Will Netanyahu Get Away With This? The Verdict Is In!

Right, so the situation is this. Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump are besties, and Donald Trump wants a ceasefire in place in Gaza before he returns to the White House, so it’s a mess he doesn’t have to deal with, whereas of course Benjamin Netanyahu cannot afford for that to happen at all. He is therefore hoping that some sleight of hand will fool the two brain cells fighting over third place in the big orange idiots head and trick him into thinking he’s delivering that when he isn’t. How is he pulling that one off then Damo? Well, watch on and I’ll tell you, but should this go wrong for Bibi, Trump isn’t known for being taken for a fool lightly, masses of AIPAC cash or not and just to make matters that little bit trickier for Netanyahu on this score, Hamas have played some sleight of hand of their own too.
Right, so let’s start with Donald Trump here. He does not want to deal with the mess that is Gaza, he has told negotiators still to this day, trying to get a ceasefire deal and a deal that will see the hostages held by Hamas freed before his inauguration on the 20th January, so to achieve this, he has gone to the nation that arguably has facilitated more ceasefires and ending of hostilities over the years between Israel and Hamas than anyone, else, Qatar, even though right now they might be beling looked at as a little biased, given it has also been alleged they held HTS take over Syria, overtly pro Israel as those Al Qaeda leftovers very much seem to be.
Can a deal be done, well Qatari PM Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al Thani has been optimistic that this is achievable, that Hamas have been agreeable, more so than they have been previously, we’ll come onto how much so presently, but al Thani admits maximum pressure must be exerted on all parties to achieve this which I think translates in political speak as, if somebody with leverage doesn’t lean on Netanyahu it ain’t gonna happen, but there’s been little sign of anyone doing that is there? Not after Gaza has been razed north to south, Lebanon invaded, Syria invaded, more atrocities committed in the West Bank and tit for tat strikes with Iraq and Yemen as well. None of this is a sign of Netanyahu willingly and actively participating in a peace process. We’ll come back to him in a moment as well.
Where Qatar has been at the centre of all of the negotiations since peace was first attempted following Israel’s invasion after the night of October 7th last year, it has been decidedly up and down in recent months. For example just last month Qatar suspended all talks because there was they said a lack of seriousness on both sides to find a way forward, to compromise to bring about peace as is necessary to make progress and it wasn’t just a barb aimed at Israel ,but at Hamas too, the accusation against them was that the political office Hamas hold in Doha was pointless since it served no purpose if not for making strides and some kind of progression towards a resolution. It was a scolding and one Qatar hoped would have some effect, particularly it has to be said on Israel more than Hamas, because Qatari negotiators wanted to get back to the point they were at in July, where Hamas had accepted Biden’s ceasefire, but Israel hadn’t. Following this not happening though, Trump got elected the next President and following that almost immediately, he urged Qatar to get involved again, begin talks once more to try and get this dealt with before it became his problem.
First and foremost one of the most significant sticking points for Trumps desire to get this dealt with before he returns to office is Joe Biden’s interventions, because so overtly and persistently pro Israel has he been, that his role is one of just making matters worse now. He’s Israel’s man all the way, has continued to fight for more financial aid and military packages for Israel as these negotiations have been attempted and even as Hamas grow ever more lenient in what they’d be willing to accept as part of a deal, it doesn’t seem to shift the US position to just keep on supplying more arms. The sooner he is gone from the Middle East’s perspective the better, but of course that leaves a mess that Trump doesn’t want still in his lap. Newsflash Donnie, you can wish this problem away, but it’s still going to be yours to deal with.
Now one reason for that is the sheer amount of AIPAC cash washing around the Republican Party, much as it is in the Democratic Party, kind of proving the old adage of being the best democracy money can buy, because the Israel Lobby very much appear to have done just that.
The reopening of negotiations with Hamas and Israel by Qatar, it was hoped would as I said a moment ago return to the position parties were at in July, or it would give Netanyahu a chance to develop a new framework for peace if he was inclined to offer one and he was offered this opportunity in good faith, but when you give him an inch, he takes a mile.
