13.02.2025
Organise to stop genocide
Take Trump’s plans seriously, says Yassamine Mather. Not the ‘riviera’ stuff, but the clearing out of Palestinians from Gaza. That explains why there has been a welcome across the Zionist spectrum
In the last week, following Donald Trump’s initial statement about turning Gaza into the “riviera of the Middle East”, we have heard a constant repetition of this policy by the US president and his allies - all this despite the surprise and horror expressed by liberal bourgeois commentators and most European and Middle Eastern leaders.
On February 9 Trump once again emphasised his plan to control Gaza and relocate the Palestinian population, and said that the USA is determined to “buy and own” Gaza - adding that the US would “take them under our control and make sure that Hamas does not come back”. In response to a question about Arab governments and their opposition to uprooting the Gazan population and resettlement in neighbouring countries, Trump said that the reason for their opposition is that “I have not discussed this with them yet”. He also described Gaza as a big “ruin”, whose buildings are unsafe to live in.
By February 11 Trump was claiming he does not need to ‘buy’ Gaza after all - the US will just take it over. On the same day he threatened Hamas with “unleashing hell” if all hostages are not released by February 15, also threatening the visiting Jordanian king, Abdullah, that he will withdraw all US aid to his country, if there is no compliance with his wishes.
Interpretations
There have been several interpretations of Trump’s initial ‘sensational’ declaration. However, as he doubles down, it looks like many who took it as mere hot air were indulging in wishful thinking. For example, some claimed that it was an attempt at forcing oil-rich Gulf states to pay for the reconstruction of a Hamas-free Gaza. I do not think this was Trump’s main intention: doubtless they would have stumped up huge sums anyway. However, they have no wish to be seen as being complicit in the ethnic cleansing of the Gaza Strip and emptying it of all, or most, of its Palestinian population.
Jeremy Bowen, the BBC’s international editor, says: “Trump’s Gaza plan won’t happen, but it will have consequences”, adding that “Some - perhaps many - Palestinians in Gaza might be tempted to get out if they had the chance. But even if a million left, as many as 1.2 million others would still be there.”.
Of course, the plan is not really about a “riviera of the Middle East”. Nor is it about Palestinians voluntarily leaving. Even after more than 16 months of horrific bombardment and occupation, I doubt whether more than a few tens of thousands would willingly take up such an offer to relocate. The people of Gaza are refugees, or the children, or grandchildren, of refugees, from other occupied Palestinian towns. They know from bitter past experience that if they leave their homes, they will never be allowed to return.
Bowen adds: “Presumably the United States … would have to use force to remove them. After America’s catastrophic intervention in Iraq in 2003, that would be deeply unpopular in the US.”
Again this assertion is debatable. Engaging in such an operation would indeed invoke memories of battles in Iraq (and earlier in Afghanistan), but here we are talking of a far more unequal struggle in a cramped and enclosed geographical zone. And, of course, Trump has repeatedly made it clear: there will be no US troops involved. No, what he has done is open the door for Israel to do the job. Aluf Benn, writing in Ha’aretz, is therefore correct to point out that “Trump has normalised the discourse around ethnic cleansing in Gaza”.1
As Trump made his ‘riviera’ statement, it was obvious from the nasty smirk on Benjamin Netanyahu’s face that he was the winner in all this. After weeks of facing carping criticism from within the ranks of his government and from far-right Zionist parties in the Knesset - who were demanding an end to the ceasefire and a renewal of war, a war to finally exterminate Hamas in Gaza - Trump came to his rescue. His promise of ‘buying and owning’ Gaza, was manna from heaven. Zionism got what it always wanted … the green light for mass expulsions. Next it will be the West Bank.
Netanyahu is not alone. Not only is Trump’s plan being welcomed on the far right of the Zionist spectrum: people like Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich. So-called centrists - eg, Benny Gantz - have responded positively too. Israel’s ‘progressive’ Zionists are a little bit more circumspect. Gilad Kariv, of the Democrats, warns of a possible ‘nightmare’ … for Israel! Meanwhile, 82% of Jewish Israelis, the Hebrew population, support ‘encouraging emigration’ of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.
Everyone knows that this is not an American land grab. No, it sets the stage for yet another Israeli land grab and the realisation of the ‘greater Israel’ dream of Zionism going back to its very origins. Zionism wants all the land … from the river to the sea.
If the Palestinians do not go voluntarily, they will be forced out, first by being denied medical facilities, then starved, then made to move at the point of a bayonet. They will be driven over the border into Egypt’s Sinai and over the river into Jordan. The IDF has been told to draw up plans to put that into effect (there has even been the suggestion of deporting Palestinians to Puntland on Somalia’s pirate coast).
Those who refuse to leave will be left to go hungry and die - in other words, genocide is on the cards. There are already crocodile tears from Arab leaders and western liberal politicians. But that is a distinct danger which no-one should dismiss or play down.
Response
Those such as Sir Keir Starmer, who keep going on about the illusory ‘two-state solution’, do not seem to have woken up to the fact that we live in an era that is now completely different from the ‘rules-based’ world order we were supposed to have lived under since the end of World War II, that is for sure.
