In the wake of Israel’s attack on Nasser Hospital in Gaza on Monday, the world expressed outrage. But the best U.S. President Donald Trump could do was to say that, “he doesn’t like seeing that.”
In typical Trump fashion, he hedged and double-talked through his initial response to the event, and then came up with a meaningless, but headline-grabbing gesture to appease the growing portion of his own base that is tired of seeing U.S. money, weaponry, and diplomatic muscle being used to protect Israel as it carries out one war crime after another in its genocide against the Palestinian people.
The sum total is that, despite the outcry over the attack on Nasser Hospital, the beginning of the massive invasion of Gaza City, and the United Nations finally declaring a full-blown famine in Gaza, the United States and Europe remain in performance mode, with little prospect of any real action being taken.
What we heard from Trump
Trump, apparently, first heard about the Nasser Hospital attack when a reporter asked him about it in the Oval Office. His word salad response was “I’m not happy about it. I don’t want to see it. At the same time, we have to end that whole nightmare. With that being said, it’s got to get over with because between the hunger and all the other problems – worse than hunger, pure death and people getting killed – and I’m the one that brought back the hostages. Right now they’re talking about Gaza City. There’s always talking about something. At some point, it’s going to get settled. I’m telling you, better get it settled soon. That means nobody can forget October 7.”
The words may not be identical, but anyone following Trump on Gaza has heard all of this before.
While Trump would not use the words “genocide” or “famine,” it’s clear from what he did say that he is aware of at least the general conditions in Gaza. More importantly for him, he knows that his voting base is increasingly becoming aware of it.
Thus, Trump repeats his utterly false boast about having gotten hostages out. In fact, the first ceasefire back in November 2023 saw 105 hostages released, after Hamas had unilaterally released four hostages prior to the ceasefire. 30 more hostages were released during the ceasefire that was worked out in late 2024 by the outgoing Biden administration. Israel retrieved eight hostages in operations that killed hundreds of Palestinians. 57 deceased hostages’ bodies have been returned to Israel.
One other hostage was released as a gesture toward Trump in the hope of advancing an end to the genocide. That’s the only one that can be fully attributed to him, although he can fairly claim partial credit for the 30 released in the second ceasefire.
While Trump makes up boasts as a matter of course, this one isn’t his usual bombast. It reflects increasing pressure on him for an end to the genocide in Gaza than ever before.
Some of that pressure is even coming from within the Israeli military, which works closely with the United States defense establishment and routinely makes its views known privately when they do not align with those of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Trump leaned back on the well-worn myth that this is only the latest chapter in a war that has been fought in biblical times, rather than a modern conflict over settler-colonialism and apartheid. He repeated as well the mantra of Gazans “getting killed” as if they were simply falling prey to some natural disaster.
But closing on the need to “remember October 7” as the key to ending the genocide gives away the game. He remains dedicated to supporting Israel’s genocide, and is mostly concerned with how long it is taking and the negative press it continues to generate. More importantly, it exposes his “Big Meeting on Gaza,” held on Wednesday, for the sham it is.
Another useless confab
While all the people involved were not named publicly, we know that Jared Kushner and Tony Blair were two of the attendees at Trump’s latest photo-op masquerading as a summit meeting. It is quite possible that Netanyahu’s chief henchman Ron Dermer was there as well, along with Trump’s usual collection of sycophants.
There was no indication that anyone in attendance was from the Arab world or would even pretend to speak on behalf of the Palestinians. It is a blatant display of the complete disinterest in and dehumanization of the Palestinians.
The meeting was an exercise in fantasy. It was all about reviving a conversation that was happening a year ago about the “day after” in Gaza.
Why shift to this conversation now? The answer lies, as always, in the Israeli prime minister’s office.
Netanyahu is faced with more pressure than ever before to agree to a deal to free the remaining hostages in Gaza. Trump has helped increase that pressure, probably unwittingly, with his casual comments about more hostages having died.
The major force is the Israeli public, which has come out in unprecedented numbers to demand that the government agree to end the operations in Gaza. It is not for the sake of Palestinians, although there is a growing segment of the Israeli protest movement that is focused on the suffering of the people of Gaza and wants it to stop.
