Trump's Gaza Fantasy Sends Israeli Right-wing Pundits Into Rapturous Delirium - Opinion - Haaretz.com
If Israelis needed yet another reminder of how far right-wing commentators have drifted from reality – transforming into little more than obedient megaphones for fantasies – it arrived with Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu's joint statement at the White House on Tuesday. There, the two leaders casually entertained the idea of mass expulsion from the ruins of Gaza.
"It would be my hope that we could do something really nice, really good, where they wouldn't want to return," Trump mused, standing beside Netanyahu, who couldn't have dreamed of a more audacious aspiration to impress his coalition's linchpin Smotrich.
All you see in Gaza "is death and destruction and rubble and demolished buildings falling all over... and it's only going to get worse," the president added, like a real estate mogul surveying the extent of the devastation wrought by the long arm of the IDF. "If the U.S. can bring stability and peace to the Middle East" by taking control of Gaza, "we'll do it" – as if he were discussing Greenland or Panama.
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Rather than treating these remarks with the gravity they deserved, Israel's Channel 12 News anchors Avri Gilad and Yair Cherki responded with the enthusiasm of a cheerleading squad.
"Historic statements, a turning point for the Palestinians," Gilad gushed, while Cherki mused, "We need to see the character and personality translated into reality" – as if the logistics of forcibly displacing two million people to various countries as if they were sacks of rice and potatoes were a minor detail.
A billboard in Tel Aviv.Credit: Itai Ron
And then there was the channel's political commentator, Amit Segal, teetering on the brink of euphoria. "Trump wants to move the Gazans out, and that's not 100 percent what Netanyahu wants – it's 200 percent," he declared, momentarily pausing his ongoing efforts to help torpedo the hostage deal. The process of such an expulsion did not concern him; only the vision of a Greater Israel free of Palestinians did.
Segal, like much of the Israeli right, refuses to acknowledge reality – even as Egypt and Jordan categorically reject any role in absorbing displaced Gazans.
Channel 12's diplomatic correspondent, Yaron Avraham, stationed in Washington, was no more critical. Sounding elated as if he had just been told he'd get to spend the weekend in the U.S. with the Netanyahus, he marveled: "Simply amazing, extraordinary in so many ways." The studio's mood was euphoric, as if the mere articulation of a fantasy had made it real.
At least Avraham noticed that Trump seemed to enjoy answering every question, while Netanyahu mostly looked miserable and tormented by this thing called a press conference.
Only journalist and anchor Arad Nir offered a dose of reality. "I hear things differently," he interjected, cutting through the detached celebration. Nir explained that after listening to Trump for many years, instead of embodying Theodore Roosevelt's maxim of "speak softly and carry a big stick," Trump embodied its opposite: he talks endlessly, "but it's unclear whether he understands the complexity and the difference between settlers and Gaza residents."
U.S. President Donald Trump welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the entrance of the White House, on Tuesday.Credit: Leah Millis/Reuters
Meanwhile, on Channel 13, diplomatic correspondent Moriah Asraf reported from the studio after being denied a seat on Netanyahu's Wing of Zion, the official plane serving the country's prime ministers and presidents.
Her exclusion should have prompted a collective refusal by diplomatic correspondents to board the flight. Instead, they left her behind, seemingly indifferent to the blatant attempt to control the narrative. And for what? To relay carefully curated talking points from a "senior Israeli official." (We'll get used to it, as it already started at the Pentagon.)
At least Asraf's enforced distance allowed her to retain some critical perspective. She noted that Trump had not called for Jewish settlement in Gaza, acknowledged that many Gazans would refuse to leave their homes, and pointed out that forced expulsions were not feasible.
Even Trump himself admitted, "I don't see it happening. It's too dangerous... Soldiers don't want to be there." But for the messianic right, embodied by Segal and his ilk, never say never. One can only imagine that settler leader Daniella Weiss is already organizing buses to Gaza, ready to stake another invasion.
Even veteran analyst Gil Tamari treated Trump's comments with skepticism. "Israel enjoys the statements, but what happens when a leader lacks rational decision-making?" he asked. Trump, he noted, has big ideas but a weak grasp of execution.
Channel 13's Moriah Asraf and Gil Tamari.
Over on Kan, Israel's public broadcaster, correspondents Gili Cohen and Suleiman Maswadeh remained level-headed, while political analyst Michael Shemesh viewed the statement as yet another empty Trumpian bluff.
His analysis stood in stark contrast to Akiva Novick, who, before the statement, had insisted that Netanyahu was gaining nothing from the hostage deal. Novick eagerly latched onto Trump's words as though they were gospel, unconcerned with how they might be realized.
This is the reality of Israel's right-wing: a messianic echo chamber where Netanyahu's Likud party and its nationalist-religious partners chase illusions instead of policies. It is not far-fetched to imagine that soon, Trump will be venerated by some as the Rebbe of Mar-a-Lago, the man destined to bring salvation that will never come.