In the last three weeks US citizens have witnessed sweeping internal changes, including emails ‘encouraging’ them to take voluntary redundancy. Meanwhile, major government offices, such as the US Agency for International Development have been closed amidst accusations of them being havens for ‘woke’ liberals and ‘cultural Marxists’. Thousands of NGOs and think tanks have been promptly defunded.
Jordan
In countries already hosting refugees, such as Jordan, some of the fiercest opponents of the US plan are Gazans who had previously found refuge there. A man who was forced to leave the Gaza Strip as a toddler told the BBC reporter interviewing him that 57 years later he is still living at the camp set up as an ‘emergency’ settlement in 1968. There are currently 2.39 million officially registered Palestinian refugees living in Jordan, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. Numbers which could easily be doubled.
Trump has made it clear there will be consequences for defying his proposals. He has warned that he would withhold aid - Jordan, for example, receives $1.45 billion annually in military and economic aid from the US, Egypt gets a much reduced $1.5 billion.
And those who think the US president’s plan will never happen should listen to king Abdullah’s comments, when he and Trump were giving their press conference. Asked: “What do you feel about the US taking Gaza?”, he replied: “This is something that as Arabs we will come to the US to discuss: we will talk about the options.” The reporter then commented: “Take it under what authority? It is sovereign territory.” At this point Trump replied: “Under the US authority” … and the king just dumbly sat there.
Hamas politburo deputy chief Moussa Abu Marzouk has described Trump’s talk of US control of the Gaza Strip as “political balloons”. I am afraid he is wrong, however: we should not underestimate what the US president is planning and what he is about to do ... unleash the Israeli attack dog.
The pictures of the Jordanian king sitting next to Trump, as he repeated his remarks about a US takeover of Gaza, should teach us all a lesson. Especially as it is only a prelude to carrying out exactly the same kind of operation on the West Bank.
Naturally, Arab presidents, kings and prime ministers condemn the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza, but no-one should be under any illusion that this has anything to do with genuine solidarity. These self-serving leaders are primarily worried about their own survival. They are aware of the fellow feeling and sympathy of their own citizens for Palestine. However, not least when it comes to Jordan and Egypt, they are even more concerned about the dangers of hosting hundreds of thousands - even millions - of Palestinians. In Egypt, for example, despite the repression of all opposition, president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi remains vulnerable, as the Muslim Brotherhood expands its underground activities. For his army-bureaucratic-capitalist regime, what could be worse than the arrival of young Palestinians, radicalised by a year and a half of Zionist horror?
The same is true of the Saudi royal family, and the Kuwaiti and Qatari emirs. True, Arab leaders, have raised strong objections to the Trump/Netanyahu plans, including the “categorical rejection” of Netanyahu’s suggestion that Gazans should be resettled in the Saudi kingdom. The Egyptian foreign minister called the proposal “reckless, irresponsible and unacceptable”, adding that it “directly infringes upon Saudi sovereignty and constitutes a clear violation of international law and the United Nations charter”.
Gulf states have likewise condemned the proposal. The United Arab Emirates rejected Netanyahu’s “reprehensible and provocative” idea and expressed solidarity with Saudi Arabia against “any threat to its security, stability and sovereignty”. Non-Arab Muslim countries such as Iran, Pakistan and Turkey have voiced similar sentiments. However, at the end of the day it goes without saying that none of these countries are in any position to halt the US-Israeli plans.
Egypt’s military rulers are unlikely to survive without US aid, while Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the Gulf countries can be threatened with the kind of crippling sanctions that have destroyed Iran’s economy. That or the withdrawal of US protection, not least from their own people.
On the day of the ‘riviera’ statement, Trump also signed a series of measures in favour of “maximum pressure” against Iran. He has directed the treasury and department of state to implement policies aimed at driving its oil exports to “zero”.
However, Trump claimed he found signing these executive orders “very tough”, blaming his advisors and adding he was open to a deal with the Islamic Republic and is willing to talk to its leadership. “With me, it’s very simple: Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said. Asked how close Tehran is to getting its hands on such a weapon, he replied, “They’re too close.”
Realistic
Looking at the current situation in the Middle East - this terrible latest phase of ethnic cleansing planned for Palestine and the possibility of Israel bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities - we have to be realistic.
The empty rhetoric of Iran’s Islamic Republic and its weakened and humiliated ‘axis of resistance’ has got nowhere. Hamas will doubtless continue to resist, but it can hardly defeat the IDF. Demonstrations, however large and radical, will not stop Israel forcibly depopulating Gaza either. Nor will direct action stunts by brave activists or even boycotts at ports and airports. Welcome as they all are, we must start thinking about the politics of power.
As far as the Middle East as a whole is concerned, the answer is obvious: the overthrow of reactionary regimes throughout the region. The same goes for America, Europe and elsewhere. But for that we need organisation. Not just any organisation, however: what is required are mass communist parties that coordinate at the highest level. There is no alternative.