Gaza Ceasefire Revealing New Trump?

Has Trump just pulled the first rabbit out of his hat—the hat we’ve never seen him wear before?

On the surface, the Big News on the geopolitical scene—and it’s been on the back burner for several days—is that a ceasefire in Gaza is imminent. Beneath the surface, the real story seems to be Trump’s role in getting to this point. Of course, this leads to the bigger question, which Jeffrey Sachs raises, whether this is the first step toward a real—not a hoax—peace process. The so-called Abraham Accords were just that—a hoax peace process, designed to sideline the Palestinians and pave the way for their ethnic cleansing from their homeland. That was to be Trump’s 1.0 signature triumph, brought about by Jared Kushner, of ill repute. What we may be seeing this time around is a Trump who may have learned from experience. This time around Trump is taking no guff from Netanyahu.

There are major implications here, if all this is true. Trump’s handling of Israel and his public humiliation of the “deep, dark son of a bitch” Netanyahu sends multiple messages. To the world at large—it projects strength, the strength of a president with the will to seize the reins of power in the United States and to prevent the global catastrophe that the Anglo-Zionists have been inviting. To the Muslim world, it’s a message that this American president will listen. To the Jewish world, it’s a message that America will no longer be complicit in Zionist genocide. It may also spell the end of Netanyahu’s political career and, imminently, his government. To normal Americans it may be a message that, like it or not, we need to be patient in assessing who speaks for Trump, but that he hasn’t forgotten how he got back to the Oval Office—who put him there and why.

If true, this is a remarkable story, and all the more so because Trump has, before inauguration, seized those reins of power in significant ways—as will be made clear in the highlighted Judge Nap discussion with Chas Freeman. We therefore have hope that Trump will exhibit the same strong hand in dealing with our feckless “representatives.” The end of this story is far from complete, not yet in view, but it sheds light on what to be looking at. And, yes, I was a doubter.

Let’s start with some background tweets.

Douglas Macgregor @DougAMacgregor

Israel is amassing enemies at a rate that boggles the mind.

Virtually everyone is the Arab world, everyone in the Islamic world and increasingly people in Europe and Asia are all turning against Israel and unfortunately us, because of our unconditional support.

It was always about the genocide, about the ethnic cleansing. The deals were always there:

ADAM @AdameMedia

We told you it was lsraeI that was blocking a deal. They told you that was an “antisemitic” conspiracy. Never trust a zionist.

BREAKING:  Biden has announced ´one-time payment of $770' to victims of the California wildfires

Mike Johnson thinks there should be "conditions" on aid to California but not on aid to Israel.

Wait—how much has been sent to Ukraine, to Israel, a the behest of the Anglo-Zionists? How much will go to rebuild Gaza?

Channel 12 Hebrew published some details of the crystallized deal, quoting a political official:

Our final bit of background, which Trump was unquestionably aware of: US position in the world—check it out.

With that … excerpts. My take is that part of what enabled Trump in this—again, if this is true—is that among the real Jewish leaders—not the professional Israel Lobby attack dogs—Netanyahu was increasingly seen to be an existential threat to the entire Jewish brand. Netanyahu had to go, and Trump had the person in place to get this done. Those Jewish leaders had the influence to force the Zhou regime to include Trump’s envoy in the negotiations.

AMB. Chas Freeman: Netanyahu Instigating War with Iran.

Freeman: The usual defense of Israelis against any criticism is to charge anti-Semitism. That charge has largely lost its sting and I think Israel is more and more isolated. This is not--if you're a religious Zionist and you want to expand the borders of Israel to include part of Saudi Arabia or Iraq or take all of Syria or Lebanon, this is not good news.

Judge: Josh Paul was the director of the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs [US DoS] at the time of his resignation in 2023. He worked at that Bureau for three different presidents. He resigned in protest to the genocide in Gaza. Here's what he said just two days ago on 60 Minutes, almost as an entree to the arrival of the Trump administration:

Paul: "Most of the bombs come from America, most of the technology comes from America, and all of the fighter jets--all of Israel's fixed wing fleet--comes from America. There is a linkage between every single bomb that is dropped in Gaza and the US, because every single bomb that is dropped is dropped from an American made plane."

60: "These Israeli air strikes, you could say, are made in America!"

Paul: "They are."

Judge: What's missing is that America is as liable for war crimes--Joe Biden, Tony Blinken, Lloyd Austin, Jake Sullivan--as are prime minister Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Galant.

Who gave 60 Minutes permission to air this?

