Trump, the media and Gaza
JVL Introduction
There will be miles of column inches written and hours of TV and other broadcast media analysing the spoutings of Donald Trump over Gaza but this will not tell us much that we do not already know, although, as this journalist argues, this is not thanks to the mainstream western media who this journalists argues is also culpable.
But let us not get carried away with the Trump (and Kushner) agenda that tallies so well with the Netanyahu – Smotrich – Ben Gvir agenda too. This is some of what UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese said:
(re) “POTUS plan for Gaza is nonsense, which nonetheless must be taken very seriously. President Trump has basically declared his intention to commit the international crime of forced displacement and resort to unlawful use of force against the Palestinian people and their right to self-determination, in violation of the UN Charter – amounting to aggression.
Albanese goes on to insist that the UN stand united against this and then says: “PS And in any case, this plan won’t work. How do I know? 76 years of failed attempts by Israel including 16 months of genocidal assault.
Indigenous people do not leave their land”
We might also add that there is a tired but committed worldwide solidarity movement pushing their own governments to do much better. All out on February 15th for the next National March to the US Embassy (details to follow)
This article was originally published by The Guardian on Thu 6 Feb 2025. Read the original here.
Trump’s Gaza remarks are no surprise: ethnic cleansing was always the plan
If Trump executes his plans, it’s because the media helped pave the way. It’s beyond time for more of my colleagues to speak up
Loading article text…
US presidents and Israeli PMs seem to share the assumption they are unassailable; America will always be the world’s “top dog” and Israel’s partner – so objections from other nations can be safely ignored. They might be mistaken.
The ICJ will rule in about 5 months time whether Israel must pay reparations to the Palestinians for the harm they’ve done during their long-lasting illegal occupation of Palestinian territory since 1967.
Assuming they rule in the Palestinians’ favour, Israel’s financial liabilities will be so huge as to make the bill unpayable in a lump sum. If the bill is paid on an agreed instalment plan (overseen by the World Bank?) it’ll be a heavy burden on Israel’s budget for around 30 years.
As a cash-strapped, aid-seeking, friendless supplicant, Israel’s relationship with America and Americans will suffer. There’s already a minority of Americans who object to giving “freebies” to Israel when their own country “can’t afford” healthcare for all.
Israel is bound to try ignoring any ICJ ruling to pay reparations. They might not get away with it.
Israeli companies and universities are already finding it very hard to do business with the outside world because of Israel’s actions in Gaza. A refusal to pay reparations might well prompt such painful sanctions from enough of the world’s nations as to make compliance with the ICJ comparatively attractive.
This is the letter I sent to the Guardian this morning in response to this article. As expected, it was not published.
As one who has supported justice for the Palestinians for the last half century, I couldn’t agree more with Arwa Mahdawi’s statement about the role the media has played in their tragedy. Shutting down voices against Zionism’s settler colonial policy and its stated expansionist aims ever since the first Zionist conference in 1897, has been the mainstay of the western media as a whole. The horror of the Holocaust, weaponized by the Israelis, was regurgitated by the media accusing those of us who understood the difference between Judaism and Zionism, as antisemites. I don’t suppose the Guardian will have the courage to publish this, but J’accuse this newspaper of having sullied its otherwise liberal agenda with its disgraceful and consistent support of Zionism from the days of the overtly Zionist CP Scott to one of its most influential opinion writers today – Jonathan Freedland who in his book Jacob’s Gift condones the ethnic cleansing; the “flight, expulsion and dispossession, the emptying of 400 villages and the creation of around 700,000 refugees” was all right because “the creation of a Jewish state was a moral necessity”. Trump is merely today’s crude and vulgar face of this same belief.
Problem is the important players France, Germany, UK seem to always defend Israel.
So Israel via USA and co can get anything over ruled at the United nations. As for putting trump, BB, Starmer in the dock?