OKECH KENDO: Trump goof risks Middle East ceasefire

Just when the Israel-Hamas ceasefire was expected to evolve into a two-state solution to the Middle East crisis, Donald Trump arrives with a plot that fuels the Zionist polity’s rightwing fantasy.

Benjamin Netanyahu grinned like the cat that had the cream when Trump expressed a wish for a United States real estate investment in Gaza.

Trump, a Republican billionaire who sharpened his capitalist instincts around real estate, does not want to miss an opportunity to expand his portfolio.

He sees the displacement of Palestinians as an opportunity to build holiday homes in Gaza — a Palestinian homeland.

Trump named the wished real estate ‘Riviera of the Middle East’.

Trump shared the ‘wonderful’ idea with his visitor, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu.

Bibi salivated mischievously at Trump’s ingenuity, during a fireside fun in the White House, amidst wintry Washington temperatures, last week. 

They joked about the homeland of the oppressed Palestinians, framing the real estate idea as a favour to Palestinians.

Palestinians, he figured, would relocate to Egypt and Jordan, while Big Brother sorted out the debris in Gaza. Gaza has suffered bombings and air strikes, tens of thousands of deaths, injuries and displacement of Palestinian civilians. 

The bombs and airpower are from the US, with billions of dollars spent on endless Israeli wars.

Trump’s plank of ‘Making America Great Again’ has an imperial hue. Much more like his Russian idol Vladimir Putin’s incursions into Ukraine to reclaim the defunct United Soviet Socialist Republic of the Cold War era. 

The best form of flattery is imitation, but Trump takes lessons from Putin literally. His expansionist view goes beyond Gaza. 

The 47th US president wants to annex Greenland — a wonderful golf course for breakaway billionaires. He does not care about the relationship between Denmark and Greenland. Trump wants Canada to join the US as its 51st state. 

The Gulf of Mexico sounds great as ‘the Gulf America’. He will also acquire Panama Canal, without reference to Panama, to ward off China’s influence around the North Sea.

Within three weeks of his return, Trump has rattled Canada, Panama, Greenland, Denmark, Mexico, Colombo, Brazil, Argentina and much of South America, with impunity.

Trump is dismantling institutions, warping law enforcement agencies, seeking retribution on his critics, treating undocumented immigrants with cruelty, and imposing and threatening seismic tariffs.

But Trump’s Gaza goof remains the most dangerous. 

The rational side of the world is running out of time to balance Israel’s right to self-defence and the Palestinians right to self-determination. None of these rights is superior to the other. 

The competing rights provide the context of the war between Israel and Hamas, or broadly between the Jewish State and Palestinians. It is a contest with historical signposts, failed negotiations, uneasy ceasefire res and forced peace. 

The year 1995 was momentous in the turbulent Israel-Palestine relations.

Yet it was also the year the dream of two states living side-by-side – in peace – was nearly realised. Palestinian Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. 

They signed a peace agreement, which history records as the Oslo Accords of 1993. On November 4, 1995, Rabin was assassinated during a peace rally in Tel Aviv. 

The nationality of the assassin sent a strong message on the thinking of Israeli extremists and Palestinian moderates. It was obvious then, as it is now, that most Israeli people need peace. It was also clear then, and now, that moderate Palestinians crave peace.

It was also obvious then, and now, that on either side there are extremists. Shimon Peres, a former Israeli prime minister, said after Rabin’s assassination: “Negotiating frustrations for five years is cheaper than exchanging bombs for five minutes.” Rabin, and Peres as his deputy, were the key architects of the 1993 Oslo Accords with Arafat for Palestine. 

The good news amidst the bad news of bombs and bullets is that Saudi Arabia and Qatar are coordinating ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas/ Palestine.