Opinion by Mathew Carr
The outrageous utterances made by US President Donald Trump Tuesday for the US to “take over” Gaza are ambit claims designed to speed delayed permanent-ceasefire negotiations.
The Trump-Israel stance is effectively “let’s end Palestine” in Gaza.
The other side of that, the ambit response, is “let’s end Israel,” a signal sent earlier Wednesday by Apple Inc., using its “maps” application on every iphone.
As of Thursday morning London time (today), Apple maps was listing Israel again.
Note that Trump didn’t rule out Palestinians living long term in Gaza … indeed, correcting himself, he said residents would be “chiefly Palestinians” (Times of London). Earlier he had said “the world’s people” would live there.
The final(ish) permanent ceasefire negotiation was meant to be completed Monday. Agreement wasn’t reached. Israel continues its killing.
Mr Trump, apparently a (pretend?) Christian, is claiming to “own” the seat of Christianity (and not share it?). It’s also the seat of Judaism and one of the seats of Islam.
Will Trump’s interventions help, or hinder?
Time will tell.
Now that the boundaries of the negotiation have been set (yet again), the sides of the 80-year negotiation can move to a middle.
FT’s Thursday take:
Reuters on the walking back:
Front pages:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm29rpll933o
NOTES
Daily Star’s assertion on its front page that Mr Trump is “thick as a brick” is clearly fake news…while at the same time demonstrating bravery.
Trump’s physical body is clearly thicker than a single brick. Mentally, Trump has a brain, while a brick does not …so he MUST be cleverer.
Game theory reminder: