Trump’s Last Chance to Halt Gaza Occupation
Aug. 28—At this point, only a direct intervention by President Donald Trump can prevent the Butcher of Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu, from carrying out plans for the Israeli occupation of northern Gaza and Gaza City, and the inevitable slaughter of scores of thousands more innocent Gaza citizens.
The Israeli war cabinet is expected to meet this weekend to give its final approval to Israel Defense Forces (IDF) plans for the occupation, which the IDF leadership says they are only doing because they have been ordered by Bibi to do so. The IDF leadership, including Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, have called the planned occupation unnecessary to achieve any realistic war aims, threatening to the lives of the remaining hostages, and costly to the IDF in terms of its potential losses. Zamir said that while Bibi wants the operation to begin immediately, he will not do so until safe zones can be created to allow Gazans to flee Gaza City and until he has enough forces on hand to carry out plans.
Ceasefire Proposal Offers a Path Forward
"There is a simple way to avoid this," said a source close to the White House. "Hamas has agreed to a new draft of a ceasefire proposal made months ago by Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, which would release 10 hostages and initiate a 60-day ceasefire. The proposal was previously agreed to by Israel. Trump simply has to say that he has reconsidered his support for Bibi's occupation plans. He no longer believes that they can be effective, or that the operations would be short. Instead, Trump should demand that Israel immediately accept and implement the ceasefire agreement, as presented by Qatar and Egypt and accepted by Hamas. He should immediately dispatch Witkoff to start the negotiations between the mediators, Israel, and Hamas to implement an actual peace deal, which could end all fighting, see the IDF withdraw from Gaza, and turn its administration over to a non-Hamas civilian authority. In addition, Hamas would agree to lay down its arms and its militants would be allowed to leave Gaza."
Warnings Ignored, Consequences Mount
"Trump was lied to by Bibi," said the source. "He should have listened to Witkoff who told him that the plan for an occupation would only intensify the slaughter and extend the humanitarian crisis. There was no way that any military operations by Israel could do anything except kill more Palestinians and likely cause the hostages to be killed. It was a mistake for Trump to have greenlighted this murderous scheme. And now he has to reverse course and go back to the negotiating table, and force Bibi to go along."
"While Netanyahu and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer sold Trump an aggressive campaign to eliminate Hamas and bring about the end of the war, making the negotiations over a partial hostage deal superfluous, the Israeli military is telling its political overseers something completely different, sources in Washington confirmed to Haaretz… Netanyahu's marketing was too aggressive, as usual, and he promised Trump an unsustainable plan – defeating Hamas within just a few weeks," wrote columnist Chaim Levinson in Haaretz Aug. 27.
Public Pressure Builds in Israel
Trump's action would be popular in Israel, with all sections of Israeli society wanting a deal that gets the remaining hostages home alive, the source stated. "The occupation plan kills them. The mass demos in Israel are against the government and this insane occupation plan. They all feature signs demanding that Trump force Bibi to take the deal. The Arabs, and not just the mediators, want Trump to do this."
Kushner and Blair’s Role Raises Concerns
This and other sources expressed alarm that Trump's son-in-law and former Mideast advisor, hedge fund investor Jared Kushner, and his new "best buddy," former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, have emerged as players in what is going on, although they are more involved in so-called post-war plans for Gaza redevelopment that feature some aspects of the stupid Gazan relocation plan to build, in part, the "Trump Riviera," a scheme the rest of the region, especially Egypt and Saudi Arabia, has rejected. Both Kushner, whom Witkoff called his "rebbe," and Blair were at a meeting on Gaza policy Trump hosted today at the White House. Blair is peddling his development plan as a way to block efforts at Israeli settlement and possible annexation coming from the Kahanist fringes of Bibi's government, led by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
"The future of Gaza must be determined not by some fool game player like Blair, the man who created the post-9/11 endless wars in the region, but by the Palestinians, and it must be part of the process that creates through cooperation—a word alien to Bibi and his crowd—a viable Palestinian state, the plans for which have yet to be made," said the White House source. "Witkoff understood this before Kushner and Blair threw fairy dust in his eyes. Trump understands that nothing happens unless he takes on Bibi. If he wants advice, the future of Israel and the region depends not on the survival of this murderous messianic creature. Do what you must to stop the killing, to save Palestine and Israel alike, and let Bibi go away. Let the courts take care of him. Trump can stand up to him. He did so when he prevented Bibi's planned destruction of Iran. Will he do so now? I don't know, but it is not good that Tinny Blair and Kushner are in this game."
Uncertainty Over Netanyahu’s Next Move
"It's too early to say whether Netanyahu will now act resolutely to reach a deal or once again drag his feet, preferring to expand the war and prevent any shakeups of his government. But some in the government think he hasn't yet slammed the door on any chance of moving forward with a partial deal in some form. As evidence, they note that he has yet to ask the ministers to vote against a partial deal and has thereby avoided torpedoing the understandings the mediators have reached to date. Moreover, he has refrained from doing so even though he has said publicly that the proposal for a partial deal, which he supported until recently, is no longer relevant despite Hamas' positive response to it," writes analyst Jonathan Lis in Haaretz Aug. 27.