Over the last few weeks, countless commentators have tried to decipher Donald Trump’s comments about a United States “takeover” of the Gaza Strip and the expulsion of its entire population. The recent pseudo-futuristic Gaza video he shared on social media packaged it in the uniquely grotesque way AI content can – while some of those around the US president tried to clarify his statements.
Here in Israel, commentators treated the remarks both as a meaningless rant and, at the same time, as part of a sophisticated ploy aimed at helping the Binyamin Netanyahu government. So, which is it? A rant or a ruse? I have no idea.
Instead of trying to interpret Trump, it may be more useful to understand the way his words illuminate Israeli strategy.
Trump casts a spotlight on where Israel was headed before October 7th, 2023, and to understand that is to know where it is headed today. It is a horrifying vista. So much has unfolded since – so much blood has been shed between the river and the sea. Yet Israel’s intention then and now are the same: Palestinian erasure.
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Back then, Israel was focused on the “Saudi deal”, aiming to advance a host of issues – normalisation of relations with Saudi Arabia for Israel; a US defence umbrella for Saudi Arabia; huge arms deals for US. The central issue the Saudi deal never aimed to advance – but was designed, in fact, to kick aside – was the Palestinian one.
Commentators competed with each other to describe the deal’s expected lip service to the Palestinian cause: it would be just good enough to satisfy Riyadh, yet meaningless enough that everyone in Israel would understand it had no real intention behind it – because, really, no such intention exists.
The 2020 Abraham Accords were built on the fantasy that it was possible to look far away towards Abu Dhabi and Manama, narrow one’s pupils and not see Ramallah (immediately neighbouring Jerusalem); Qalqilya (five minutes from Kfar Saba) or Gaza (sealed behind the “smart wall” that we built). It turned out that no matter how impressive the signing ceremony in Washington or how tightly one squinted, the Palestinians are still here. Yet, the fantasy remained.
The solution was more of the same, only on a grander scale: Riyadh. The Saudi deal was supposed to erase the Palestinians as a significant factor in regional politics. Trump’s population transfer is supposed to erase them, literally, physically. Would this be symbolic erasure or physical one? One way or the other, Israel is all-in for Palestinian erasure.
Israel fantasises about itself as a “villa in the jungle” surrounded by Jabotinsky’s Iron Wall. Every once in a while it discovers that it is not alone in the villa, or that the wall’s supposed iron melts like butter. In response, we buy more bombs and install even more checkpoints inside the “villa” to better “manage” the Palestinians – all the while fantasising about their disappearance. This fantasy is not new, nor is it limited to the Israeli right. Levi Eshkol, a moderate PM from the left-leaning Labor Party, desired it after the 1967 occupation of the Gaza Strip.
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Nor is this fantasy unique to Israelis. Palestinians also fantasise about the erasure of Israel and its people. They also dream that we simply won’t be here, that Israel will disappear. Both sides share the fantasy, each in their own horrifying way.
Even after 100 years of Zionism, one Nakba and now Nakba 2.0 in Gaza, the reality between the river and the sea is one of demographic parity between Jews and Palestinians. Given these facts, there should have been significant interest in the option that does not involve the other’s erasure: the option of building a shared life. After all, we do not live in Riyadh and our neighbours are not Saudis. The Palestinians are not going anywhere. Neither are we.
The greatest failure of the Jewish national movement – as well as the Palestinian national movement – is the lack of a political will to lead towards a shared future. The price of this failure is paid in blood, destruction, shattered lives and intergenerational trauma. We have had enough.
If it is life we desire, the only hope is a future of shared life. A life that is not based on Jewish supremacy but on values of equality and respect, with full expression of the personal and collective identity of all the people living here. Of everyone. It is clear that after the last 16 terrible months – rivers of blood, endless destruction, acts of horror and unimaginable suffering – it is almost impossible to imagine such a future, let alone accept that this is the only real political horizon. Not only a moral analysis but also, simply, a sober reading of reality, leads to the conclusion that this is the one political idea that is both just and can guarantee us all a life of stability, security and prosperity. This is the future we must strive towards.
Hagai El-Ed is a writer based in Jerusalem. He tweets at @HagaiElAd. A version of this appeared in Ha’aretz
