In my dream, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was not sitting in the Oval Office the other day, but rather Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance were assailing the prime minister before the world's cameras, telling him that by refusing to end the war in Gaza, he was gambling with World War III.
"You have to say thank you more. Your people are dying. Then you tell us, 'I don't want a cease-fire.' Look, if you could get a cease-fire right now, I'd tell you, you take it. So the bullets stop flying and your men stop getting killed. But you don't want a cease-fire. I want a cease-fire. You don't have the cards. With us, you have the cards. But without us, you don't have any cards. You're either going to make a deal or we're out."
In my dream, Trump told Netanyahu exactly what he said to Zelenskyy. This, word for word, is what he has to tell him.
But a dream is a dream and Friday's horror show did not occur with Netanyahu. Presumably it will never occur, even though it should. Imagine such a conversation. Netanyahu leaves the White House in a panic, his face ashen as Zelenskyy's, and the next day he returns to knock at the gate repeatedly: He is willing to end the war in Gaza and to withdraw all Israeli forces from the Strip immediately. All the hostages are released and another genocide is prevented.
In the absence of such a conversation, Israel is galloping toward the resumption of the war. It is hard to imagine a more horrific prospect, to think of a more pointless war, whose second chapter will be even more terrifying.
The hazing inflicted on the helpless ally Zelenskyy, including the malicious abuse inherent to people of Trump and Vance's ilk, was certainly not unprecedented. The novelty is that it took place in front of cameras. Apart from Hosni Mubarak's "Sign, you dog!" to Yasser Arafat at the signing of the 1994 Gaza-Jericho agreement in Cairo, the cameras have never shown such a humiliating display of power by the lords of the world, or those who think they are, toward a protegé.
We must thank Trump for revealing his inner world, in which there is no place for justice, values, international law, humanity or loyalty. Only power and money, money and power. But even this perspective is applied selectively. The Trump-Zelenskyy meeting could and should have taken place with Netanyahu too. Every word Trump hurled at Zelenskyy is relevant for Netanyahu. But no one even imagines such a scenario, perhaps because no mineral deposits have been found under the West Bank. But hey, what about the Riviera in Gaza?
For Netanyahu and for Israel – both understand only the language of force – this could be a historic, game-changing conversation. It presumably will not take place. But as long as we are dreaming, why not dream big? Huge? Imagine a similar conversation in the White House, with the topic being the end of the Israeli occupation. In its wake, the occupation would end faster than we could imagine. In fact, the only way remaining to end the occupation is through such a conversation.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hold a press conference in the White House in Washington, DC, last month.Credit: AFP/JIM WATSON
Israel has no cards for perpetuating the occupation other than American support. People are being killed on account of the occupation constantly. It is a focus of tension that endangers the world. There is no country that supports it and there is no topic that unites the world like the opposition to the occupation, at least as lip service.
It's hard to understand what American interest is being served by this occupation, which causes the United States to be despised no less than its protegé. Even in Trumpian terms it is difficult to understand why such a conversation has never taken place.
In my dream, Netanyahu arrives at the White House and Trump, that terrible and dangerous man, threatens him just like he threatened Zelenskyy the other day. The next morning, the dismantling of the West Bank settlements of Kiryat Arba and Kiryat Sefer commences. Alas, a dream.