Trump Gave Israel and Netanyahu Immunity When It Comes to Gaza. That's Not What Best Friends Do - Opinion - Haaretz.com
Our "bestie" supports us unreservedly. Our bestie thinks we're perfect, that we shouldn't be criticized, that everyone's to blame other than us. Our bestie is also the bestie of Benjamin Netanyahu, and he's also perfect in the bestie's view – a war hero. If it hadn't been for him, we would have been destroyed.
When it comes to eight in 10 other prime ministers, the State of Israel would have been wiped out. That's what our bestie says. Netanyahu says we've never had a friend like that, and he's right. It's to our great fortune that we haven't had another friend like that.
U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago club on Monday. The two leaders held a bilateral meeting to discuss regional security in the Middle East as well as the U.S.-Israel partnership.Credit: Getty Images via AFP/Joe Raedle
The public portion of the meeting between Netanyahu and Donald Trump was delusional. For many Israelis, it was a pleasant and intoxicating delusion. One can understand what they've been feeling. Any break from Israel's current reality is pleasant and intoxicating.
At Mar-a-Lago, reality was off the table. Two million people trudging through the mud and cold weren't there. The memory of about 100,000 dead in the Gaza Strip wasn't there. Ran Gvili, the dead hostage, was the only one from the Gaza Strip with a presence at Mar-a-Lago.
Netanyahu and Trump at Mar-a-Lago, July.Credit: Amos Ben Gershom/ GPO
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A prime minister who is wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague for crimes against humanity, whose country is suspected of genocide at the International Court of Justice, who has the blood of masses of innocents on his hands, including masses of children and a thousand babies, is received for the sixth time in his current term with great honor, and none of his offenses are mentioned.
How is it at all possible to receive someone wanted as a war criminal, and how is it possible to glorify him at a time when his hands and those of his country are sullied by so much blood?
It's highly doubtful whether Israel really was in danger of being destroyed, as many of its friends believe. Far from it. It's even more highly doubtful whether Netanyahu was the one who saved it.
But if that is the case, who exactly brought it to the verge of destruction? That's not talked about at the U.S. president's estate.
Trump hosts Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago club on Tuesday in Palm Beach, Florida.Credit: Getty Images via AFP/Joe Raedle
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SubscribeIt's not possible to threaten half the world and to spare the State of Israel of any guilt, any responsibility. Hamas is guilty, that goes without saying, just as it's clear with respect to Hezbollah and Iran.
But how is it possible to threaten Hamas with opening the gates of hell – which have been wide open in the Gaza Strip for about two and a half years – and not utter a single word about who created the hell of Gaza?
How is it possible to complain about the Palestinian Authority after Israel did everything to destroy it? Ah yes, those Palestinian school curricula.
On an ordinary day, Israeli television stations utter more defamation and incitement against the Palestinians than all of the Palestinian textbooks have against the Israelis.
We need to "zoom out" rather than focusing on the details – and see the full picture. The State of Israel has been accorded total, blind and automatic immunity by the Trump administration. Anyone who thinks that's good news should go to the Gaza Strip.
Destroyed buildings and homes are seen in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip, earlier this month.Credit: Jehad Alshrafi/AP
Trump The Friend is a friend of the genocide. How could he win the Nobel Peace Prize with such support for a war of starvation and extermination? A friend like that also corrupts the beneficiary of his patronage.
Granted, he is now trying to do much more than his two liberal and enlightened predecessors – Barack Obama and Joe Biden – to change the face of the Middle East.
Those two other presidents did nothing other than utter nice rhetoric about peace while showering the State of Israel with more and more weaponry – unconditionally. Now, their successor is trying to shake things up and change the region, for which he deserves recognition – and maybe even the Nobel Prize if he's successful.
But change cannot be brought about only by threatening Hamas and bombing Fordow. We have already seen where that leaves us. Inasmuch as the State of Israel has been behind a considerable part of the bombardment and shelling and starving and occupation and assassination in the Middle East, there won't be change without imposing that change on Israel too.
Trump can only become a "bestie," a real friend, the day he understands that.