Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies on the contradiction of Trump pursuing an end to the war in Ukraine while supporting the genocide in Palestine.
President Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday. (White House, Molly Riley)
By Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies
Common Dreams
As we approach the third anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a monumental shift is taking place that might just lead to the end of this calamitous war.
This is not a breakthrough on the battlefield, but a stark reversal of the U.S. position from being the major supplier of weapons and funding to prolong the war to one of peacemaker.
Donald Trump promised to end the war in Ukraine if he was re-elected as president. On Feb. 12, he started to make good on that promise by holding a 90-minute call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom Biden had refused to talk to since the war began.
They agreed that they were ready to begin peace negotiations “immediately,” and Trump then called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and spent an hour discussing the conditions for what Zelenskyy called a “lasting and reliable peace.”
At the same time, the new U.S. defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, unveiled Trump’s new policy in more detail at a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, saying, “The bloodshed must stop. And this war must end.”
There are two parts to the new policy that Hegseth announced. First, he said that Trump “intends to end this war by diplomacy and bringing both Russia and Ukraine to the table.”
Secondly, he said that the United States is handing off the prime responsibility for arming Ukraine and guaranteeing its future security to the European members of NATO.
Assigning Europe the role of security guarantor is a transparent move to shield the U.S. from ongoing responsibility for a war that it played a major role in provoking and prolonging by scuttling previous negotiations.
If the Europeans will not accept their assigned role in Trump’s plan, or Zelenskyy or Putin reject it, the United States may yet have to play a larger role in security guarantees for Ukraine than Trump or many Americans would like. Zelenskyy told the Guardian on Feb. 11 that, for Ukraine, “Security guarantees without America are not real security guarantees.”
After blocking peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in April 2022, the Biden administration rejected peace negotiations over Ukraine for nearly three years.
Biden insisted that Ukraine must recover all of its internationally recognized territory, including the Crimea and Donbas regions that separated from Ukraine after the U.S.-backed coup in Kyiv in 2014.
German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius and Hegseth in Brussels on Wednesday. (NATO, Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Hegseth opened the door to peace by clearly and honestly telling America’s European allies,
“…we must start by recognizing that returning to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective. Chasing this illusionary goal will only prolong the war and cause more suffering.”
Spelling out the U.S. plan in more detail, Hegseth went on by saying that a
“durable peace for Ukraine must include robust security guarantees to ensure that the war will not begin again. This must not be Minsk 3.0. That said, the United States does not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement. Instead any security guarantee must be backed by capable European and non-European troops.”
Neutrality for Ukraine
NATO membership for Ukraine has always been totally unacceptable to the Russians. Trump and Hegseth’s forthrightness in finally pulling the plug, after the U.S. has dangled NATO membership in front of successive Ukrainian governments since 2008, marks a critical recognition that neutrality offers the best chance for Ukraine to coexist with Russia and the West without being a battleground between them.
Trump and Hegseth expect Europe to assume prime responsibility for Ukraine, while the Pentagon will instead focus on Trump’s two main priorities: on the domestic front, deporting immigrants, and on the international front, confronting China.
Hegseth justified this as “a division of labor that maximizes our comparative advantages in Europe and the Pacific respectively.”
Elaborating on the role the U.S. plan demands of its European allies, Hegseth explained,
“If these troops are deployed as peacekeepers to Ukraine at any point, they should be deployed as part of a non-NATO mission. And they should not be covered under Article 5. There also must be robust international oversight of the line of contact. To be clear, as part of any security guarantee, there will not be U.S. troops deployed to Ukraine … Safeguarding European security must be an imperative for European members of NATO. As part of this Europe must provide the overwhelming share of future lethal and nonlethal aid to Ukraine.”
To say that U.S. forces will never fight alongside European forces in Ukraine, and that Article 5, the mutual defense commitment in the NATO Charter, will not apply to European forces in Ukraine, is to go a step farther than simply denying NATO membership to Ukraine, by carving out Ukraine as an exclusion zone where the NATO Charter no longer applies, even to NATO members.