The bulk of the Israeli protesters, however, remain motivated primarily by the fate of the remaining hostages and, to some extent, by the increasing pariah status they are facing around the world as Israelis. It turns out, genocide makes you unwelcome in other countries.
But this round of Israeli protests is buoyed by another development: the latest ceasefire proposal that came from Egypt and Qatar and included major new concessions from Hamas. Those concessions included dropping the demand that Israel abandon the Philadelphi Corridor, which runs along Gaza’s southern border; agreeing to allow the murderous Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to continue operating; and allowing Israel to maintain a “buffer zone” encircling Gaza.
It should be clear to any serious observer that these are huge concessions that effectively leave Israel in complete control of Gaza, even after the genocide would theoretically end. All the control it had before October 7 would be tightened significantly, and would be codified by an agreement with the Palestinians.
These concessions are addenda to terms Hamas already agreed to, which included releasing half the living hostages over a two-month period with the anticipation that the Israeli invasion would end with a final agreement at the end of that period, and the remaining hostages, living and dead, would be returned to Israel.
That’s an offer that, to most Israelis, seems eminently sensible. It certainly reflects the desperation of Hamas, as they have been hit hard by Israel and, along with the rest of the people of Gaza, are starving and suffering all manner of deprivation, pro-Israel propaganda to the contrary notwithstanding.
It would be difficult for Netanyahu to argue that these are not very favorable terms. So, rather than do that, Netanyahu first changed his position from refusing to consider any agreement that led to a complete end of the “war” to refusing to consider any short-term or phased agreement. This mimicked the terms Vladimir Putin talked Trump into agreeing to at their own summit in Alaska, where Putin rejected the very idea of a ceasefire until all issues were settled. Netanyahu correctly assessed that this approach would work better with Trump.
Then, Netanyahu turned to an old trick that Israel used quite effectively almost a quarter-century ago to torpedo Saudi efforts to end its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza: Israel simply ignored the offer.
The difference between Netanyahu doing this now and successive Israeli leaders ignoring the Arab Peace Initiative is that this plan is based, at least in part, on the plan put forth by Donald Trump’s lead negotiator, Steve Witkoff. Netanyahu can’t completely pretend it isn’t there.
Instead, he offers Trump an alternative: Israel will invade and destroy Gaza City, as it has begun doing. Netanyahu has convinced Trump that this will be the death blow to Hamas and will result in the release or rescue of all the remaining hostages.
It’s nonsense, and Netanyahu knows it. As he has from the start, Netanyahu reinforces his complete disregard for his own citizens being held in Gaza. The gullible Trump, however, loves hearing not just from Netanyahu but from military leaders and others presenting detailed operational plans of how this operation will succeed. That’s how he gets fooled time and again.
Netanyahu’s real objective is, of course, to maintain the genocide, and it seems to have already succeeded. Even Trump is now talking about the so-called “war” in Gaza extending at least to 2026, a projection of four more months that certainly implies the anticipation that it will go longer.
Trump, at least, knows there won’t be a resolution in the near term. So, he announces that there will be “big things” happening, and seemingly fulfills his own prophecy with a useless meeting in Washington.
But all he’s doing is spinning more fantasies with his minions like Blair and Kushner about some future date when Gaza is cleansed of Palestinians and they have a free hand to do with the land as they will.
In the end, that’s not Netanyahu’s vision. He wants to see Gaza emptied of Palestinians, but the genocide and other violence doesn’t stop there. The West Bank is next, and he hopes to continue subjugating other states like Lebanon and Syria and bringing about the end of the Islamic Republic in Iran.
Unfortunately, with feckless leaders in Europe and the autocratic, impatient, and ignorant Trump in the White House, Netanyahu has a lot of potential for manipulating diplomatic affairs around the Middle East. And the opposition to endless war in Israel—an opposition based on self-interest and not on concern for universal or Palestinian rights—is fast becoming the last, thin strand of hope for a different outcome.