You know, the longer I live on this planet, the less I think I know about reality. I can remember as a small child in grammar school hearing about the various Arab-Israeli conflicts. And it was always assumed that only the wisest and most sober of men would ever be able to untie the Gordian knot that was that conflict.
But Donald Trump will do it? Look, I love Trump. He’s some sort of bizarre cross between P T Barnum and Pericles by way of Madison Avenue. He’s the first American politician since Andrew Jackson to side with the regular people. He towers over his enemies like a colossus. But how in the name of everything reasonable can he end an intractable war between peoples who hate each other so viscerally that death is preferable to compromise? And yet, if the news is to be believed, Israel and Hamas have agreed to the first step of the Trump Peace Plan; return of all the hostages alive and dead and Israeli stepping back to some first line of withdrawal.
But how many different ways can this process fail? The list is infinite. Even with complete good faith on both sides I can imagine endless scenarios that could upend this effort. And when in the history of the mid-east has there ever been good faith on both sides? Never.
Now in Trump’s favor, this negotiation includes many Arab and Moslem countries acting as surrogates to prod Hamas toward ending the war. There is a desire on the part of almost all of the middle eastern countries to end the ceaseless cycle of attacks and counterattacks that makes this whole region of the world hell on Earth. Could this finally be the day when sanity and the will of the vast majority of people there manage to smother the fire of violence under their collective bodies and end this disgusting abomination of death and hatred?
I’ll have to confess, I just can’t come around to believing it. It would require these people who have done horrific things to each other for more than half a century to somehow find a miraculous solution to their problem. It’s as if both sides are forced to navigate through a minefield that both sides have mined but neither side still has reliable maps of. At any moment disaster can strike and any disadvantage on either side can inspire the other side to press for a kill shot.
The whole thing sickens and disgusts me to the point where I just want to forget it exists and move forward without ever thinking of it again. But the last time I did that, planes started flying through buildings in New York.
So here we go again. Good luck Donald Trump. I guess if anyone can pull off the deal of the millennium it would be him. But I almost think he’ll have more success with Ukraine than Gaza. Sure, they’re almost as crazy there but as bad as it is I don’t think the level of hatred between the Russians and Ukrainians can ever come close to the savagery of what happened two years ago. Maybe a little prayer would help.
The D is like a high-level Chess Master. He thinks twenty moves ahead, and plans for every eventuality. I’m sure there is a VERY big stick waiting to be applied to several Hamas backsides. Like Antifa, illegals, and BLM, they are about to find that there is a new Sheriff in town, and he will not tolerate their bullshit.
I’m hoping that the Arab countries that Trump has partnered with can detach Hamas from Gaza and run the place without them. I know it’s asking a lot to get Egyptians, Jordanians and Saudis to get their act together and police fellow Arabs but it sure would make for a lot less misery.
If Hamas in whatever context was left in place, all this “peace” deal does is kick the can down the road.
It’s extremely hard for me to believe that we are at the end of what I’ve always believed was an insoluble situation. But miracles happen. Just very, very rarely.