Trump take 2: a new Balfour Declaration in a more lethal mixture

No one should be surprised by what Donald Trump does or says while President of the United States. This is a man with a limited understanding of world events and far too superficial knowledge of global geopolitics and its dynamics. He sees the entire world as no more than a real estate project, with him leading the way and deciding where hotels should be and how modern high tech car parks would look like.

Not everything he says is true or certain and poised to happen any time soon, or any time if it ever does. But what he says could have repercussions because of who he is and not necessarily because of the wisdom he utters—more on this later.

Mr. Trump, the President, believes what he knows as a businessman does qualify him to indulge himself in discussing world affairs and even offer solutions to some of the most complex contentious affairs the world is witnessing.

However silly Mr. Trump sounds, when talking about world politics, the rest of the world should not dismiss him as yet another failed demagogue with a four year expiry date tag, reassuring his disappearance from the scene at a given time. The over-zealous Zionist champion, Donald Trump, can really spill havoc, not only in the Middle East but in different parts of the world, wrecking whatever is left of the so-called world order that was created right after WWII.

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Unpredictable as he is, the man could also turn out to be an “unconventional” politician with a different vision for a peaceful world, despite the lack of understanding of how the world works beyond the real estate realm. We have seen examples of this during his first term in relation to the US’ number one enemy, North Korea.

However, what he announced on Tuesday, 4 February, was shocking – unexpected even by the most fanatic right-wing-blood-thirsty Israelis. Never an Israeli politician, during the Occupation state’s history, expected a sitting US President to openly support and qualify their genocide against the civilian Palestinians in a rather childish way.

Standing next to Mr. Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu, a top Israeli political liar and demagogue, found himself scrambling for words, despite being a skilled speaker, to express his “appreciation” of what he had just heard. In the end, he settled for a meaningless comment by saying that President Trump is taking the issue of Gaza to “a higher level”.

For the US President to announce to the world that he will take over Gaza, i.e., “own” the place in its entirety is hard to describe, but as the day dream of a man who cannot understand anything beyond the real estate world.  Delusional Trump said, “The US will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it, too. We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site.”

So the problem, as the President sees it, is no more than piles of rubble over a piece of land that happened to be called Gaza which needs “a job” and re-building, for which he is the best qualified “developer”. To rebuild Gaza without a hitch, as a land developer would usually do, it has to be isolated from its population. To achieve that end, Mr. Trump proposed that Gazans be relocated into neighbouring countries, specifically, Egypt and Jordan.

According to this fantasy, a new Gaza will emerge instead of the current miserable place as seen on live TV; a completely new Gaza; even its inhabitants will be new people who have no memories whatsoever of the place, so they could enjoy the new Gaza without being disturbed by what has just happened to them.

Does this ring a bell? Certainly it does jog the memories of millions of Palestinians when their own land was given to the Jews under the falsehood of being a “land without people for a people without land”— the very essence of Israel’s creation over seven decades ago.

So dispossessing the people of Gaza is not really unprecedented. In fact most people living in Gaza today are descendants of families and communities who had been forced to flee their land to make way for Israel to be created.

Trump’s latest farce initiative, if it could be called as such, will not pass, of course. Most European countries, including the UK and France, have rejected it. So have most Arab countries, including Jordan and Egypt, the two countries supposed to “absorb” Gazans while Trump “redevelops the enclave”. Russia and China and many other countries do not agree with Trump’s idea, either.

Yet, when Trump talks the words he utters, they have some weight and effect, too. He is the President of the US, the most powerful man in the world and, above all, he is not under any re-election constraints, since he is not running for the White House again.

Such nonsense coming from President Trump could have an immediate negative effect on the fragile ceasefire already in progress since 19 January. It could also empower the Israeli settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem to grab more land without worrying about the US President. In fact, Mr. Trump has already given them the clearest and brightest green light when, on 22 January, he lifted all sanctions imposed by his predecessor on some settler movements and entities.

However, the most dangerous blowback from Trump’s ridiculous proposals, including in his first term, is his attempts to present the Palestinian issue as that of an “unlucky” group which deserves handouts and charities. It is not, at least in his own vision, about homeland, independence, freedom and justice. This could prove to be the biggest danger Palestinians face since the notorious Balfour Declarations of 1917, which gave their land to immigrants who had never set foot on it.

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The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.