French university professor Jean-Pierre Filho wrote that outgoing US President Joe Biden provided tremendous support, military, diplomatic and financial, for the war waged by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Gaza since October 2023, but the appointments announced by President-elect Donald Trump so far, Which is unlikely to be rejected by the Republican majority in Congress, and portends an administration more hostile than previous administrations to Palestinians and their rights.
The writer explained – in his column in Le Monde newspaper – that the United States has abandoned any serious desire to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since George Bush Jr. launched his “global war on terrorism” in 2001, and that Barack Obama, who came after him, did not correct the situation, and granted Israel without the slightest Compensation and military aid in an unprecedented amount of $38 billion. As for Trump, he began his first term by recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and moving the United States embassy there.
Completely renewed team
Trump did not retain any of his aides to manage the Middle East in the previous period, and even his son-in-law Jared Kushner – whom he assigned to develop the “Deal of the Century” in 2020 – was not renewed, and he has just appointed a special envoy to the Middle East, not his son-in-law this time, but rather his partner in the game. Golf Stephen Witkoff, a real estate developer with no diplomatic experience – as the university professor says – and there is no doubt that the “art of the deal” in which Trump claims to be an expert will lead him and Witkoff to impose… More brutal dictates imposed on the Palestinians than those of 2020.
Jean-Pierre Filho mentioned that the new head of US diplomacy, Marco Rubio, was distinguished by his many anti-Palestinian initiatives. He accused Hamas members of being “cruel animals” and “100%” responsible for the suffering of the people of Gaza.
Trump now forms a team in Washington that is fundamentally hostile to the Palestinians and their rights, even though these people have been suffering for more than a year in Gaza from the most horrific tragedy in a history filled with tragedies.
Rubio criticized Biden, because because of his “weakness” he encourages “the enemies of Israel who are also enemies of the United States.” He also campaigned against the United Nations General Assembly resolution demanding Israel’s withdrawal from the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967, and called for celebrating “the legitimate right of the Jewish State of Israel to… Its historical homeland.
As for the future US ambassador to the United Nations, Elise Stefanik, she supports the ban imposed by Israel on the activities of the United Nations agency responsible for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), and has just accused UNRWA of “spreading anti-Semitic hatred among Palestinians, harboring terrorist weapons, and stealing aid that is supposed to “Distribute it.”
Promoting Christian Zionists
With these appointments – as the writer says – Trump places unconditionally supporters of Netanyahu’s hard-line policies in key positions, but Trump goes further than that by promoting the Christian Zionists, in whose view the Israeli Prime Minister remains very moderate, and who see that the fulfillment of prophecies requires exclusive Jewish sovereignty. On the entire Holy Land, in preparation for the establishment of the Third Temple in Jerusalem in Al-Aqsa Mosque Square, the third holiest site in Islam.
These evangelicals share a vision with Netanyahu’s racist allies, who consider the Palestinians merely “foreigners” in the Land of Israel. Pete Hegseth, the future head of the Pentagon, invoked the “miracle of the Temple’s restoration” and ruled out any two-state solution, insisting that “there is only one state.” It is Israel that must exercise its sovereignty without sharing “Judea and Samaria.” In the same direction, Mike Huckabee, Trump’s appointed ambassador to Israel, announced in 2017 that there is no Something called the West Bank.
The writer concluded that Trump now forms a team in Washington that is fundamentally hostile to the Palestinians and their rights, even though these people have been suffering for more than a year in Gaza from the most horrific tragedy in a history saturated with tragedies.