Give credit where it’s due: Donald Trump has managed to stop the slaughter in Gaza, at least temporarily, and because of his relationships with both Gulf princes and Netanyahu he’s probably the only one who could have pulled it off.
Josh Marshall made this point last week:
The key here is Trump’s extremely close relationships with the Gulf princes and his relationship with Israel and the Israeli right, especially Benjamin Netanyahu. …The first (the relationship with the princes) is based on a mutual love of authoritarianism and corruption. …Trump and Netanyahu are also deeply bound together by bonds of authoritarianism and other more personal binding relationships.
Netanyahu cannot say no to anything Trump demands. Full stop. That sounds like a big statement. But it is 100% true. Add to this that the Israeli public has wanted this to be over for a long time. There’s simply no force for Netanyahu to fall back on. He can’t say no to Trump when Trump says he has to have something. Why does Trump want to do it? Probably a mix of his Gulf prince buddies want it bad and he thinks he’ll get a Nobel Prize. In other words, reasons that are stupid and slimy.
“Credit” is a funny word. Do I give Trump credit for this? I’d say this. Because of those relationships, Trump is in a unique position to do this. Only he can force the hands of both groups, to the extent they need to be forced. He can do it. He is doing it. And I’m glad he’s doing it.
Needless to say, this is a “first stage” of this process. It could all fall apart. This is a region in which these things routinely fall apart. But I suspect that at least in terms of freeing the hostages, ending Israel’s military activity within Gaza and opening up the gates of humanitarian and reconstruction aid, it will succeed. The final or implemented version of the agreement isn’t great but we could do so much worse.
So we might not like who did it or how he did it, but the key for people in the line of fire, in both Gaza and Israel, is that he did it. That ain’t chopped liver.
Curtis Mayfield wrote this plea for his 1971 album “Roots.” Like most ’60s and ’70s songs calling for peace, it was addressed to U.S. involvement in Vietnam, but it’s aged better than most of its peers.
