Don’t look now but the conditions are being created in President Donald Trump’s White House for a historic deal with Hamas.
As pro-Israel Jews in the United States, particularly those that identify with the Republican party, celebrate the opportunity granted by Trump to remove Palestinians from Gaza and welcome the notion of American joint control of the strip, the Trump administration has been quietly pursuing a very different vision.
In a spate of interviews to US and Israeli media outlets on Sunday, Trump envoy Adam Boehler defended his direct talks with Hamas officials and pushed back against criticism from Jerusalem.
Donald Trump’s personality fosters a synthesis of US national interests with personal vendettas, a sense of being able to accomplish the impossible, and a thuggish style of wheeling and dealing.
In line with the president’s stated goal to “Make America Great Again,” Trump has begun promoting a caricature of US power, vocalizing what previously didn’t need to be said out loud, and embracing a political incorrectness that has essentially removed the mask from blatant US imperialism.
The Zionist tendency to find common cause with the most powerful nation possible, developed from generations of trauma and systemic anti-Semitism that causes Jews to seek proximity to power for a sense of security, has severely restricted the Jewish people’s scope of analysis in regards to Trump’s policies.
There also exists a psychological need for Trump to be a friend to Israel, because if Trump is not a friend, what US President is?
The image of a relationship carefully cultivated by Israel’s ruling class and the American Jewish legacy organizations is at stake.
Trump’s unconventional style, while celebrated by some, is actually very dangerous. While his rhetoric can at times appear to stem from an Israeli far right wishlist, Trump’s actions appear to be following a very different playbook.
We know that despite the public bromance between Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, their relationship has been frosty at best for a long time. Journalist Barak Ravid confirms that their spat is wide-ranging, from Netanyahu’s congratulatory call to President Joe Biden in 2020 to sabotaging Trump’s two-state “Deal of the Century.” In his memoirs, Jared Kushner, architect of the Trump plan, confirmed that it was Netanyahu who derailed it.
Netanyahu is no stranger to US imperialism. As a young staffer, he witnessed Prime Minister Yitzḥak Shamir’s tenuous relationship with US President George H.W Bush and has for a long time appreciated the need for Israel to become independent from the United States.
The Trump team’s direct negotiations with Hamas should be understood in this context. Should we understand Trump’s posturing as a deviation from US policy, it should be one that is actually more concerning. His willingness to do whatever it takes to get a deal that shapes his legacy, combined with his own understanding of Netanyahu’s tactics, has led Trump to be the first US president to admit to direct talks with Hamas – the group that slaughtered over a thousand Jews on October 7, 2023.
Trump’s direct negotiations with Hamas was done, as Barak Ravid reports, behind the backs of the Israelis. In fact, it was the Israelis who leaked it to the American press to make the administration uncomfortable. This revelation should make it clear to Trump’s Jewish cheerleaders here that he isn’t our savior. It signals continuity of Uncle Sam’s obsession with preventing Israel from becoming anything beyond a mere US-backed bomb shelter for persecuted Jews.
Without speculating on where President Trump will take this or suggesting that Israel shouldn’t seek to take advantage of Trump’s second term wherever possible, I am urging that we move forward with our eyes wide open. Donald Trump is erratic and unpredictable but that alone isn’t what makes him dangerous.
Trump is a narcissistic caricature of the “ugly American” and therefore seeks to expand Washington’s role on the international stage and ensure that the United States remains the sole global hegemon. If a fundamental conflict exists between US and Israeli interests, expect Trump to relentlessly pursue American interests – even if that includes direct talks with Hamas.
It should also be noted that Hamas’s participation in these talks suggests that they believe they can have a role in Trump’s “day after plan.” A suggestion further validated by US envoy Steve Witkoff, who said that Hamas would be wise to “show a gesture of goodwill to the administration.”
While either Trump nor Netanyahu appear interested in publicly antagonizing the contradiction at the moment, it seems obvious to anyone with a nominally deep understanding of geo-politics that the two are working hard to undermine one another while smiling and shaking hands for the cameras.
As the people of Israel begin to prepare for Pesaḥ, the festival that celebrates not only our liberation from subjugation by the world’s most dominant power but also our replacing Egypt as the central character of humanity, we must apply these lessons to the modern day. It’s not enough to receive pro-Israel breadcrumbs from the head of an empire in decline. We must attain our freedom so we can take our rightful place on the international stage.
