact that the organisation is still around could be considered a failure for Netanyahu. His stated goal was to eradicate this group from Gaza but he has failed.

There was supposed to be bad blood between Trump and Netanyahu. Trump warned him and Hamas that quote: "All hell would break loose" if a ceasefire was not observed. So, a ceasefire came into existence at least, for now.

However, there seems to have been something of a change in the two leaders' relationship (that's if they were enemies in the first place!). Trump has been entertaining his Zionist buddy at the Whitehouse. Netanyahu is the US's first foreign leader to visit the new Trump administration. Thus underlining the closeness of America and the Jewish state. In a noisy press conference by a cosy fire, Netanyahu and Trump took questions from the media.

Trump reiterated his statement that Gazans, all 1 million of them, should be removed from Gaza. Trump explained that Gazans are living in a rubble pile with death and destruction all around them. He suggested they would be better off on land where they could live a normal life. A place where they could bring up their kids in peace put food on the table and live an idyllic life. Trump of course is correct, Gaza will take 20 years or more to rebuild. Perhaps this statement is a heartfelt idea to transport Gazans- somewhere they can have a better life. For Gazans, it will be hell and it will not be a life fit for animals, let alone humans. However, does Trump want to transport the Gazans out of a humanitarian idea or something else or both? Is he trying to kill two birds with one stone?

Netanyahu, Ben Gevir and Smotrich all along wanted the Palestinians to be driven out. They could go anywhere as long as they were out of Gaza lock, stock, and barrel. Gaza could be resettled, just as the West Bank, is being taken over by Israeli settlers. Trump's Jewish son-in-law has stated that Gaza could be an area full of beachfront apartments. Built on the death and destruction wrought by the IDF on Gazans!

Trump has asked or told Egypt and Jordan to take in Palestinian refugees. Where they could be amongst fellow Arabs and start anew. If Palestinians left en masse for these destinations, they would never return. Yes, Gaza would be rebuilt but not for Gazans to return but for Israeli settlers. All dreams of Palestinian statehood would be dead, game over.

That's why Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank refuse to leave. They know once they have left, they will never return. Hence Egypt and Jordan refused to take them in. They know once Palestinians become Egyptian or Jordanian citizens, the dream of a free Palestine is over. Also, they do not want their nations as launching points for Palestinian politics and attacks on Israel. That would involve them getting involved in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Trump wants to build on his Abraham Accords. He got Israel to sign a peace pact with Gulf Arab nations like Qatar, the UAE, etc.

Abraham Accords 2.0 would be Israel making a peace deal with long-time adversary Saudi Arabia. However, KSA will want if my sources are correct, justice for the Palestinians. That is returning to the two-state solution where Palestine exists as a viable independent state alongside Israel.

So Trump clearly, wants to get peace done in the Middle East. However, to get KSA onboard, to get that peace, he may have to compromise in his dream of Middle East peace. That is the Palestinians have a state of their own.

And if I were Trump, regardless of my links to Zionists, be they Jewish or Christian, I would back a Palestinian state. If that brings about an Israeli-Saudi peace deal, then so be it.

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