Stalin
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 4, 2008
- Messages
- 4,020
Yet another opportunity to enrich the Frump Crime Family
"..The fate of the Palestinian people offers a warning about the future of humanity. When I recently visited the West Bank, Palestinians kept impressing the same point on me: Israel has turned their land into a laboratory. The technology of oppression that it has deployed – including in its genocide in Gaza – ranges from hi-tech surveillance to military drones and AI on the battlefield. These technologies have been exported to oppressive states across the world. And it doesn’t stop there.
This brings us to Donald Trump’s “board of peace”, now set to rule Gaza. In the sleepy Oxfordshire village of Sutton Courtenay, where George Orwell lies buried, the ground itself ought to be shaking. This isn’t peace. It’s naked neocolonialism.
Not a single seat is reserved for a Palestinian, let alone a survivor of Gaza. Trump will serve as chair in an individual capacity rather than as US president – in other words, as Gaza’s emperor. Its invited members include Tony Blair, who is despised across the Middle East as an architect of the illegal invasion of Iraq. If you’re curious about his skill set when it comes to rebuilding ravaged Arab territory, recall what the Chilcot inquiry concluded about that catastrophe: “the UK failed to plan or prepare for the major reconstruction programme required in Iraq”.
Who else? At least two property developers, including Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who once boasted of the “very valuable” potential of Gaza’s “waterfront property”. Hungary’s far-right autocrat Viktor Orbán. An Israeli billionaire, Yakir Gabay, and an American private equity tycoon, Marc Rowan. Vladimir Putin, who helped pioneer reducing predominantly Muslim lands to rubble in Chechnya, also has an invite, according to the Kremlin. Sure, Israel isn’t happy, presumably because the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been invited. Nothing but total control of Gaza would satisfy them – but that is little consolation for its traumatised Palestinian population.
The clues about where this is heading are hardly subtle. Trump is demanding $1bn from each country to be a permanent member, and the draft of the charter appears to suggest, as per Bloomberg, that he will control the money. A year ago, he proposed permanently resettling Gaza’s population: ethnic cleansing. He posted an AI-generated video showcasing Gaza as a luxury resort, featuring a giant golden statue of himself.
It would be naive to assume that he has abandoned such plans, even if pressure from Arab states appears to have had some effect last year, when he said “nobody is expelling any Palestinians”. That was clear in little-noticed comments he made at a recent press conference with
Benjamin Netanyahu – the Israeli prime minister wanted by the international criminal court on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Trump suggested that if Gaza’s population “were given the opportunity to live in a better climate, they would move. They’re there because they sort of have to be.”
www.theguardian.com
comrade stalin
moscow
"..The fate of the Palestinian people offers a warning about the future of humanity. When I recently visited the West Bank, Palestinians kept impressing the same point on me: Israel has turned their land into a laboratory. The technology of oppression that it has deployed – including in its genocide in Gaza – ranges from hi-tech surveillance to military drones and AI on the battlefield. These technologies have been exported to oppressive states across the world. And it doesn’t stop there.
This brings us to Donald Trump’s “board of peace”, now set to rule Gaza. In the sleepy Oxfordshire village of Sutton Courtenay, where George Orwell lies buried, the ground itself ought to be shaking. This isn’t peace. It’s naked neocolonialism.
Not a single seat is reserved for a Palestinian, let alone a survivor of Gaza. Trump will serve as chair in an individual capacity rather than as US president – in other words, as Gaza’s emperor. Its invited members include Tony Blair, who is despised across the Middle East as an architect of the illegal invasion of Iraq. If you’re curious about his skill set when it comes to rebuilding ravaged Arab territory, recall what the Chilcot inquiry concluded about that catastrophe: “the UK failed to plan or prepare for the major reconstruction programme required in Iraq”.
Who else? At least two property developers, including Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who once boasted of the “very valuable” potential of Gaza’s “waterfront property”. Hungary’s far-right autocrat Viktor Orbán. An Israeli billionaire, Yakir Gabay, and an American private equity tycoon, Marc Rowan. Vladimir Putin, who helped pioneer reducing predominantly Muslim lands to rubble in Chechnya, also has an invite, according to the Kremlin. Sure, Israel isn’t happy, presumably because the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been invited. Nothing but total control of Gaza would satisfy them – but that is little consolation for its traumatised Palestinian population.
The clues about where this is heading are hardly subtle. Trump is demanding $1bn from each country to be a permanent member, and the draft of the charter appears to suggest, as per Bloomberg, that he will control the money. A year ago, he proposed permanently resettling Gaza’s population: ethnic cleansing. He posted an AI-generated video showcasing Gaza as a luxury resort, featuring a giant golden statue of himself.
It would be naive to assume that he has abandoned such plans, even if pressure from Arab states appears to have had some effect last year, when he said “nobody is expelling any Palestinians”. That was clear in little-noticed comments he made at a recent press conference with
Benjamin Netanyahu – the Israeli prime minister wanted by the international criminal court on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Trump suggested that if Gaza’s population “were given the opportunity to live in a better climate, they would move. They’re there because they sort of have to be.”
Donald Trump needs helpers for his appalling neocolonialist project. What else is this ‘board of peace’? | Owen Jones
Blair, Putin, Erdoğan, Orbán: the names of those invited to serve say it all. And it’s about so much more than Gaza, says Guardian columnist Owen Jones
comrade stalin
moscow
