Making Palestine Go Away

by | May 24, 2025

It has been another exciting week in a world at war where the word “diplomacy” has no meaning and would probably be defined by America’s head of Homeland Security Kristi Noem as a doctrine in which you shoot someone first before he or she can shoot you. In my article last week I discussed the reports that there has been a serious rift between President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, exemplified by Trump’s unwillingness to talk to the Israeli leader followed by his failure to visit Israel on his recent Middle East trip. Sources attributed the break to Trump’s perception that he was being “manipulated” by the Israeli, which was completely plausible though something that should have been recognized and warned against by Trump’s foreign policy advisers when he first ascended to the presidency in 2017. Israel always manipulates opinion on the United States through its lobby’s control of the media and corruption of the politicians.

I opined that the reports of the disenchantment with “America’s best friend” were credible possibly linked to spying involving National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, though I also observed that many of my contacts were skeptical, warning that the whole thing might be a set-up possibly engineered by Trump’s Zionist roving negotiator Steve Witkoff and specifically designed to benefit Israel. That means that the US was feigning a “breakup” with Netanyahu to enable it to reach an agreement with all the leading Arab countries of the Middle East in order to confirm Israel’s security while Netanyahu is completely wiping the Palestinians off the face of the earth. Trump has in fact said that his policies and the Mideast trip were “very good for Israel.”

In a follow up to my article I advised during an interview with Judge Andrew Napolitano that it pays to be skeptical as Trump has done absolutely nothing to change Israel’s behavior, quite the contrary, even though he had an opportunity to support Palestinian statehood in the context of UN membership and also to demand an end to the genocide taking place in Gaza. The truth behind whether there was in fact a serious rupture in the personal relationship of the two leaders should be measured in light of the presence or absence of consequences when Israel pursues policies damaging to US interests.

Indeed, Netanyahu has personally confirmed that all is well with the United States. He said at a press conference last Wednesday that President Trump had assured him that the US and his administration were completely committed to Israel despite the series of media reports that have said there’s a problem between the two leaders. “Let me give you some details that perhaps haven’t been made public. A few days ago — I think around 10 days ago, maybe a little more — I spoke on the phone with President Trump. And he said to me, literally: ‘Bibi, I want you to know — I have absolute commitment to you. I have absolute commitment to the State of Israel.’”

Netanyahu also spoke with Vice President JD Vance, who, along with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, had also avoided a visit to Israel. “[Vance] said to me… ‘Listen, don’t pay attention to all these fake news spins about this rupture between us… He said: It’s all spin. This isn’t the truth, you know it’s not true, and I’m telling you, from our side, it’s not true.” Netanyahu also said that Israel wants to carry out “Trump’s plan” for Gaza to include the permanent removal of the Palestinian population to create a US managed seafront resort over the ruins of the strip. Per Netanyahu, the Israelis have now included the creation of “Trump Gaza” as one of the redline conditions to permit an end of the war against Hamas.

The Israeli and Middle Eastern media have been reporting extensively and critically on the genocide and the various players involved in dealing with the Netanyahu agenda. A recent piece discussed the 29 mostly European Union (EU) countries led by the UK, France and Canada that have now called on Israel to moderate its behavior or face both sanctions and a suspension of the EU Israel trade arrangements, which greatly benefit the Jewish state. The EU declared that Israel’s announcement of letting some aid in was “wholly inadequate. If Israel does not cease the renewed military offensive and lift its restrictions on humanitarian aid, we will take further concrete actions in response” the leaders’ statement said. Netanyahu responded to the threat by declaring absurdly that “You’re on the wrong side of humanity and you’re on the wrong side of history.” But as the saying goes, unfortunately, talk is cheap, either from Netanyahu or from Israel’s newly minted critics. Diplomatic announcements and threatened sanctions mean always dancing around the awful truth. Israel is committing some of the worst war crimes humanity has ever witnessed and the Europeans and the Americans give every impression that they will certainly back off, deferring to Israel and persisting in doing absolutely nothing that will bring the suffering to an end.