Netanyahu as we know, does not want peace. He cannot afford to settle matters in Gaza, his hard right coalition partners won’t have a bar of it, they are utterly beholden to the Israeli settler movement and they’ve already been measuring the curtains for Gaza, so war functionally cannot end if Netanyahu wants to stay in power. He also hoped the war would keep him out of the courtroom too, but that isn’t happening either as he begins testimony today in his corruption trial, but that’s a video for another time.
Where Netanyahu and Israel are concerned therefore, it’s all about making matters look good for Trump, taking him for a fool, still playing the best mates card whilst functionally not shifting on anything at all and they are very much in my view relying on Trump’s stupidity and refusal to read or be across his brief properly to know any different.
Last week more peace talks were held, this time in the other state that have been heavily involved in ceasefire talks and negotiations, Egypt.
Despite weeks of being on a break from negotiations, despite re-entering negotiations allegedly with a view to making progress, Israel brought absolutely nothing new to the table, they still want to be left in control in Gaza, they still want to leave a presence there, they still want to leave the Strip divided and they still want to keep the north of Gaza empty and not allow people to return to their homes. Clearly this is not the way to progress, but this also isn’t what is fed back to Trump, because Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz told Israeli media earlier in the week that a deal was close as a breakthrough had been made. Well Trump will listen to that. He won’t listen to Hamas when they say, this is nonsense, no such progress has been made at all, and Hamas along with mediators are very much of the opinion that this is all a carefully orchestrated charade to fool Trump into thinking things are going well, only to find when he reaches power that isn’t the case and of course Israel will just blame Hamas for that. They then think, because Trump really can’t be bothered with this situation, that Israel will trade that ceasefire for something else really big, like full annexation of the West Bank, which is also being pushed for. Trump is lazy and disinterested in the Middle East, so for an easy option he’s mad enough to accept, therefore Israel are treating Trump like a chump right now and he’ll be too blind to see it.
But Hamas have thrown a curveball, a very unexpected one to be quite honest. I said earlier they’ve become more lenient in regards to a deal. I also said earlier I couldn’t see Israel letting up in Gaza, though perhaps getting the whole of the much larger West Bank would be a trade they’d make, only to return to Gaza later as they inevitably would, if they ever actually left, Israel’s word being largely worthless. But in the name of progress, Hamas have agreed to a massive concession and that is that they are now prepared to allow Israel to remain in the Strip.
Israel currently occupy the north of Gaza, the Netzarim corridor which they built across the centre of Gaza and the Philadelphi Corridor, which incudes the Rafah border crossing, forming the border between Gaza and Egypt. Hamas have reportedly accepted Israel remaining everywhere except the Philadelphi Corridor, which is a violation of peace accords between Israel and Egypt anyway and of course the hostages would be released in exchange for this. Ball placed firmly back in Israel’s court and in theory that means Hamas are offering up to Trump what he wants here, certainly that ought to be what Qatar and Egypt are reporting back, because if Israel accept this, they lose leverage and of course without something major in return, Netanyahu cannot afford to end this war. He will be forced by Hamas’ actions to turn down a ceasefire where his IDF can remain in Gaza and get the hostages back, or his government will collapse. We’ve seen no sign of Netanyahu ever placing anything as more important than he himself remaining in power, so surely he’s going to refuse this? Surely even someone as dumb as Donald Trump can’t fail to see who is at fault, but will that AIPAC cash speak loudly enough to Trump when the inevitable surely happens cortesy of Benjamin Netanyahu and this all falls through again? Probably is the answer. Nonetheless, Israel would get shown up for being the dishonest peace brokers they are yet again for the umpteenth time if all this comes to pass in the eyes of the world, where public opinion of the genocidal apartheid state will fall again as it will for anyone in a position of power still prepared to defend them. I’d love to see this pan out, but I just can’t see it, it simply isn’t what Netanyahu wants and he’s too used to getting everything he wants.
Of course that doesn’t necessarily happen all the time does it? He is, after 4 years of running away from it, back in court as the resumption of his corruption trial began again on Tuesday, so do get all the details of that so far as we know it at this point in this video recommendation here as your suggested next watch and please do hit like, share and subscribe whilst you’re here if you haven’t done so already to help support the channel its very much appreciated and I’ll hopefully catch you on the next vid. Cheers folks.