Zelensky at a NATO-Ukraine Council meeting on July 12, 2023. (NATO/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
While Trump plans to negotiate directly with Russia and Ukraine, the vulnerable position in which his plan would place European NATO members means that they, too, will want a significant say in the peace negotiations and probably demand a U.S. role in Ukraine’s security guarantees.
So Trump’s effort to insulate the U.S. from the consequences of its actions in Ukraine may be a dead letter before he even sits down to negotiate with Russia and Ukraine.
Hegseth’s reference to the Minsk Accords highlights the similarities between Trump’s plans and those agreements in 2014 and 2015, which largely kept the peace in Eastern Ukraine from then until 2022.
Feb. 12, 2015: Putin, French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko at the Normandy format talks in Minsk, Belarus. (Kremlin)
Western leaders have since admitted that they always intended to use the relative peace created by the Minsk Accords to build up Ukraine militarily, so that it could eventually recover Donetsk and Luhansk by force, instead of granting them the autonomous status agreed to in the Accords.
Russia will surely insist on provisions that prevent the West from using a new peace accord in the same way, and would be highly unlikely to agree to substantial Western military forces or bases in Ukraine as part of Ukraine’s security guarantees. President Putin has always insisted that a neutral Ukraine is essential to lasting peace.
There is, predictably, an element of “having their cake and eating it too” in Trump and Hegseth’s proposals. Even if the Europeans take over most of the responsibility for guaranteeing Ukraine’s future security, and the U.S. has no Article 5 obligation to support them, the United States would retain its substantial command and control position over Europe’s armed forces through NATO.
Trump is still demanding that its European members increase their military spending to 5 percent of GDP, far more than the U.S. spends on its bloated, wasteful, and defeated war machine.
Biden was ready to fight Russia “to the last Ukrainian,” as retired U.S. diplomat Chas Freeman said in March 2022, and to enrich U.S. weapons companies with rivers of Ukrainian blood. Is Trump now preparing to fight Russia to the last British, French, German or Polish soldier too if his peace plan fails?
Putin during a meeting in St Petersburg in September 2024. (Kremlin)
Trump’s call with Putin and Hegseth’s concessions on NATO and Ukraine’s territorial integrity left many European leaders reeling. They complained that the U.S. was making concessions behind their backs, that these issues should have been left to the negotiating table, and that Ukraine should not be forced to give up on NATO membership.
European NATO members have legitimate concerns to work out with the new U.S. administration, but Trump and Hegseth are right to finally and honestly tell Ukraine that it will not become a NATO member, to dispel this tragic mirage and let it move on into a neutral and more peaceful future.
There has also been a backlash from Republican war hawks, while the Democrats, who have been united as the party of war when it comes to Ukraine, will likely try to sabotage Trump’s efforts.
On the other hand, maybe a few brave Democrats will recognize this as a chance to reclaim their party’s lost heritage as the more dovish of America’s two legacy parties, and to provide desperately needed new progressive foreign policy leadership in Congress.
On both sides of the Atlantic, Trump’s peace initiative is a gamechanger and a new chance for peace that the United States and its allies should embrace, even as they work out their respective responsibilities to provide security guarantees for Ukraine.
It is also a time for Europe to realize that it can’t just mimic U.S. foreign policy and expect U.S. protection in return. Europe’s difficult relationship with Trump’s America may lead to a new modus operandi and a re-evaluation (or maybe even the end?) of NATO.
Meanwhile, those of us anxious to see peace in Ukraine should applaud President Trump’s initiative but we should also highlight the glaring contradictions of a president who finds the killing in Ukraine unacceptable but fully supports the genocide in Palestine.
Trump announcing his plan for the U.S. to take over Gaza on Feb. 4 at the White House, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu looking on. (The White House, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)
Given that most of the casualties in Ukraine are soldiers, while most of the maimed and killed in Palestine are civilians, including thousands of children, the compassionate, humanitarian case for peace is even stronger in Palestine than in Ukraine.
