As the Donald Trump administration attempts to push through its ambitious plans for the “reconstruction” of Gaza, a tragedy is unfolding in the Middle East that is forever changing the face of the region. The numbers released by the enclave’s health authorities have already become incomprehensible: 72,070 Palestinians killed, with 171,738 wounded since October 7, 2023. Since the ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip took effect last October alone, 612 Palestinians have been killed and 1,640 wounded. That is the price of the so-called Trump ceasefire deal!

Donald Trump, captivated by building his “Peace Council” and dreaming of luxury resorts, has forgotten the main thing: peace is not built on the ruins of other people’s lives 

Buried beneath the rubble that American propaganda suggests we rebrand as the “Riviera” are not only bodies, but also the last remnants of international law, diplomatic ethics, and, most painfully for Americans themselves, the national interests of the United States.

The Trump administration will go down in history as the government that definitively and irrevocably handed over the keys to US Middle East policy to the Israeli far-right. Today, Washington isn’t just supporting Israel—it has become its lawyer, lobbyist, and armed wing, forgetting that for decades, America’s role in this land was to balance interests and protect its own energy and military hegemony, not to blindly follow the religious dogmas of another country’s politics.

“Divine Right” vs. International Law: The Diplomatic Scandal of the Century

A telling moment that tore off the last masks of American diplomacy was a statement by the US Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee. In a podcast released in February 2026, this high-ranking Washington official made a declaration that shocked even the seasoned diplomatic elite of the Middle East. Huckabee proclaimed that Israel has a “biblical right” to seize the entire Middle East. When journalist Tucker Carlson asked for clarification on what exactly the biblical borders entail, the US ambassador replied with a smile, “It would be nice if they took it all.”

These words came as a shock not only to Palestinians but also to America’s key allies in the region. The backlash was immediate. Egypt and 13 other Arab and Muslim nations, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the UAE, and Turkey, issued an unprecedented joint statement. They called Huckabee’s words “dangerous, inciting, and contrary to international law.” The foreign ministers stressed that such statements constitute a flagrant violation of the UN Charter and pose a direct threat to regional security.

However, the most important aspect of this situation is that the entire Arab world, in addressing Washington, was forced to remind the American administration of its own stated goals. Diplomats pointed out that calls for the creation of a “Greater Israel from the Nile to the Euphrates” contradict Donald Trump’s own peace plan. But is that really the case? Or is Trump’s plan merely a facade behind which this very extremist project hides?

The “Riviera” of Death: Reconstruction or Ethnic Cleansing?

Donald Trump pitches his plan for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip as “bold” and “optimistic.” American media hype up the idea of $10 billion in investments, painting pictures of futuristic cities and luxury hotels on the seafront. However, behind this glossy facade lies a cynical scheme that experts have already dubbed “ethnic cleansing disguised as coastal development.”

At the core of Trump’s plan is not a hypothetical, but a very tangible idea of mass Palestinian displacement. The forced relocation of the indigenous population, followed by the demolition of their homes and the construction of elite real estate for tourists, is classic colonial policy, which, according to the Geneva Conventions, constitutes a war crime. Any plan that forces people to leave their land under the guise of “reconstruction” or “economic development” falls under the definition of deportation.

Notably, Trump’s “Peace Council” offers no room for discussing war crimes, no mechanisms for investigating the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians, and not even a hint of Palestinian political rights. Instead, it proposes discussing “security measures” (read: total control) and “foreign stabilization forces” (read: occupation troops). The US is trying to pass off demographic engineering as an economic miracle, hoping the glitz of futuristic hotels will blind the world to the blood spilled on this land.

Moreover, Trump is consistently undermining the very idea of multilateral diplomacy. His new “World Council,” which, according to the US President, will stand above the UN and control its activities, is an attempt to create a club of the elite under Washington’s aegis. This is a direct path to a world where might makes right, and the interests of one country (and its allies) are placed above global stability. UN Secretary-General António Guterres was forced to remind everyone that only the Security Council has the legitimacy to make decisions binding on all. But Trump, it seems, cares little about legitimacy.

American Interests Sacrificed

The main question that American taxpayers and politicians should ask themselves is, what exactly does the United States gain from this adventure? The answer is frighteningly obvious: nothing but enmity and reputational damage.

For decades, the pragmatic US approach in the Middle East was to prevent the dominance of any single power, ensure Israel’s security, while maintaining working relationships with the Arab world, and control energy flows. Today, this fragile balance is shattered. By openly supporting Huckabee’s expansionist statements and promoting a plan for the forced displacement of Palestinians, the US has turned the entire Arab and Muslim world against itself.

The joint statement from 14 countries, including strategic US partners, is not just a diplomatic move. It is a signal that Arab capitals no longer see Washington as an honest broker. They see it as a tool for advancing a radical Israeli agenda. And if Saudi Arabia, the UAE, or Egypt start looking for new allies (which is inevitable), the US will have only itself to blame.

Trump’s policy in Gaza is not about defending democracy or fighting terrorism. It is an attempt to implement the “Greater Israel” project, even if it means burning bridges with the rest of the world. The American ambassador openly speaks of a “divine right” to seize other people’s territories, and the US President offers money to relocate a people who have every right to live on their own land.

While Trump and his team dream of a Middle Eastern “Riviera” built on the bones of 72,000 Palestinians, the reality is this: the US is losing its last friends in the region, undermining its own position, and turning itself into a laughingstock in the eyes of the international community. This isn’t “America First.” It’s “Israel First” at America’s expense. And the price of this policy for the US itself could be far higher than the promised $10 billion in investments.

