Trump’s plan – another lesson in the limits of power

I have to be honest. I’m less concerned right now about the moral questions of the practical implementation of US President Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza, because I don’t think it was ever intended to be practical or to be implemented. I think it’s a negotiating tactic, a la “Art of the Deal,” and we are already seeing the way it is being walked back. What troubles me has been the enthusiastic Israeli reception of this idea, both because of what it means for its normalization in Israeli discourse, and, even more fundamentally, because of what it means about the lessons we have not been learning since October 7th.

Don’t get me wrong. I get it. I live here too. I can understand and appreciate the elation of a battered and bruised people at the prospect of Trump’s plan for the emigration of 1.8 million people from Gaza. It seems like such a wonderfully simple solution for our shattered sense of security. It is what we sometimes promise our children — to make all the bad things just “go away.” After 16 months and 100 years of war, uncertainty, mourning, red alerts, fear… we have every right to want a quick fix, and then here comes one of the most powerful people in the world, a veritable messiah, with “new ideas” to solve our problems.

But these ideas aren’t new. And the fact that we are feeling more desperate or tired does not mean that they have gotten any better. The main figure associated with the idea that the only way to ensure our safety is by population transfer of the Arab minority was Rabbi Meir Kahane. How “far” we have come from the days when his ideas were considered taboo, when virtually all members of Knesset would boycott his speeches, when, after the Supreme Court (including Aharon Barak!) defended his party’s right to run according to the law as it stood, the Knesset passed a law stating that a party whose goals are actions inciting to racism would not be allowed to stand for elections. The law passed by a vote of 66-0.

Did we lack enemies who wanted to kill us then? Of course not. Was the Knesset full of starry-eyed peaceniks who thought that all our neighbors wanted to live in peace with us? No. But there was consensus around the bright red moral lines that violated the essence of what it meant to be a Jewish state. That moral clarity has been slipping away from us, and Trump’s suggestion, even if it not implemented at all, does much to continue us down this dangerous slippery slope.

What is the essence of this slippery slope? I submit that it is the Nietzschean conception that brute force and power are the best (only?) solutions to our problems, and that these are solutions that override any other moral concerns. In 1984, Kahane ran on a campaign of “Give me the power and I’ll deal with them.” He assured his followers that if he were allowed to be minister of defense for a month, he would solve all of our problems. When I look at the last two years, I see them as a profound, ever-intensifying seminar in the falsehood and the dangers of this exact conception, this idolatry of power.

Lesson 1: Judicial Reform

This conception served both as the main raison d’etre and as the promise of this “fully-fully right wing” government. The previous government was attacked with the claim that it encourages terror by its weakness, and this government campaigned on the promise that only a “fully-fully right wing” government would no longer be held back from exerting its full power, and terror would not dare raise its head. The government was first forced to come to terms with the limits of its power when, despite having 64 seats in the Knesset, it failed to pass judicial reforms, in the face of unprecedented civil protests. These protests, at their core, came to oppose reforms that were ultimately aimed at granting the government unlimited, unchecked power, and they successfully proved to the government that its power has limits. But the government refused to accept defeat, insisting on continuing to push through the reforms, even as we were torn asunder.

Lesson 2: October 7th

Failing to internalize the message on the internal domestic front, we were confronted with the very same lesson on October 7^th, one that had been slowly developing over the course of years. We saw ourselves as infinitely more powerful than Hamas, and even what little trouble they could cause could be prevented by buying their quiet. The inhumane and corrupt regime of Hamas, the suffering of the Palestinians there, the lack of any horizon of hope for them other than Hamas’s genocidal designs — these were not our concern, because we were convinced that the power differential meant that we had the situation completely under control. On October 7^th, the bubble burst. Our illusions of power crumbled before an enemy that, by every objective standard, was much weaker and less capable.

Lesson 3: The Hostages

But after Hamas burst that bubble, conquering Israeli cities, killing some 1,200 people and kidnapping 251, instead of questioning the wisdom of our assumption, a popular conclusion from the attacks of October 7^th was to lean into it even harder, believing that what we need…is even more force. This was the solution not only for defeating Hamas, but also for returning the hostages. The nature of the latter case was such that the fantasy could be proven conclusively false. Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, and about 30 other hostages were alive when they were taken hostage, and survived long months of captivity before being killed. Military pressure, directly or indirectly, caused their death. It did not save them. Brute force was not the solution.

Lesson 4: The War

Conclusive proof regarding the issue of defeating Hamas is somewhat trickier to muster. After all, one can always argue that if we just hit them even harder, we will succeed. Maybe if we destroy not 80 percent of buildings, but 99%. But, after 16 months of promises of “total victory,” isn’t it time to reassess? In February 2024, total victory was “within reach.” In April, we were already merely “a hair’s-breadth away.” And in February 2025, we bear witness to Hamas refilling its ranks and remaining in operative control in the absence of any attempt to create an alternative.

Lesson 5: Trump

But then along comes Trump, and offers us a lifesaver in the form of the newest version of this fantasy, instantly catapulting the idea of transfer from the fringe to serious consideration in mainstream discourse. The fantasy that we can simply decide to move two million people from their homes, and possibly buy them off with good housing and living conditions, while ignoring any historic or ideological ties to the land, is akin to the fantasy that we can buy Hamas’s quiet, or scare them into submission by occasional attacks. And these are a close relative of the fantasy that we will be protected by all our technology on the border, and the fantasy that if we just apply sufficient military pressure, if we just kill and destroy enough, we will achieve the “total victory,” in which our enemies completely surrender, give all the hostages back, and we will only then live in harmony.

These are the fantasies of every bully, but even more so, they are the fantasies of anyone who has been bullied — to have the power to just force all of our problems to go away. They spin us into a spiral of victimhood, and rob us of agency and moral responsibility. The Jewish state — and the Jewish story — have always been at their best when they resist the very natural urge to go there.