So why is Trump committed to stopping the killing in Ukraine but not in Gaza? Is it because Trump is so wedded to Israel that he refuses to rein in its slaughter? Or is it just that Ukrainians and Russians are white and European, while Palestinians are not?
If Trump can reject the political arguments that have fueled three years of war in Ukraine and apply compassion and common sense to end that war, then he can surely do the same in the Middle East.
Medea Benjamin is the co-founder of CODEPINK: Women for Peace and the author of numerous books including Kingdom of the Unjust: Behind the US-Saudi Connection and Inside Iran: the Real History and Politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Nicolas J. S. Davies is an independent journalist, a researcher with CODEPINK, and the author of Blood On Our Hands: the American Invasion and Destruction of Iraq.
This article is from Common Dreams.
The views expressed are solely those of the authors and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
Neither the US nor NATO can make security guarantees for Zelensky:
a) The primary motive for the Russian invasion was to prevent US and European military presence in Ukrain
b) The US and allies have backed out of deals with Russia over and over again
c) Russia is winning militarily, though obviously at a cost
Therefore, the presence of a “security guarantee” force, amounting to something close to de facto NATO membership, would only mean that war continues.
Russia has no viable option than to insist on regularly verifying that Ukraine is not a threat. This would hold Ukraine in something like the condition that Iraq was after Gulf War I, with invasive inspections. I don’t see that the crippling sanctions that the US imposed would be necessary, but limits on relations that could become military might.
You know that this is the least that can be imposed. Why not start there?
The Ukraine war was a Brzezinski trap to weaken Russia in Syria and sell weapons by scaring Europe to militarize.
Both Reps and Dems should be happy to dump the Ukraine war now that Israel has what it paid for in Syria.
The question is when Russia and China will simply outbid US factions and AIPAC to dictate US elections and media.
Anyone with a functioning soul has to get out of the Democratic Party. They are already very, very late.
In 2026, people with souls need to run candidates outside the Democratic Party that we now know is openly controlled by The Mega-Donors. That was one thing that stubborn and senile Old Joe accomplished … his refusal to step aside made the real owners of the Democratic Party step forward into the light, for at least that one moment. It was The Mega-Donors who stepped forward and showed that they had more power than the head of the party and President of the United States by telling Old Joe to step aside, for the good of the party, which really means, for the good of The Mega-Donors.
If you are not a Mega-Donor, then you are a sucker if you continue to participate in the party of the Mega-Donors, by the Mega-Donors, and for the Mega-Donors. The anti-democracy of 2024 made that clear, for those who didn’t get the point from the Collusion Primary of ’16. The Democratic Party is not a democracy, and it is not on your side. The only chance people with souls have is to strike out on their own.
I’m of the opinion this entire episode in Ukraine was headed for disaster from sometime in the 1990’s.
The events there paved the way for the genocide in Gaza. Then we get 47 who wants to build hotels.
Everyone needs to look around and smell the death for exactly what it is.
47’s behavior since being elected should be no surprise to anyone.
What is needed now is for Musk to go to Guantanamo. That might force 47’s hand into committing a serious felony or health issue!
Doesn’t anyone besides me see the financial disaster his actions are going to create for the country.
End war in Ukraine? From what I’m reading, he wants their rare earth minerals. Has that been addressed here?
Strange lefties base an article on the bizarre premise that Trump wants peace for peace’s sake. Makes one wonder if they have paid any attention over the last decades, as one has to wonder where the heck they might have gotten such an opinion? Only if Trump wants peace for peace’s sake would it make sense that peace in Gaza would be connected to peace in Ukraine. But, if Trump wants peace in Ukraine for some other reason other than a moral belief that peace is good and that we should all live in peace as we follow in Jesus’ footsteps, then there is no logical reason to connect peace in Gaza with peace in Ukraine.