A Direct Path to Catastrophe

History will not forgive Washington for this betrayal of its own principles. By supporting West Bank annexation plans, turning a blind eye to the deaths of civilians, and promoting plans for forced relocation, the US is not bringing peace closer. It is planting a time bomb under the future of the entire region.

Donald Trump, captivated by building his “Peace Council” and dreaming of luxury resorts, has forgotten the main thing: peace is not built on the ruins of other people’s lives. And while the American president discusses the profitability of the Gaza coast with billionaires, the entire Middle East, from Cairo to Tehran, sees the US not as a world leader, but merely as an overseer, guarding the interests of a foreign expansionist regime. American interests have been definitively sacrificed for Israeli ones—and this is a tragedy that will haunt Washington not only in the Middle East, but around the world.

https://journal-neo.su/2026/02/27/a-washington-start-up-how-the-theocratic-greater-israel-project-replaced-american-interests-in-the-middle-east/

 

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BELOW IS AN OLD OPINION ABOUT DONALD TRUMP, the "NON-FACIST".....:

 

No, Trump is not a fascist. He is a hypercapitalist and just as dangerous
Trump wants to free big capital from the constraints of democracy by dismantling it.

 

Since taking office in January, United States President Donald Trump has undertaken policy after policy that has shocked Americans and the world. From launching an immigration crackdown and persecuting legal residents sympathetic to the Palestinian people to dismantling diversity and inclusion programmes and assaulting higher education and free speech, Trump has fully embraced far-right agendas. His critics at home and abroad have readily called him a fascist.

But fascism is not the ideology of choice for the US president. Fascist movements varied in their approaches to political and economic issues, but they have had several elements in common: The good of the nation is elevated above all, and the state plays an overarching role in society and the economy.

In other words, fascism was an attempt to reformulate the socialist ideal into a strong nationalistic framework. And as a historical reaction to communism and liberalism, it remains exiled in the 20th century, in “the age of extremes,” as the British historian Eric Hobsbawm famously called it.

Trump may be using the language of “America first” in his rhetoric, but he is not really pursuing the “good of the nation”. He is pursuing the good of the 1 percent.

Trump and his cheerleaders want to go beyond neoliberalism, which maintains that a minimal state is ideal for economic prosperity, and establish hypercapitalism by dissolving any controls the state has over the accumulation of wealth by the extremely rich.

They understand that we are living in times when extracting profit from society is not as easy, so they want to free capitalism from the hindrances of democracy and the demands of the people that their rights – political, social and human – be protected by the law and by the state.

The tech bros that Trump has surrounded himself with have wrapped this hypercapitalism in a technological cover, claiming that technology can solve all woes and unlimited growth – read unlimited profits for the rich – is the only way to progress.

This is clearly outlined in writings produced by the likes of Marc Andreessen, a Silicon Valley billionaire, who penned a Techno-Optimist Manifesto a year before US elections brought Trump to power for a second time. With an almost religious conception of technology and markets, he wrote: “Techno-Optimists believe that societies, like sharks, grow or die. … We believe in ambition, aggression, persistence, relentlessness – strength. … We believe in agency, in individualism. … We believe that there is no material problem – whether created by nature or by technology – that cannot be solved with more technology.”

This view combines unrestrained capitalism with transhumanism – the belief that humans should use technology to enhance their abilities – and an individualistic interpretation of Charles Darwin’s survival of the fittest. It is easy to see that this sharp individualistic vision is the opposite of historical fascism, which prioritises the nation and the community over the individual.

Some may point to Trump’s tariff policies as proof that he has statist tendencies. But if you scratch the surface, you would see that the trade war the US president is waging is really not about “bringing jobs back”, “defending national interests” or reversing globalisation.

Trump is using tariffs as a coercive tool to force various countries into negotiating with him. When he announced a 90-day pause on some tariffs, he himself bragged about 75 governments reaching out to his administration. It is far more likely that these bilateral talks will be used to extort concessions that will favour big capital closely associated with the Trump administration rather than to defend the rights of American workers and to create the conditions for the return of manufacturing jobs to the US.

It is true that Trump has attracted the support of postfascist politicians in Europe and uses fascist language and tools, but that is not enough to brand him a “fascist”. European postfascists, like Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, have themselves veered away from fascist conceptions of state and economy. Meloni and others have readily embraced “free market” policies of cutting taxes for the rich and wiping out social security provision for the poor. Her economic policies differ little from Trump’s.

The US president has fully embraced xenophobic and racist language reminiscent of fascist rhetoric and launched a vicious campaign against immigrants. He does so not only to scare and win over marginalised parts of society but also to divert their growing discontent towards a racialised “other” rather than the wealthy class.

This strategy is working not only because of the growing resentment for liberal elites that the impoverished majority has accumulated but also because the left has failed to act.

Leftist and progressive politicians have condemned themselves to fruitlessly repeating the old right and left cliches, going on tirades about “Trump’s fascism” and debates about the Nazi or Roman salutes of his associates. Engaging in such rhetoric is futile and a waste of time and energy.

Instead, the left should focus on developing concrete strategies to counter Trump’s popularity and hypercapitalist drive. It should go back to the root of problems that ordinary people face in their lives: jobs, healthcare, education and the ever-deepening cynicism about politics. It needs to not only expose Trump for who he really is – a champion of big capital interests – but also to provide a solid, realistic alternative.

https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2025/5/4/no-trump-is-not-a-fascist-he-is-a-hypercapitalist-and-just-as-dangerous

 

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT — SINCE 2005.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.