Trump's moveable Gaza goal post

An exercise in extending Netanyahu diplomatic topcover for Gaza's demolition

Our president, with Israel’s PM standing beside him, graciously offers to take the Gaza Strip off Bibi’s bloody hands. In a heartbeat, all the world’s attention is sucked away from the embattled (and wannabe Churchillian) PM and redirected toward everyone’s favorite obsession.

Talk about owning the news cycle.

To me, this ploy is a fellow traveler to Netanyahu’s past tit-for-tat drone/missile exchanges with Iran: put the entire world on notice for the dreaded “wider regional war” (remembering that this old chestnut, like our fabled already-begun-WWIII-with-China, is designed to pop up now and then in the media to distract our attention from some provocative move —typically on our side) and then quietly proceed with your real business somewhere else (demolishing Gaza, for example, or toppling Iran’s regime).

---

---

What really matters here: Trump is signaling America’s approval and support for the total elimination of the Strip. By distracting us with the wild notion of US “ownership,” a straight-up Israel annexation will be greeted with relief from many quarters — along with disappointment from Hamas, which would have welcomed that direct fight (Why do the Houthis get to have all the fun?).

---

---

I have been hammering this point here for well over a year: This isn’t genocide but ethnic cleansing instead, with the end goal being the elimination of Gaza as a threat vector. So, no … no dream of wiping out the opposing team (Hamas) but a firm decision to destroy their stadium/playing field (Gaza).

No Strip, no Gazans, no 7 Octobers coming from that vector.

As we have seen throughout, Israel is not interested in some eye-for-an-eye Old Testament proportionality here. Instead, it’s more like the US with Japan in WWII: You start off with Pearl Harbor and I end with nuking Hiroshima and Nagasaki, cause that’s how we roll. It’s ain’t a fair fight or settling the score; it’s about making sure you can never do this again — a very Israeli impulse, yes?

As soon as I heard that bit about 7 October being the “deadliest day” for Jews since the Holocaust, I knew that this had become something truly special: the chosen trauma.

The chosen trauma is the one you take on as a life-definer. It’s that everybody knows where they were when they heard the news that … vibe, and it naturally lends itself to Remember the ….! formulations (Alamo, USS Maine, Pearl Harbor, 9/11) — truly, a system perturbation that plays out across wave after wave of impact.

Terrorists bombed the World Trade Center years before 9/11. America could have chosen that trauma, but the death toll and the horror just wasn’t there and so we treated it as no big deal — barely even a warning. Then, when the towers came down, we took it all extremely personally and went on a decade-long crusade to avenge it — proportionality be consciously damned on the altar of possibility (Cheney’s one-precent doctrine, sometimes compared to the Dumb and Dumber formulation of So you’re saying there’s a chance!).

Israel’s on that sort of warpath now, and this Kill Hamas: Vol. 2 portion will get painfully obvious (if it isn’t already): Gaza is going away.

I know, when I first said that more than a year ago, I myself felt like I was reaching. But then I thought, what is the radical acceptance here? And then it seemed obvious: accept this outcome and you will see the throughline clearly.

---

Radical acceptance means practicing a conscious effort to acknowledge and honor difficult situations and emotions. Fully accepting things as they are, instead of ignoring, avoiding, or wishing the situation were different, can be a critical step in moving through a difficult experience to experiencing more meaning.

---

Once you accept that inevitability, everything since 7 October by Israel has fit the pattern, to include regular distractions like going after Hezbollah, the Houthis, strikes in Syria and Iraq, and the exchanges with Iran (aka, Kill Hamas, Vol. 1). All of them were back-the-hell-off signaling that this guy is mine!

Trump’s addition is just the icing on the cake — a gift. The trauma has been chosen and it’s no longer a negotiable outcome — something the Gulf monarchies are starting to realize (or perhaps they have already and are simply performing at this point for the world audience).

Could the US actually take “ownership”?

Sure.

Would the resulting situation suddenly vault to the top of the worldwide radical jihadist agenda for targeting and completely bloody destruction?

Without a doubt.

Any attempted construction site would be turned into a drone hellscape (yeah, just about anyone can play that game nowadays).

And, you know, I am sure Israel is ready, willing, and able to go down that scary path for as long as it takes: pretending to do the rebuild while thwarting it like crazy and — by default — letting Gaza devolve into a Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 (Capitol City) no-man’s-land of killing robots and booby traps.

And yeah, because Hamas already totally went there, Israel is more than willing to return the favor until the Strip is no more — however long that takes.

So, no, America will not be setting up the world’s single greatest terror target on this Mediterranean Strip, but Israel’s glide-path is clear, the only question being can Israel possibly be incentivized to accept some sort of independent Palestinian state in the West Bank as trade for Gaza’s annexation?

It’s got a Solomonic ring to it, yes? Cutting the baby in two with the Palestinian Authority getting the better half? Israel could even evict Jewish settlers there by offering them their own move into Gaza as a mirror-image of forcing the relocation of the Gaza’s (See! We’re being put on the move too!).

Think about it.

And then realize Israel can agree to this “swap” only to go back on the deal later when Hamas inevitably provides the right trolley car coming down the street (think Gulf of Tonkin “incident” because these things can always be arranged as needed).

Israel’s got all the momentum now, and Iran and its fabled “axis of resistance” are all back on their heels. Trump has the entire world transfixed on his doings in DC (a silent constitutional coup pulled off, Mission Impossible style by THE WORLD’S RICHEST MAN!), so, if I’m Israel, it’s full-steam ahead while the wind is at their back.

We don’t need no stinkin’ Constitution!