It does perhaps explain why the left has been so useless for the last 20 years. When people or groups have fundamental delusions as to the nature of the world in which they live and operate, it is of course likely that they will be completely @@#$%ing useless. And, it is fascinating that they spend all that ink telling us what Trump and Fox News say? If I wanted to know what Fox News and the Fox DOD Anchor have to say, I’d watch Fox. But, when opposition groups spend all their time repeated Murdoch’s message, it is not a surprise that they are ineffective at creating a world based on anything else.
I HATE SCOTT RITTER, I HATE LARRY JOHNSON, I HATE PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS, THEY HAVE SOLD THEMSELVES TO DONALD TRUMP AND THEY SEE DONALD TRUMP AS A SORT OF AMERICAN HUGO CHAVEZ TRYING TO OVERTHROW THE DEEP STATE !!
Peter I have to ask you did you watch all three hours of Is The West Dead” today?
Not for nothin’; but, outta the gate, 2.24.22 “many, people,” knew, “Putin did not go into Ukraine to play NATO’s war games. Putin went into Ukraine to change it.” To date, 2.16.25, “Russia rocks the Queen. Ukraine’s the Pawn. Et tu, USG?!? Everybody, knows, U.S. Elections, Agreements, Treaties, Constitutions, “Red” Lines crossed, Wars “have consequences,” likened to: 1) “get’n hit w/a baseball bat;” 2) “get’n smacked w/a crowbar,” 3) get’n a “Big Guy;” or, a“Big Shot,” for POTUS; &, 4) “getting,” fleeced & flocked, in one fell swoop.
However, “a promise made, is a promise kept.” Three (3) years, later, 2.14.25, “Color it Orange!” A “Peace Plan,” that trumps Ukraine’s ground war w/perpetual war on the world order. Basically, Trump’s “Peace Plan,” cements the U$G’s, “Freedom from Accountability.” For everything, foreign & domestic, deemed a threat to the U$G’s National $ecurity (M.I.C.), the U$G’s National Intere$ts (Corporations); &, the U$G’s preferred Currency (U$D).
Trump & Hegseth want the “Majority” to believe, “Peace” can “live,” in fact, thrive, in Ukraine;” w/o the U$G; AND, “the Palestinians or the people that live now in Gaza will be living beautifully in another location.” President “Big $hot” Trump wields the “power,” to use, abuse & abandon plant, animal & human life, in a heartbeat. The “Minority” is not convinced or consoled, i.e., “we” ‘lean closer to the fire; but, we’re cold.” And, the PSA, has NOT changed, “Don’t drink the water. There’s blood in the water.”
The owl, asks, “Who’s “got” the receipts, on the Democrats’ “brave, lost heritage as the more dovish” of the duopoly?” The bird tweets, “That’s a good question! It sounds like the Democrats are trippin!!! No doubt, imo, overdosing on O.J., spiked w/an “Era of the Golden Age,” rumored “on the rise” in the Nuclear Age.”
No doubt, the Democrats’ “goose” is cooked! Decades of the Democrats’ perversions deliver their “welcomed” demise!!! Once upon a time, the Democrats “owned” the legislative, judicial, & executive power. They coulda, woulda, shoulda “got” SOMETHING, done!!! Versus wallowing in propaganda, wailing endlessly, “woe is me,” “itsa Constitutional Crisis,” “Trump is a threat to Democracy,” “Elon Musk has NOT been elected, to anything!” AND, YES, Trump, owns the “Shake-Down.” Trump triggers the Democrats, endlessly; And, “Shakes ‘Em” off, instantly! No doubt, a “Majority” agree, “Do NOT Resuscitate the DNC’s Party of Democrats. They, GONE! And, in between, “Trumps” agenda moves forward on high speed.
“Orange you glad,” we “got” the Artist, Mr. Fish, that paints the times, “Piece Plan” – by Mr. Fish; &, the Writer, Chris Hedges’ “The Ceasefire Charade,” keeping it real @ hxxps://consortiumnews.com/2025/01/16/chris-hedges-the-ceasefire-charade/
And, imo, the answer to Medea Benjamin’s questions, is “[JUST THAT] Ukrainians and Russians are white and European, while Palestinians are not.” Capitalism. Racism. Poverty.
