"The US will take over the Gaza Strip"
Reading the room
Published: 2025-02-09
Direction
This newsletter's farewell to Joseph R. Biden introduced the term BSB (Blinken, Sullivan, Biden) for that administration, for it was obvious to all that two years in the President was not in command. Trump began by leading from the front with a swath of Executive Orders. This administration is unquestionably, one led by the President.
A change of US administration, especially between the two dominant political parties, generates a nervousness. Markets and political commentators crave a sense of direction. Trump comes from a different sector of society, business swindles, rather than political frontmen, lawyers or diplomats. He makes "deals", and is intrinsically transactional. He does not put his cards on the table up front, but plays the room to construct an arrangement. He is playing, as Commander-in-Chief of the US military, with one of the most powerful international hands. He is a also narcissist, wanting to be regaled as the President who Made America Great Again. The making requires structural changes, which he began immediately by gutting USAID and offering redundancies to other deepstate institutions which may be used by those who oppose his direction to again counter or divert him. The departing BSB administration elevated the complexity of the international issues which with Trump must deal.
Targets
Our moment in international affairs is perilous and opportune. A hot war between NATO and Russia will soon complete its third year. A 16 month old, Zionist genocide against the Palestinians of Gaza has been momentarily paused. Trump's envoy Witkoff metaphorically threatened to break Netanyahu's fingers if he didn't sign the ceasefire "deal" before Trump took office. Israel is pressing for US support for a war against Iran. Only one of, and that by a thread, the nuclear arms limitation treaties of the Cold War are still operative. From the US perspective, its empire is waning against the economic powerhouse of BRICS.
This field is made for an ego the size of Trump's. The returning president has signaled during the administrations' transition and his first two weeks in office, that every one of these targets are in his sights. But how will he address them, the commentators and markets demand to know!?
North Korea
Scott Ritter advised Dialogue Works' audience to look at Trump's past behaviour to gauge his approach. During his first term, his opening gambit with Kim Jong Un was to run war games off the Korean peninsula and threaten to blow North Korea off the map. A few weeks later, they met in the DMZ (de-militarized zone) between the Koreas and shook hands. Trump's goal was to resolve the frozen conflict, and potentially via that, to remove nuclear weapons from the peninsula. Like so many other efforts during his first term, that goal was undermined by elements of the deepstate which profit from tension and warfare.
This week commentators, on old media and new, melted at Trump's language when he met with Israel's Prime Minister and Genocider-in-Chief, Netanyahu. They took his words, and projected them into the clouds like a Bat-signal of Doom, completely failing to understand what was happening. "He's taking up the genocide, he'll magically relocate 1.8 million Palestinians! He's confirmed the death count at half a million!" On they went, totally missing the point, blinded by Trump's words, and oblivious to Netanyahu's body language.
Reading the Room
Ritter and some others did read the room. In front of live cameras Trump took Gaza off Israel's map, out of Netanyahu's hands. No doubt in private quarters, the section of his words which involved the relocation (ethnic cleansing) of the Palestinians and the cleaning up of unexploded ordinance in preparation for constructing a Gazan Riviera were spoken. Netanyahu was saved. The US would help. Yes, Netanyahu, the US will help.
The unvetted, quiet part was finally said out loud at Trump's lectern: we'll help by taking Gaza. In the spotlights of the cameras, the Genocider-in-Chief, knuckles white, was forced to thank Trump, a great friend of Israel, accepting the "deal".
The "real estate" part of the "deal" was preposterous. Trump later qualified it with "no US troops" and the US "will not pay for it". It was plainly impossible — a disposable, opening gambit. It was rejected immediately by not only other regional powers, but also by US allies Britain and Australia.
The second surprise for Netanyahu, trapped beside Trump, was another unvetted policy announcement: Trump wants to make a deal with Iran. No war for you, Bibi.
There is no denying the strength of the Israeli lobby, with many of them Zionists. But Netanyahu is expendable and weak. His coalition survives on a thin margin led by the genocidal Smotrich and Gvir. The nation has lost 7% of its population (half a million of 7). Its military are tired and wounded. Its economy is weak. Netanyahu is on very thin ice, irrespective of facing justice in Israel and at the ICC. He is also, as Scott Ritter believes Trump understands, part of the problem, not the solution.
Following Ritter's and all sensible analysis, Iran does not want a regional war, it wants a deal. Pezeshkian and the leadership council must be feeling pressure to prepare for assembling a fatwa prohibited, nuclear weapon; they have the components except for the enriched Plutonium. A deal to reinstate a JCPOA variant, with a new name, is what Iran's leadership wants. This would create a step towards a path for Trump to lead a wider discussion on nuclear arms. There is a Nobel Peace Prize on offer, if that is secured. It would need to involve China and Russia, which are very likely to agree to reasonable controls. The US will need to back down from stationing intermediate range weapons in Germany, slated for 2025/2026.
The Ukraine war is a complex topic, requiring as Ambassador Freeman has clearly described, numerous agreements involving different parties. Nonetheless, it must be begun by the US. Last week Russian Presidential spokesperson Peskov announced a change. Previously there had been no official contacts from the US government, a short continuation of the BSB policy. Suddenly there were several:
There are indeed contacts between individual departments [of the US and Russian governments], and they have intensified recently
Trump has not called for a "summit" with President Putin, yet. Details are being negotiated in advance, as they must be for topics of this complexity. Zelensky has been informed, that he, like Netanyahu is part of the problem. Elections "need to be done", said Trump envoy Gen. Kellogg, knowing full well that there is no way that Zelensky could win a fair election contest. Given that Ukrainian Military Intelligence leader, Budanov, stated that:
if "serious negotiations" do not take place by summer, there would be a threat to Ukraine's existence
political change is coming in Ukraine, one way or another, soon.
We are not yet 3 weeks into Trump's second term. He is weakening internal forces in the US which may work against him, has outplayed Netanyahu twice, has signaled a negotiation with Iran and has begun organizing an end to the war in Ukraine.
Irrespective of the Bat-signals of Doom, he has done more for peace in two and half weeks than BSB did in two and half years.
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Sources
Budanov allegedly stated threat to existence of Ukraine; RBC-Ukraine; Archive.today; 2025-02-09
Chris Hedges: The Empire Self-Destructs; Chris Hedges; Scheerpost; 2025-02-08
Hedges thinks the new US administration have all lost their minds
Scott Ritter: Trump is the Consequence of Global Leadership Collapse; Alkhorshid interviews Ritter; Dialogue Works; 2025-02-07
Trump to 'clean out' and own Gaza - Seyed Mohammad Marandi, Alexander Mercouris & Glenn Diesen; Diesen, Mercouris and Marandi discuss Trump & the Genocide; The Duran; 2025-02-09
[Full Press Conference] - President Trump & PM Netanyahu - US to takeover GAZA; Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom; Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom; 2025-02-05
Amb. Chas Freeman: Can the U.S. Take Control of Gaza?; Alkhorshid interviews Freeman; Dialogue Works; 2025-02-07
Freeman’s view is closer to the “doing Israel’s bidding” position.
Copyleft: CC0
Thanks for this glimmer of optimism....hope springs eternal.