As we were going to press with our February issue, a rather extraordinary spectacle was taking place at the White House. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stood together at an evening press conference on Feb. 4, and Trump declared: “The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too.”
As the bemused Israeli premier looked on, the president, who has a background in real estate development, said, “We’ll make sure that it’s done world-class. It’ll be wonderful for the people — Palestinians, Palestinians mostly, we’re talking about.”
The proposed Trump Gaza National Golf Club proposal did not win universal acclaim. Trump suggested moving the beleaguered Gazans to Egypt and Jordan, but those countries’ leaders nixed the idea. It was another harebrained idea from a president who seems largely divorced from reality. The United States is going to “own” the Gaza Strip? Not in this universe.
And I recognized that it wasn’t an original idea, either.
About a year ago, the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, made a similar proposal. Kushner — a senior White House adviser in Trump’s first term, now in the venture capital business buoyed by billions of dollars in investments from the Saudis and other Middle East oil sheikhs — suggested that Gaza’s “waterfront property” could be “very valuable.”
He made his pitch at a Feb. 15, 2024, panel hosted by the Middle East Initiative, a program of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
“Gaza’s waterfront property could be very valuable … if people would focus on building up livelihoods,” Kushner told his interviewer, the faculty chair of the Middle East Initiative, Prof. Tarek Masoud, as reported in The Guardian.
“It’s a little bit of an unfortunate situation there, but from Israel’s perspective I would do my best to move the people out and then clean it up,” Kushner said.
Anyway, Trump’s insane real development scheme has mainly faded in memory, as Elon Musk takes his chainsaw to the federal government, stopping payments for social programs and throwing thousands of federal government employees out of work. Musk — “the richest man in the world,” as the press likes to note — recently has suggested that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme and in need of some trimming. Many people are saying that he’s high on ketamine.
The latest Trump controversy, a shocking public berating of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, erupted on Feb. 28. Before reporters and TV cameras in the Oval Office, Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance tag-teamed Zelenskyy and delivered a rhetorical beatdown on the leader of a country that has been fighting back against brutal Russian aggression for the past three years.
In what many see as a setup, Vance instigated the public verbal spat that lasted for about 10 minutes.
When Zelenskyy credibly suggested that Putin was an unreliable partner for peace, Vance scolded, “I think it’s disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media. You should be thanking the president for trying to bring an end to this conflict.”
Then Trump turned on the Ukrainian leader and bellowed, “You don’t have the cards right now. You’re gambling with the lives of millions of people.”
He shouted at Zelenskyy: “You’re gambling with World War III.”
I think we can all agree that we would rather that Trump refrain from talking about World War III.
On March 4, the press reported that all U.S. aid to Ukraine has been halted. The Trump administration has betrayed Ukraine, which still has the support of European nations.
Regarding this concerning development, I have been wondering about a scenario where the Trump administration could turn its back on another ally.
“The question that arose after the Zelenskyy meeting was whether Trump could betray Israel as he did Ukraine,” wrote pundit Mitchell Bard, in an online blog of The Times of Israel.
“Trump’s history suggests a pattern of transactional relationships, where national interests are secondary to personal ego. Remember, Trump’s stated goal is peace, which is not consistent with Netanyahu’s objective of destroying Hamas. Trump compelled Israel to accept a ceasefire before finishing the mission in Gaza. Even after the collapse of the hostage negotiations, he is holding Israel back.”
Bard continued, “Ukraine, like Israel, is fighting for its survival. But unlike Ukraine, which enjoys European support, Israel stands largely isolated, magnifying its dependence on the U.S. and its susceptibility to pressure from the White House.”
The Jewish World receives emails from Bard, who is the executive director of the nonprofit American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (AICE) and director of the online Jewish Virtual Library. I generally disagree with his viewpoints on Israel, but he has a point regarding the future of U.S.-Israel relations, vis-à-vis the behavior of the unhinged U.S. president.
“Zelenskyy discovered that standing up to a bully can be costly, especially one like Trump, whose ego demands constant appeasement,” Bard wrote. “Zelenskyy failed to apologize for his behavior and appearance (Trump was angry he didn’t wear a suit) and now his country is being punished for his ingratitude.
“Netanyahu is keenly aware that he’s walking a fine line, just one misstep away from losing Trump’s crucial support, as he did after congratulating Joe Biden on his victory in the ‘rigged’ 2020 election. Trump already harbors a grudge against Jews, having frequently labeled them ungrateful for the support he gave Israel during his first term. He’s made no secret of his belief that Jews voting for Democrats are crazy.”
We’re not even two months into the second Trump term as president, and the situation is wearing on everyone. The future seems to be one of increased misery for many in this country, as Trump, an ignoramus in every area of public policy, lurches from one benighted scheme to the next. On March 4, the U.S. imposed 25 percent tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico, which will lead soon to prices increases for U.S. consumers. The Trump-Vance team is working in concert with Russia to destroy the U.S. economy.
The Republicans are mainly complicit with the scoundrel, and history will judge them harshly. It will be left to the press, the courts and the Democrats in Congress to mount an opposition to Trump’s power grab. And some imponderable event could spark a social conflagration — something along the lines of what convulsed Minneapolis in May 2020.
I don’t know what will happen next. Happy Purim!
Mordecai Specktor / editor [at] ajwnews [dot] com
(American Jewish World, March 2025)