Freeman: There is an interview with the departing American ambassador to Israel, Jack Lew, who is an orthodox Jew, and he reveals that, in fact, the Biden Administration never put any real pressure on Israel, on Netanyahu, to curtail its genocide. He also admits that the Biden Administration deliberately, on at least two occasions, violated US law by making military transfers to Israel without Congressional approval. So we have a case where we have broken international law and we are liable for that, but we've also violated our own separation of powers and domestic legislation. This is a record to go out on, Mr Biden.

Judge: No, not at all, if you listen to his mumbling, stumbling talk yesterday, in which he's patting himself on the shoulder, claiming the United States is stronger and the West is stronger and Russia is weaker. It's like he's in another world! But he has broken other laws as well. Federal statutes prohibit military aid to countries that practice apartheid. Federal statutes prohibit military aid to countries that practice genocide. I mean, these violations by the chief law enforcement officer in the federal government are nothing short of profound, because they've caused the deaths of innocents--thousands, tens of thousands of innocents.

The existence of The Israel Lobby—an ethnic lobby for a foreign power operating within the US under no normal legal constraints—has fundamentally debased our constitutional order, our political system, our legal system. That’s what Judge Nap is pointing to.

Freeman: Indeed, and interestingly, that mumbling speech notwithstanding, there is a Gallup poll out. The American people think that the country's gone seriously backwards under the Biden Administration--both abroad and at home--and they do not buy the claim that we have strengthened our reputation and standing internationally. Quite the opposite.

*************

Judge: Reports this morning are that the Israelis and Hamas are very, very close to a ceasefire which would result in the return of about 33 hostages held by Hamas and about a thousand or 1200 Palestinian hostages held by Israel. It's rather complex and it's not even reduced to writing yet, about where the troops will be and to where in Gaza the Palestinians can return, but the takeaway from it at least from Haaretz is that this ceasefire was repeatedly rejected by prime minister Netanyahu until Steve Witkoff arrived on the scene. He is the billionaire real estate investor whom Donald Trump has designated as his envoy for the Middle East who basically, according to Haaretz, [Witkoff] said--on a Saturday after sundown when, or before sundown, when the Prime Minister didn't want to see anybody, but reluctantly agreed to see Mr Witkoff--'Take it or leave it, Bibi!'

Freeman: Well, if this happens, which does seem likely, it will be thanks to the intervention of Donald Trump. Here we have an outgoing Administration which has been conducting feckless negotiations with the Israelis, mostly. Hamas on several occasions has agreed to American proposed settlements--they did so six months ago and at that point Netanyahu upped the ante by demanding to continue to occupy the Philadelphia corridor next to Egypt--which was an offense against the Camp David Accords. Egypt has strongly objected. So we have here the case where the outgoing Administration allowed someone from the incoming Administration to take part in the talks to add credibility, and that man--evidently on Trump's instructions--bullied the famous bully Netanyahu into an agreement. Or so we are told. Netanyahu has a problem now with his religious fanatic cabinet, which is against this agreement and always has been.

To repeat my view, I’m doubtful that Trump could have pulled that off—Witkoff’s crucial insertion into the process—simply by himself. That’s not to diminish Trump’s role, his resolve, his … cunning. In the past Netanyahu could have gone over any president’s head, due to the Israel Lobby’s hold over Congress. Something changed in that equation that forced Netanyahu to meet with Witkoff on Witkoff’s demand. Perhaps now we now why Trump said peace in the Middle East would be easy. Of course, that’s not exactly true but, Trumpian rhetoric, aside this looks like movement.

But I want to take a moment to say that I think Donald Trump handled this really rather adroitly. He did two things. First, he issued an absolutely outrageous statement about turning Gaza into hell--as though it wasn't already. And, second, he played Jeffrey Sachs' video in which Sachs--speaking for many Americans who resent Israel's ability to push us around--declared that Israel was just leading us by the nose and it should be unacceptable. Why did Trump publish that? Because he wanted to show Netanyahu that he was not going to be pushed around.

And what Trump has just done is, as I said, the bully has bullied the bully, and he's reestablished some sort of leverage with Netanyahu. What Trump will use the leverage for, we don't know. What the quid pro quo was, we do not know. We can hope that it was not a promise to extend the war to Iran, which might have been the case. That is something Mr Netanyahu has very badly wanted. But in any event it was a tense meeting, apparently, and Mr Witkoff--who is used to the rough and tumble of New York real estate operations--was appropriately tough.

I will say that I’d be quite skeptical that Trump would have entered into any quid pro quo that included war on Iran. Peace is crucial to MAGA. Blowing up the Middle East is inimical to MAGA. Freeman cites Israeli sources claiming that the two countries are gearing up for war, but I’m skeptical.

