Trump aims to secure a Greater Israel for his Zionist controllers

𝙒𝘼𝙎𝙃𝙄𝙉𝙂𝙏𝙊𝙉 𝘿.𝘾., 𝙐𝙉𝙄𝙏𝙀𝘿 𝙎𝙏𝘼𝙏𝙀𝙎 - 𝙁𝙀𝘽𝙍𝙐𝘼𝙍𝙔 04: 𝙐𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙎𝙩𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙨 𝙋𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝘿𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙡𝙙 𝙏𝙧𝙪𝙢𝙥 (𝙍) 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙄𝙨𝙧𝙖𝙚𝙡𝙞 𝙋𝙧𝙞𝙢𝙚 𝙈𝙞𝙣𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝘽𝙚𝙣𝙟𝙖𝙢𝙞𝙣 𝙉𝙚𝙩𝙖𝙣𝙮𝙖𝙝𝙪 (𝙇) 𝙝𝙤𝙡𝙙 𝙖 𝙟𝙤𝙞𝙣𝙩 𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙛𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙀𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝙍𝙤𝙤𝙢 𝙖𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙚 𝙃𝙤𝙪𝙨𝙚 𝙞𝙣 𝙒𝙖𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙩𝙤𝙣, 𝘿.𝘾., 𝙐𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙎𝙩𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙨 𝙤𝙣 𝙁𝙚𝙗𝙧𝙪𝙖𝙧𝙮 04, 2025. ( 𝙆𝙮𝙡𝙚 𝙈𝙖𝙯𝙯𝙖 - 𝘼𝙣𝙖𝙙𝙤𝙡𝙪 𝘼𝙜𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙮 )

The infamous 19th-century imperialist and racial supremacist, Cecil Rhodes, once remarked: “It is our duty to seize every opportunity to acquire more territory and we should keep this one idea steadily before our eyes that more territory simply means more of the Anglo-Saxon race.”

He then added: “Just fancy those parts that are at present inhabited by the most despicable specimens of human beings, what an alteration there would be if they were brought under Anglo-Saxon influence.”

More than a century later, U.S. President Donald Trump expressed similar attitudes during his meeting on February 4 with the Israeli Prime Minister and indicted war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu, when he said: “We will take over the Gaza Strip, will own it long-term and will redevelop it … I do see a long-term ownership position.”

In a settler-colonialist spirit, Trump callously continued: “I don’t think people should be going back to Gaza. I think that Gaza is not a place for people to be living.” He neglected to mention, of course, the exception for Jewish settlers in prime real estate along the Gaza beach.

He then added: “They’re living in hell,” without any hint of irony, considering the 15-month U.S.-sponsored genocide, supported by funds, bombs and diplomatic protection.

‘𝐓𝐫𝐮𝐦𝐩 𝟐.𝟎’

There were many items on the agenda between Trump and Netanyahu, including Iran’s nuclear program, the future of Gaza and the West Bank, and normalisation with Saudi Arabia.

To be sure, Trump is not an unknown quantity. In his first term, he demonstrated total hostility towards the Palestinians and embraced the most radical positions espoused by extremist Zionists.

These included recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and relocating the U.S. Embassy there; the annexation of the Syrian Golan Heights (occupied by Israel since 1967); the closure of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) office in Washington, DC; ending all humanitarian aid to the Palestinians through the UN refugee agency (UNRWA) or U.S. agencies; and integrating Israel within U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), the U.S. military command responsible for a region stretching from Egypt to Afghanistan.

Furthermore, throughout his presidency Trump completely disregarded the so-called two-state solution — a long-touted U.S. goal — in favour of Netanyahu’s approach of normalising relations with Washington’s Arab client regimes while pursuing an aggressive settlement expansion policy intended to establish a de facto Greater Israel.

In effect, it appears that “Trump 2.0” is trying, in his own way, to fulfill his promises of securing a Greater Israel for his right-wing Zionist donors, benefactors and appointees.