TY. “Keep It Lit.”
Thank you for pointing out the Democrat’s Big Lie. They claim to be ‘on our side’. They claim to ‘fight for us’. But, when the Democrats control the courts, both sides of the legislature, and the White House, they forget to fight for us and they forget to be on our side. So, thank you for your illustration of the Big Lie of the Democrats. This is the Big Lie that that dang party has been build upon since FDR.
One should never listen to a word Trump says. The Democrats taught me that. The Democrats taught me to never to listen to any politician, and certainly not the corporate approved politicians that appear on TV … but to instead focus on and always carefully watch what a lying, scumbag politician actually does. Bill Clinton confirmed what I already knew in this regard decades ago.
Good post! I also am very relieved to see tensions with Russia being ratcheted down a few notches, and hopeful that the U.S. instigated conflict can finally draw to a non-violent end.
As far as Gaza and Trump’s unwavering support for Israel, I don’t think I’m being too cynical in suggesting that one ot Trump’s main reasons for his opposite POV is the $100 million campaign donation from Israel native Miriam Adelson. After all, look at how his opinion on EVs changed (or at least was muted) when Musk donated $275 million to his campaign…
Iirc, before Trump got the 2016 nomination, he was not strongly pro-Israel. He did use ‘regime change wars’ as a weapon against front-runner Bush in the primaries, but he was iirc, rather noticeable among the money-hungry crowd of American politicians in not spouting a lot of pro-Israel stuff early on. . This shifted when casino owner and Zionist, Netanyahu funder Sheldon Adelson made huge donations to Trump at about the time of Trump’s first convention. Sheldon is now in whatever circle of heck that Dante could imagine for him.
Trump was realizing at that point that while he had largely self-funded his early campaign to get his first nomination, that he would need a lot more money than that to beat the Hillary money machine that had already been crookedly fundraising with the DNC even before she officially ‘won’ the Collusion Primary.
The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.
While white racism plays its part, and Israeli and American
Zionism color Trump’s fawning over Netanyahu (all his
cabinet including Tulsi Gabbard are Zionists), it’s American
military-industrial complex imperialism that’s central
to the Palestinian genocidal slaughter in Gaza.
President Reagan’s Secretary of Defense, Alexander Haig
(1980’s), let slip that “Israel was America’s unsinkable battleship”
in the Middle East. And so possess the region’s oil reserves.
The modern left spends a huge amount of time trying to make everyone see racism, when what people should be seeing is an “American military industrial complex that’s central to the Palestinian genocidal slaughter in Gaza.” And, if you fight the wrong enemy, you will be unable to defeat the real enemy unless by complete luck you somehow strike a target at which you were not even aiming.
The “left’s” constant focus on racism has really served as a cover up for and misdirection away from the real problems of an America that refuses to give up its vast profits from overseas investments and where “We must rapidly begin [applause], we must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered. ” — Dr. Martin Luther King, “Beyond Vietnam” hxxps://ratical.org/ratville/JFK/MLKapr67.html
Notice that the Good Doctor put this in reverse order from the modern left. Dr. King says we must shift away from a machine-oriented society to defeat racism, while the modern left has said that we must defeat racism while still supporting a machine-oriented society that is consistently on the wrong side of world revolution.
Just seeing Trump’s picture makes me ill! So imagine what all his BS does…
From the Russian perspective, European “peacekeepers” along a “line of contact” amount precisely to a Minsk 3.0 because, crucially, it leaves unanswered the question of a new security architecture for Europe that is not predicated on hostility to Russia as well as providing breathing room for Europe to recoup, rearm, and restart the war at some future date.