Now …

Freeman cites Peter Beinart for a brutal takedown of Jake Sullivan’s Apologia pro Zhou. I couldn’t find that, but I did find this interesting tweet re Beinart, which provides important background information on the whole Palestinian situation. The tweet summarizes what Beinart says in an hour long linked video. This is an apartheid state:

Zachary Foster @_ZachFoster

(Political) Zionism is "inherently oppressive," as @PeterBeinart explains:

"Zionism, tragically, is inherently oppressive because it is based on the notion that the state has a higher level of obligations to Jews than it does to Palestinians... even in Israel "proper" those Palestinians who are citizens... are not treated equally. I'll give you just one quick example:

93% of the land inside Israel proper (I'm not talking about the West Bank and Gaza) is state land, much of it was taken from Palestinians when they were expelled in 1948. The Jews only lived on ~6% of the land before Israel's war of independence so much of it was land Palestinians controlled...

Now it's called state land it's doled out for development in Israel by something called the Israel Land Authority. ...If you're a town or maybe even an industry & you want a chunk of land you're given a long-term lease by the Israel Land Authority so you can expand. The Israel Land Authority has 22 seats, 10 of those seats are given to the Jewish National Fund, whose explicit mission is the development of land for Jewish use. The other 12 (seats) are given to members of the cabinet... there's usually not one Palestinian on the Israel Land Authority (sometimes there's one) so that's why Palestinians are not given land for development in Israel...

...which helps to explain why Palestinian municipalities sit on 2% or 3% of the land inside Israel even though Palestinians are 20% of the population ... this helps explain why according to a study, 87% of the home demolitions inside Israel proper (I'm not talking about the West Bank) are of Palestinian homes because Palestinians are in very overcrowded, essentially ghettos, and all of the land around those Palestinian towns is controlled by Jews and Palestinians can't get access to any of that land... the state doesn't function for them.... it's a state that essentially functions for the benefit of Jews, not for the benefit even of its own Palestinian citizens let alone the Palestinians who don't have citizenship."

1:34 PM · Jan 8, 2025

Or is Israel a state run by a cult? Jewish identity has evolved over many centuries from membership in and loyalty to a people or a religion until it has become transformed—with the tragic establishment of a Neocolonialist state of Israel—into loyalty to “the Zionist entity” itself. Every Jew now finds him/herself under intense pressure to establish their Jewishness by demonstrating complete subservience to the Zionist project in all its manifestations. I mention this as part of the troubling reality behind the power of The Israel Lobby. The following linked article is by a psychologist who seems to have a specialty in freeing cult members from the hold of their cult—an experience that she believes she has also undergone since her upbringing in Israel until completion of her service in the IDF. Excerpt:

‘Exiting Zionism’ — a former Israeli’s awakening

Avigail Abarbanel left Israel because she saw no future other than "a life by the sword."

…

My differentiation process from Israel made me look at some of the beliefs Israeli society had instilled in me. Some of these beliefs are:

• Everyone has always hated us the Jews and this is unique to us. No other people is, or ever has been, as hated as we are and our suffering can never be compared to anyone else’s.

• We are always under a threat of annihilation and another holocaust is imminent.

• The hatred against us, ‘antisemitism’ is special and not like ‘ordinary’ racism.

• All non-Jews are potentially antisemitic, even if they appear nice and friendly. NonJews cannot be trusted because one day they will turn against us again. Those who do not, will turn their backs on us and will do nothing to help us.

• We are different from all other people. We are more ethical, just, moral, intelligent and by nature more democratic than any other group on Earth. That is the main reason we are hated.

• The holocaust was unique. It cannot, and must never be compared with any other genocide. Learning a universal lesson from the holocaust is to deny its uniqueness and it is what antisemites do.

• Israel is the only place in the world where Jews can be safe. But because everyone hates us, they do not want us to have our state so we always have to fight for its existence.

• The Jews who died in the holocaust were weak. They went ‘like sheep to the slaughter’. Israel’s role is to create a powerful ‘new Jew’ who will never again be a victim.

• We are a peace-loving people. All our wars were imposed on us (wars of no choice- mil’hammot ein-breira).

• Our Israeli Defence Force is the most moral in the world. It’s only for defence. It never attacks without provocation. It never hurt innocent people.

• Anyone who does not like Israel or who criticises it is an antisemite

It was not difficult to see why I felt such an affinity with cult-leavers. The characteristics of the Jewish Israeli belief system I grew up with are identical to the belief systems of many cults. For example: …

Obviously this is a highly toxic and dangerous state of mind, especially when you have the full military might of Uncle Shmuel backing it up.