by liberal japonicus
This was at the top of my google news: A euphoric Donald Trump wins a breakthrough in the Middle East though the article is behind a paywall. The Guardian has this: A Gaza ceasefire deal could be Trump’s biggest diplomatic achievement – but the devil is in the detail.
What to say? What to think? Have at it in the comments.
From what little I’ve seen, it appears that this is an achievement of the President of Egypt. Certainly far more his than Trump’s.
If Trump deserves any credit at all, it is for being so utterly inconsistent, even on a day to day basis, that Bibi got nervous.
What’s amazing to me is how few commentators, explaining why Trump has so recently started putting real pressure on Netanyahu, are making the connection with a) Trump’s fury with Israel attacking Qatar, his favourite gold-drenched plane donors, and b) what must be his growing understanding that the old automatic calculation that American presidents need to keep the US Jewish community sweet is changing, and has changed, as a result of Israel’s extraordinarily disproportionate reaction to the admittedly horrific events of 10/7/23.
The moment the hostages go free the yahoo from Netanja will de facto renege on the deal. And of course the operations in the West Bank will proceed and likely accelerate aiming for a violent reaction giving the pretense to go full Gaza on the areas where Palestinians live. Or maybe not full Gaza since the settlers would likely prefer to get all of it intact. Otherwise the current cabinet would break up because the two Nazis will resign and leave the yahoo without a majority which in turn is likely to finally make the corruption trial against him proceed and get him into jail. He would not like that.
As an observation, for 80 years the pattern has been that from time to time Israel expands its borders somewhat, and from time to time it expels some of the non-Jewish population (for various values of expel). It seems to me unlikely that this is going to suddenly change.
I’d say if it makes him happy and gets him to STFU about the whole thing, let him have the win. He may even deserve some credit, fair’s fair.
My fear is that this is just gonna send his whole “I deserve a Nobel Peace Prize” thing into overdrive. Obama got one, so he has to have one. Sometimes I think his entire life for the last 15 years has been consumed by trying to out-do Obama.
Anything that black guy can do, I can do better! Just watch!!
And who knows, Kissinger got one, so anything’s possible.
I hope this actually turns into some kind of path forward for Israel, and for the Palestinians. I don’t trust Netanyahu or the jerks he surrounds himself with further than I can throw him, or them. And it would be good for somebody other than Hamas to be running things.
Actually, it would be good for Hamas to just go the hell away.
If there’s a part of the world with a more unsettled history than the eastern Med, I’m not aware of it. Fingers crossed for something like peace for the folks there.
“Anything that black guy can do, I can do better! Just watch!!”
Anything that black guy WHO LAUGHED AT ME can do, I can do better! Just watch!!
Fixed that for you, including what was really the most infuriating for him.
I’ve never been a fan of Friedman (aka “The Mustache of Understanding”) but he has some good points in this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdPXAi8hMa4
To summarize (so youse don’t have to sit thru it), previously, Netanyahu had a number of pressure points on the US government, such as evangelical Christians and politicians who wanted to make a splash by opposing whatever the White House wanted, but those are much less effective with Trump in office, so the rise of Trump has actually reduced Netayahu’s ability to mold events. Second, both Israel and Palestine were dealing with non-state actors like Hamas and Hezbollah, but now, the process is with places like UAE and the Saudis mediating, there is also a loss of leverage there.
however, I think that his metaphor of Trump’s challenge in the middle east
makes me realize that he’s the moustache, and nothing will change that.
No prize for Donald. The world is so unfair, to him most of all.
Better luck next year.
The Nobel committee is generally swayed by the peaceful delivery of increased individual rights. In addition to his personal antipathy to that idea, Trump is laboring under the handicap of a Supreme Court that is determined to reduce individual rights, not expand them.
Also, if you (or you minions acting on your wishes) order an attack on a vessel in international waters, in contravention of both international law and the laws of your own country, that is going to be pretty much an automatic dis-qualification. If you routinely rant and bluster had loudly threaten in all directions, that isn’t going to have a positive impact on the Peace Prize committee.
In short, it’s fairly certain that, since he can’t fire the committe and replace them with sycophants, he’s SOL. Probably permanently.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — After being snubbed for the Nobel Peace Prize, sources close to President Donald Trump revealed that he had not yet given up hope that he could win a Nobel Prize in Literature for his latest Truth Social post.
“I’m the only president that uses Truth Social, did you know that? The only one,” Trump said. “And I’ve got some real bangers, let me tell you. Take this most recent one about China. I really scorched those Chinamen. It’s a long post. Did you see it? It was almost like writing a book. It was really something.”
It’s Not Over Yet: Trump Still Hoping For Nobel In Literature For Latest Truth Social Post
Charles, that’s an impressive imitation of the Onion. Well done! (It’s really hard to parody him)