Leaving a line of contact in place would tie down Russian troops defending it that would be more sensibly deployed elsewhere; helping to defend it friends, for example, not least China and Iran. At the very least, a “line of contact” would tie up money, material, and people defending Russia’s western border that would be more productively employed developing Russia’s vast interior.
President Putin’s diplomatic overtures to the U.S. and NATO in Dec., 2021 to settle once and for all its relationship with the rest of Europe would remain unanswered if a line of contact is left in place. There are numerous root causes of the U.S.-NATO proxy war on Russia in Ukraine — chief among them longstanding western Russophobia, NATO expansionism, and U.S. militarism — and for a “lasting peace” to be achieved these need to be addressed.
No variant of the “Korean model” is an acceptable solution for the Russians, and their perspective on this issue must be recognized. Otherwise, the war will continue until conditions on the ground satisfy Moscow that this conflict will not flare up again.
While white racism plays its part, and Israeli and American
Zionism color Trump’s fawning over Netanyahu (all his
cabinet including Tulsi Gabbard are Zionists), it’s American
military-industrial complex imperialism that’s central
to the Palestinian genocidal slaughter in Gaza.
President Reagan’s Secretary of Defense Alexander Haig
(1980’s), let slip that “Israel was America’s unsinkable battleship”
in the Middle East. And so securing the region’s oil reserves for the West.
White racism?
What the heck does that have to do with a war between two Semitic peoples? Jews and Palestinians come from the same genetic stock. The fact that some Jewish families spent a few hundred years in a diaspora doesn’t change their genetic makeup.
The Ukrainians are white, and the Palestinians are brown. Could that be part of the reason?
More likely it’s about Russia and Israel not Ukraine and Gaza?
C’mon now. It’s no mystery. The pro-Israel power bloc in the United States generally runs the show. When push comes to shove and different elite interests are squabbling over where to put the empire’s resources, more often than not, the Zionists are going to win out.
It’s also crucial to note that the Trump regime is trying to peel away Moscow from Beijing. This plan isn’t going to work.
Finally, this article starts off with a bang saying that Russia “invaded” Ukraine. Not really. The Kremlin interceded in the Donbas when tens of thousands of Uke soldiers were about to invade and slaughter thousands of ethnic Russians. It’s manipulative to call it a “Russian invasion”. It’d be more accurate to call it a Special Military Operation to protect ethnic Russians. Mission accomplished.
Was the invasion of Normandy to defeat the Nazis, not an invasion?
“C’mon now. It’s no mystery.” It’s no mystery that that was a rhetorical question.
Trump does want peace in Gaza. You just don’t like his terms. Neither do I. Nor do the Gazans. Or most of Israel’s neighbors. But he wants to end the fighting, ship all the Palestinians out to neighboring countries, and build a Trump Tower in Gaza City and maybe a casino in Rafah.
The idea is so ridiculous it makes me wonder if Trump is just using it as a scare tactic to get everyone to the negotiating table and in a frame of mind to actually negotiate rather than seeing Trump throw America’s weight behind his idiotic property development plan in an empty Gaza strip if they fail to reach an agreement.
Yes but: He wants to end the fighting? Nonsense, he wants to expedite the process by forcibly removing over a million people and this will result in MORE violence later. Forcibly removing people at gunpoint is a form of VIOLENCE. It is almost certain that a significant number of Palestinians will resist and more bloodbaths will occur.
Another angle on this is that US public resources are used to benefit private interests: it is a form of kleptocracy. We pay taxes, put up with corruption and the oligarchy gets it all. The DT2 regime is oligarchy in your face. There is no democracy or rule of law.
the short answer perhaps? Trump wants to freeze the conflict in Ukraine to do a reverse Kissinger and gain an ally in Russia it can use against China. Trump is obsessed with oil and resources – he wishes to annex Canada, Greenland and South America. Imperialism is completely rampant. All I can say is I hope that the empire implodes instead of exploding.
