The U.S. president's dream is to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, so it's said; the proper place for him is the International Criminal Court in The Hague. No other non-Israeli bears as much responsibility for the bloodbath in Gaza as Donald Trump. If he wanted, he (and only he) could, with one phone call, end this terrible war and the killing of the Israeli hostages.
He has not made it. Not only has Trump not phoned, he continues to fund, arm and support the Israeli war machine as if nothing is happening. He's its last fanboy. Last week, he called Israel's commander in chief, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a "war hero." He quickly credited himself with the same dubious honor, adding: "I guess I am too," with his characteristic modesty.
The U.S. president thinks that someone who conducts a genocide in Gaza is a hero. He also thinks someone who launches bombers from his office for a one-shot, risk-free operation against Iran is a hero. That is the mindset of the most powerful man in the world.
Linking Trump with the Nobel Peace Prize turns night to day, lie to truth and the perpetrator of the most terrible war of this century into a combination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Dalai Lama, each of whom was awarded the prize. Trump and Nelson Mandela in the same boat. There are no limits to the grotesque, and it's wholly at our expense.
If Netanyahu and Trump deserve an award, it is one that, fortunately, has not yet been established: the Genocide Prize.
Two shocking reports issued on Friday left no room for doubt about the war's genocidal nature. The UN-backed initiative Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC – the world's leading authority on food crises – confirmed that over 500,000 people in Gaza City and environs face catastrophic conditions of famine at the highest level. The Israel Defense Forces is set to invade this starving city, and Trump is giving this brutal invasion a green light, international support and arms.
At the same time, the Israeli news website +972 Magazine, its Hebrew-language sister site Local Call (or Sikha Mekomit) and Britain's The Guardian disclosed an Israeli military intelligence database indicating that 83 percent of the Palestinians killed by the IDF in the war so far were civilians – an extremely high proportion even compared with the most horrific wars such as those in Bosnia, Iraq and Syria. Only one in six of the Palestinians killed are gunmen, according to the IDF's own data. Five in six were innocent civilians, mostly women and children. As we suspected, as we knew – this is genocide. America stands behind it.
Trump has lent his hand to this war, but still dares to dream of a Nobel Peace Prize. American public opinion stands pat, as does the president. Only a phone call from the White House could stop the slaughter, and meanwhile, there is no sign that the president will make it. Backed by a vast intelligence apparatus, 16 agencies with huge budgets, Trump said he saw on TV that there was "real starvation" in Gaza.
But Trump's TV apparently didn't shock him enough to carry out the only rescue operation America can and should take: ordering Israel to comply with a full and immediate cease-fire. Netanyahu's Israel cannot defy the terror of the world. Moreover, Trump is doing everything he can to prevent other countries from imposing sanctions on Israel in order to stop the genocide. Europe is up in arms but paralyzed by its fear of him, as are the international organizations.
The Jewish American politico who is also an Israeli cabinet minister, Ron Dermer, managed to con the White House and its 16 intelligence agencies into thinking the blood is rain, even blessed rain for America. The result: The father of the Gaza Riviera plan, the U.S. president, is now an avowed Kahanist. He wants a Nobel Peace Prize for it.