Trumpenyahu: The dangerous symbiosis between Trump and Bibi

When I woke up on Sunday morning, I watched a news clip on Israeli television of Bibi spinning lies and talking about “fake news” on Fox News again. This was the second time he was interviewed on the Republican news station last week, as if he is a member of MAGA. A few days ago, he was interviewed on this same news station, Trump’s favorite one. With a big smile, or more correctly a smirk, he said he supports Trump’s “idea” (of relocating the Palestinians in Gaza to God knows where and then developing the real estate there into the Riviera). To call this an idea is a big compliment. Trump has made many so-called “statements” about this, but is it really an “idea”? A well-thought out plan ? I don’t think so!

President Trump’s “ideas” which he repeats almost every day nowadays, about relocation of 2 million Palestinians — temporarily or permanently – from Gaza are not only illegal but they are immoral and completely unrealistic. These so-called “ideas”– which change from hour to hour — have become the laughing-stock of the Western World, except for the extreme right-wing in Israel and the Likud party, led by the current Prime Minister of Israel (who used to be “moderate” but has become extreme), who can’t stop smiling since the meetings in Washington last week.  But they do represent a trend in President Trump’s “thinking”–annexing Canada, taking over Greenland and Panama, tariffs on Mexico and Canada, which are dropped a day or two later. It is mostly bluster but nevertheless it reflects the fact that the American people elected an deranged and irresponsible leader.

Many of his spokespeople have already walked back many of his outrageous statements – assuring the American people that there will be no American troops in Gaza, and assuring the world that the relocation of the Palestinians from Gaza will not be permanent, only temporary. Like tariffs, they come and go in a day! But they have already caused much damage, in America, the world, and especially in Israel, Palestine and the Arab world.

In a poll released last week on one of Israel’s television statements, almost three quarters (72%) of Israelis said that they like and support the idea. The right-wing—especially the extreme right-wing political parties of Bezalel Smotrich (“Religious Zionism”) and Itamar Ben Gvir (“Jewish Power) — are going wild with enthusiasm. After all, “transfer” of Palestinians is their idea! They sold it to Trump and his aides. They have been pushing it for a long time.

The Prime Minister is now talking like them. He somehow suddenly loves their ideas, which are now President Trump’s big ideas. Wow! What amazing synergy. They are all fantasizing totally unrealistic and fundamentally immoral ideas, which the rest of the world is calling “ethnic cleansing”.

By now, Trump and Netanyahu not only wear the same red ties, but they talk the same way — they have the same smiles, the same pomposity, the same simplicity, as if anything in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict is simple. These two cynical, self-centered autocratic politicians—who are rejected by most of the international community—think that they are so clever, when in reality, the whole world can see clearly that these cunning leaders are committed to their own interests and their own narrow-minded destructive ideologies.

The result of all of their bluster and pomposity, as of today, is the suspension of the agreement by Hamas to continue to release hostages on this coming Saturday, which is the essence of the agreement reached between Hamas and Israel, via the mediators of Qatar and Egypt and the USA. So, now, thanks to all their outlandish statements and new “ideas”, there is a real crisis in the region once again. Thank you, Bibi and Donald. Great work! Wow! Real leadership. Terrific. Instead of continuing the agreement, the winds of war are blowing in Israel and Gaza once again.

And if this isn’t enough, Trump announced a new “idea” on Monday of this week: if Hamas doesn’t return all the hostages by Saturday at noon, “all hell will break loose!” (Actually, this is an old idea of his!) What does this mean? Is he abrogating the current agreement, which he took credit for a few weeks ago, although it was mostly the work of Biden and Blinken? Is he suddenly proposing a whole new “plan”?

And his friend Bibi is already threatening the renewal of the war (which he was going to do any way, sooner or later) and putting the IDF on high alert. He repeated Trump’s threat almost word for word yesterday.  The extreme-right is salivating once again. Ben Gvir is considering rejoining the government. Back to more war! Forget about the hostages. They need to be sacrificed for a greater cause, the complete transfer of all Palestinians from Gaza and the resettlement of the area. This would be the “total victory” that Bibi keeps repeating is necessary.

Also on Monday, of this week,  Bibi gave a speech in the Knesset in which he once again made clear that the war is not over, that “total victory” has not yet been achieved. Naturally, this did not go over well in Israel. Most of the opposition members of the Knesset were yelling and shouting at him in the plenum. They were furious with him, and for good reason. It was a horrible scene. But he kept smiling and ranting and raving nevertheless. Also, thousands of people gathered at Hostage Square in Tel Aviv to protest what appears to be his emerging policy, i.e., he does not appear to plan to live up to the agreement. He has not allowed the negotiators to even begin discussing the second phase of it!  He wants to continue the war until “total victory” even though nobody knows any more what that really means or if it is achievable, or even if so, at what price.

If he continues along this path, there will undoubtedly be huge demonstrations by the people of Israel against him and his government once again since they will be clearly abandoning the hostages. . The people of Israel have had enough of this war by now! They want the war to end, the hostages to come home, and some sense of normality and sanity to return to their lives.

It seems that the smiles and “ideas” of Trump and Bibi, who some of us call “Trumpenyahu”, are not helping much, to say the least. On the contrary, they are only causing more anxiety, confusion, and perplexity among the people of Israel, America and the world.  Will this team of “leaders” bring us peace, as Trump indicated in his inaugural address that he would like to do? Or are they leading us to more disasters, more wars, with no coherent way out of the mess that we are in?  Unfortunately, it seems that their path is becoming clearer every day.