The reason for the conciliatory talk to the Russians is that Russia is winning the war. How conciliatory would the U.S. be if the situation were reversed? Because the Israelis are perceived as winning in the Middle East, at least with the help of the U.S. ,the Israelis know that the U.S. is committed to their aid in any military dustup. Through AIPAC, B’nai B’rith, and other Jewish organizations and the domination of the 4th estate, Israel and the Jews have wielded enormous power in this country. In valuing the murder of reportedly 6 million Jews in WWII above the 26 million Russians and untold millions of Chinese in WWII, unfortunately the world has given Israel a pass, to say nothing of the myth of being chosen by G0d.
Jusst a quickie comment. I may be naive, which, I suppose is quite possible, but I am really angry that no one on either side of the fence has rendered a forthright, workable, imaginative solution to the endless Israel-Hamas-Hezbollah-Iran hostilities. To me, ending the needless killing once and for all should be as important to Palestinians, Arabs and Israeilis as it should be to those of us who want to prevent WWIII. And, sorry, but the feelings and prejudices of the principal combatants there aresimply NOT worth risking the world’s survival. The problem is clearly MUCH bigger than the ME. Failure to finally fixing the problem and ending the threat which the combatants pose to the world by whatever level of force–not simply persuasion–which may be needed may now be our only sensible recourse. None of the combatants believe they are in any way wrong which, of course, hobble their ability to make lasting peace. The criticisms of the various combatants, the worn-out and repetitive diplomatese, the double-talk, over-sensitivity to cultural and religious restraints, etc. etc. etc. have proven useless and a truly bloody waste of time, $$$ and energy. When naughties act out to the detriment of humanity itself, a solution should simply be IMPOSED on all combatants. Sparing the rod makes no sense anymore. A internationally-directed “fix”, even if it means a two-state arrangement involving heavily armed and serious international peacekeepers to keep the recalcitrant adolescents in line, is WAY overdue. Too simplistic? Maybe, but any better ideas out there? And by the way, isn’t there a difference between “ethnic cleansing” (removing a people or race) and “genocide” (exterminting a people or race?) I think there is. Overuse of such attacks merely adds fuel and further deters efforts to solve the problem. And one more thing: each party to the on-going hostilities bear responsibility for the endless killing, and the int’l community bears direct responsibility for failing to stop a madness which could consume the entire world. Again, sorry, but they just aren’t worth the world’s destruction.
MB has lost her fucking mind. In two weeks Trump got a ceasefire in Gaza, 2400 aid trucks in Gaza, hundreds of thousands of Gazans walking “home” without Israel dropping Joe Biden’s bombs on them, 600+ Palestinians released from Israeli torture, more than a dozen Israelis and their Thai slaves released from Hamas. Wake the fuck up.
And has released 2,000 lbs bombs to Israel; threatened to restart the war if “all” the hostages weren’t released; refused to guarantee that he would not allow Israel to annex the West Bank; has excused Israel’s genocide and most of all, proposed the war crime of f’ing ethnically cleansing 2 million people from their land, which would require a resumption of a very long war to try to defeat Hamas.
That’s easy to answer. He wants Gaza so he can create his Mar-a-Gaze wet dream. But first he has to get rid of the Palestinians. So the war in Gaza must continue.
Now, where could you put a ‘fabulous’, ‘never before in history’, ‘one of a kind’, ‘stupendous’ resort in Ukraine? Sorry, Ukraine doesn’t have any lovely beaches on the Mediterranean. So the choice is for Gaza. But you need money to build a Mar-a-Gaza. So, making peace in Ukraine will free up a lot of money for a down payment on Mar-a-Gaza.
The US and Russia also need to start discussing the crucial question of nuclear weapons. In his first term, Trump listened to the likes of John Bolton. The result was a total disaster.
However, Trump may take a different position this time and I certainly hope that he does.
Here is part of what he said in a recent interview with ABC News:
“There’s no reason for us to be building brand new nuclear weapons. We already have so many you could destroy the world 50 times over or 100 times over. And here we are building new nuclear weapons, and [Russia] is building new nuclear weapons, and China is building new nuclear weapons.”