A "New Middle East" Is Easier to Declare Than to Achieve

"President Donald Trump arrived at Ben Gurion Airport on Monday morning, October 13th, just as Hamas was releasing the last surviving Israeli hostages after two years of cruel captivity and Israel had halted its devastating bombardment of Gaza. Since October 7, 2023, two thousand Israelis and sixty-seven thousand Palestinians had been killed. The Strip had been reduced to a landscape of destitution and ruin. A ceasefire that could, and should, have come long ago was finally, fitfully, taking hold."

"In Jerusalem, Trump was greeted on billboards and in the Knesset as a modern Cyrus the Great-the Persian ruler who, in 538 B.C., allowed the Jews to return to the Holy Land from their Babylonian exile and rebuild the Temple. During Trump's speech to the Knesset, two left-wing lawmakers, Ofer Cassif, a Jewish Israeli, and Ayman Odeh, a Palestinian Israeli, raised small placards reading "Recognize Palestine.""

"Guards swiftly hauled them from the chamber. The President praised the speed with which this modest protest was suppressed. "That was very efficient," he said brightly. In his self-admiring rambling, Trump took time out to thank his lead negotiator, Steve Witkoff (a "Kissinger who doesn't leak"), and one of his wealthiest patrons, Miriam Adelson ("She's got sixty billion in the bank!"), then turned to trash Joe Biden-the "worst President in the history of our country by far, and Barack Obama was not far behind.""

President Donald Trump arrived at Ben Gurion Airport on October 13 as Hamas released the last surviving Israeli hostages after two years and Israel halted its bombardment of Gaza. Since October 7, 2023, roughly two thousand Israelis and sixty-seven thousand Palestinians were killed and the Strip lay in destitution and ruin. A ceasefire that had long been overdue began to take hold. In Jerusalem, Trump received praise likened to Cyrus the Great, and during a Knesset speech guards removed lawmakers displaying "Recognize Palestine," an action the President praised. He thanked negotiator Steve Witkoff and patron Miriam Adelson and denounced Joe Biden and Barack Obama. His earlier remarks about making Gaza a "Riviera of the Middle East" encouraged right-wing Israeli fantasies of resettlement and annexation of Palestinian territories.

Read at The New Yorker