The proposal to forcefully remove over two million Palestinians from Gaza does not appear serious or achievable, since the Palestinians will never cooperate in their own displacement, nor would neighbouring countries be willing to support a dangerous plan that would destabilise the region. In the past, Trump proposed similar hyperbolic ideas that failed to materialise, including his calls for constructing a Riviera on the beaches of North Korea.

𝐍𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐚𝐡𝐮’𝐬 𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐚

Netanyahu came to the White House with several objectives in mind. He sought Trump’s support to continue his war of extermination in Gaza after freeing many Israeli captives at the end of the first stage of the ceasefire deal.

His political allies pressured him to resume the war in order to achieve his elusive objective of dislodging Hamas and eradicating the resistance — an aim he has not accomplished during the 15-month onslaught.

It would appear that Trump wants to achieve this goal using political means through his outrageous proposal rather than through military pressure. If that is the case, this would be Trump’s way of handing Netanyahu the fig leaf he needs to silence his hard right critics and conclude the second stage of the ceasefire deal.

On Iran, Trump has doubled down on his policy of applying extreme pressure through economic sanctions in order to get the Iranians to negotiate a deal on their nuclear program.

In return, the Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has called for “maximum wisdom” to be applied to relations between Washington and Tehran, instead of the “maximum pressure” policy Trump has espoused. Since these are the early stages of diplomatic maneuverings, it’s very doubtful that Netanyahu received a green light from Trump to use military strikes against Iran in the near term.

On the West Bank, the Zionist regime has been escalating its aggressive settlement policy as well as its unprecedented attacks on several Palestinian cities, particularly against refugee camps in Jenin, Nablus, Tobas and Tulkarem.

𝐓𝐨𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬 𝐚 𝐒𝐚𝐮𝐝𝐢-𝐈𝐬𝐫𝐚𝐞𝐥𝐢 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐝

In the past, Trump and many of his administration officials, such as the new U.S. ambassador to the Zionist regime, Mike Huckabee, have endorsed the expansion of Israeli settlements and the calls for annexing large parts of the West Bank. But backing such a policy now will certainly impede the central piece of Trump’s main objective in the region, which is to conclude a normalisation deal with Saudi Arabia.

To negotiate a deal with the Saudis, Trump must rein in Netanyahu and his extremist allies by promising them what they desire most: a Gaza free not only of Hamas’s rule but also of Palestinians, as well as the annexation of a large part of the West Bank, in exchange for a normalisation deal with the Saudis and possibly beyond.

The Israelis certainly know that they will not get the Palestinians to leave voluntarily when they could not compel them to do that through their genocidal war. They recognise that they cannot unilaterally annex parts of the West Bank before the normalisation deal with the Saudis is concluded.

They also know that Trump has a very long agenda, both domestically and internationally, particularly with regard to the Ukraine war and China, and will not allow a devastating war with Iran to disrupt his agenda.

Once the fog of the visit clears, it will become apparent that Trump’s primary policy in the Middle East is to cement a Saudi-Israeli agreement, one that cannot be finalised without putting a hold on other contentious issues such as a military escalation with Iran, West Bank annexation, or the resumption of the Gaza genocide.

But that does not mean that the Zionist regime and its supporters within the Trump administration will not push hard to achieve all their objectives in Gaza, the West Bank and against Iran. Regardless, the Palestinians and their supporters worldwide must be vigilant to resist and defeat all their nefarious plans, particularly in Gaza, the West Bank, as well as any plans to integrate a genocidal regime in the region.

People across the Middle East have witnessed the true colours of the Zionist regime. Achieving a normalisation deal with the Saudis or any other party would require nothing less than the total erasure of their collective memory.

It would appear that the main lesson of the October 7 attacks has not been learned. They took place at a time when regional and international actors had all but buried the Palestinian cause and ignored the plight of the Palestinians in pursuit of their own interests.

Not only will none of the policies advanced by Trump address these issues, but they will exacerbate them. And thus, like his forgotten deal of the century, these policies are doomed to fail.

Dr. Sami A. Al-Arian is public affairs professor and the director of the Center for Islam and Global Affairs at Sabahattin Zaim University in Istanbul.