Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been returning to what remains of their homes after 15-months of war
None of this will trouble the incoming Ambassador Stefanik whose
stated goal she informed the confirmation hearing is to “stand ready to
implement President Trump’s mandate from the American people to deliver
America First, peace-through-strength national security leadership on
the world stage.” The ambassador said that in meeting the Trump mandate
she will scour UN agencies to ensure that “every dollar goes to support
our American interests.” As for UNRWA it is “at the bottom of the list”
and she would oppose any US funding. She made a point of noting as a
member of Congress she voted to defund UNRWA.
She spoke too of the US being a voice of “moral clarity” at the UN in
order that “the world hear the importance of standing with Israel.”
On Saturday
aboard Air Force One and after a conversation with Jordan’s King
Abdullah her boss mused with travelling reporters about relocating
Gazans to Egypt and Jordan. “I said to him I’d love you to take on more
because I am looking at the whole Gaza Strip and it’s a mess. It’s a
real mess. I’d like him to take people. I’d like Egypt to take people.”
He went on to say “you just need to clean out that whole thing.” The
comments provoked anger in Cairo and Amman and concern from the
president’s other Middle East allies.
Undeterred he doubled down on Monday offering a potted history to back up his thinking:
When you look at the Gaza Strip, it’s been hell for so many
years. There have been various civilizations on that strip. It didn’t
start here. It started thousands of years before, and there’s always
been violence associated with it. You could get people living in areas
that are a lot safer and maybe a lot better and maybe a lot more
comfortable.
Music to the ears of Smotrich and Ben-Gvir who want to see the
Palestinians expunged from Gaza and expelled from the West Bank to
fulfil their messianic vision of a Greater Israel. Smotrich who likes to speak of “voluntary emigration” of the Palestinians applauded
Trump. “There is no doubt,” he said “that in the long run, encouraging
migration is the only solution that will bring peace and security to the
residents of Israel and alleviate the suffering of Gaza’s Arab
residents.”
Ben-Gvir took to X
to proclaim “When the president of the world’s greatest superpower,
Trump, personally brings up this idea, it is worth the Israeli
government implementing it – promoting emigration now.”
Of course what both are talking about is ethnic cleansing and Trump’s
comments - “clean out the whole thing” - are proving a useful tailwind
to drive that tactic forward.
The first phase of the ceasefire, 42 days in length, is now a quarter
of the way spent as hundreds of thousands of Palestinians make their
way northward on foot to reclaim their destroyed neighbourhoods.
Humanitarian aid is flowing in both in the air and at border crossings.
Whether it will be enough is at best questionable.
Alongside that concern is the distinct possibility that Netanyahu will ignite the war once again, especially as he assured Smotrich
he would do so. Is it another playing for time ploy by the PM to keep
his Finance Minister from walking (as Ben-Gvir had done when the
ceasefire was announced), a gambit he will not observe or does he fully
intend with Donald Trump’s approval to resume the war? If the latter the
consequences are unthinkable for Gaza’s Palestinians.
Smotrich and Ben-Gvir weren’t the only politicians lavishing praise
on Trump. On Wednesday Lord (Peter) Mandelson told a Washington
gathering he was “sure that President Trump, in any approach that he
takes, will want to consult and consider the consequences of any actions
with his allies.” Canada, Demark and Panama may beg to differ.
Lord Mandelson in
a Fox News interview lamented comments he had made in a prescient
moment of clarity in 2019 that Donald Trump was a “danger to the world”
and “little short of a white nationalist and racist.”
“Ill-judged and wrong” was how London’s ambassador-designate sees those comments today.
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