The European gesture in particular is an attempt to make up somewhat for its support for 19 months of genocide. The completely contemptible Prime Minister of the UK Keir Starmer, confronted by a British public that has swung strongly anti-Israeli, has made a big show about taking action against Israel and the Israelis cooperated with him by playing their part, expressing outrage over the temerity of anyone telling them how to deal with their neighbors. Indeed, there was some corroboration from informed Israeli sources that the threats and responses from the two sides were little more than a bit of Kabuki. A senior Israeli official even explained to the media why European leaders have bothered to shift positions after 19 months of silence about the murderous Gaza genocide, to instead feign instant outrage. It was all coordinated with Israel in advance. He said that “The past 24 hours were all part of a planned ambush we knew about. This was a coordinated sequence of moves ahead of the EU meeting in Brussels – and thanks to joint efforts by our ambassadors and the foreign minister, we managed to moderate the outcome.”

The current outrage is as orchestrated as was the earlier silence. Israel’s extremist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich explained why Israel would be maintaining a balancing act between outright killing all the Palestinian and keeping western support by allowing absolutely minimum food to enter Gaza: “We need our friends in the world to continue to provide us with an international umbrella of protection against the Security Council and the Hague Tribunal, and for us to continue to fight, God willing, until victory.” He also has said that his plan for the West Bank and Gaza includes giving the Palestinians the choice between subjugation, emigration, and death. Smotrich has repeatedly advocated for lethal force to be used against Palestinian children lest they grow up to be terrorists. On Wednesday the Israeli army doubled down on that message and to show how little it cares to coddle meddling foreigners when it fired on 31 European diplomats representing 29 countries who were visiting the Palestinian settlement Jenin on the West Bank in what was presumed to be in 100% Palestinian administered territory.

The fact is that no one in the European and American governments really cares about the Palestinians or their extermination. The only concern by the rulers is how their posturing looks to the rest of the world and to the voters in their own countries. Israel lies so enthusiastically in making its case and providing false evidence to back up its behavior that there is a tendency to be suspicious of anything it does. Last week’s assassination of two Israeli embassy staff members in Washington DC by a man who just happened to yell “Free Palestine!” was good news for the Jewish state in that it creates sympathy for a country that has featured as bad news for well over a year. It is already being whispered in intelligence circles that it was a “false flag” attack contrived by Mossad to create a favorable news cycle as Israel secretly cranks up for an imminent attack on Iran. Iran phobia features regularly in the Israeli media to include a recent Israeli claim that Iran is hiding its nuclear enrichment facilities, which is true but designed the keep the Israelis from blowing them up. The “favorable news cycle” has included Jewish Congressman Randy Fine of Florida calling for the use of nuclear weapons to destroy Gaza and kill its remaining inhabitants just like “Japan at the end of World War 2.”

And to make sure Iran gets to feel the sharp point of the sword, presidential emissary Witkoff has now declared that the nuclear monitoring arrangement being negotiated with Iran must include zero enrichment of uranium, something that was not on the table when the talks started, so they will go nowhere guaranteed. Per Witkoff “We cannot allow even one percent of an enrichment capability. Enrichment enables weaponization.” Where did that demand come from? From a secretly nuclear armed Israel by way of treasonous Israel Firster Senators Lindsey Graham and Tom Cotton, no doubt. And if one follows that line of thinking, one can assume that Donald Trump is also on board, standing in line to pull out Netanyahu’s chair and bowing to him and then raising his mighty clenched fist before sending in the Yanks to finish the destruction of Persia. And if Iran responds effectively with force, Israel also has around 200 nukes that it will no doubt not hesitate to use as part of its “Samson Option” war plan. And Trump will undoubtedly say something like “Hey, what a big beautiful explosion! Nothing wrong with that! We used similar weapons to end the First World War!”

Reprinted with permission from Unz Review.

Author

  • Philip Giraldi

    Philip Giraldi is an American columnist, commentator and security consultant. He is the Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, a role he has held since 2010.

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