Just weeks into a long-awaited ceasefire in Gaza, the increasingly demented ravings emanating from the White House suggest that ‘peacemaker’ Donald Trump is preparing for a renewal of slaughter. Brian Kelly explores the convergence between Trump and the Zionist far right, asks why the whole of the western establishment stands mute in the face of Washington’s threats, and argues that the solidarity movement must prepare urgently for a deeper, more powerful challenge to a global order incompatible with human freedom.
Let’s be clear: the ultimatum issued by US President Donald Trump, threatening to “let hell break out” in Gaza if all remaining Israeli captives are not released by mid-day Saturday, is itself a flagrant violation of the terms of the ceasefire agreement for which, just three short weeks ago, he was so keen to claim credit. The deal laid out a detailed timeline for mutual release of captive Israelis and Palestinians, imposing obligations on both the Palestinian resistance and the Israeli government. Trump’s ultimatum unilaterally rescinds that timeline: it ignores Israel’s repeated violations of the basic terms of the agreement and opens the very real possibility of a return to the horrors of the past year and a half. It marks an abject and (it seems) enthusiastic capitulation to the most genocidal elements among the Zionist far right.
Then posturing as a ‘peacemaker and a unifier’, Trump’s intervention in January—with reports that pressure brought to bear by his envoy Steven Witkoff was crucial in bringing the Israelis to heel—was widely interpreted by the western press as evidence they’d underestimated his willingness to intervene in an even-handed way in the region. That fantasy has not survived the love-fest accorded the war criminal Netanyahu in Washington: he returned with a suitcase full of guarantees about the lengths to which the White House will go to shore up his far-right government, which had been thrown into crisis over agreeing to ceasefire.
A Green Light for Renewed Slaughter
Most crucially, Trump has given a green light for the renewal of slaughter in Gaza, the full-scale annexation of the West Bank and the forced expulsion of ‘unlucky’ Palestinians across the occupied territories. Publicly the Netanyahu government justifies its abandonment of the ceasefire as a response to Hamas’s postponement of the next prisoner exchange, and by pointing to the ‘emaciated condition’ of Israeli captives released a week ago. But government spokesmen concede that they have repeatedly violated the agreement, and Ha’aretz reports that Netanyahu is ‘deliberately obstructing [ongoing] negotiations’ for the next phase of the ceasefire. Complaints about the ‘inhumane’ treatment of Israeli captives come at a time when torture is rife in Israeli prisons, when ministers openly advocate raping Palestinian captives, and when the IOF are withholding the corpses of at least 41 Palestinians who have died in custody.
As we go to press there are conflicting reports about the potential for a collapse of the ceasefire: Al-Jazeera reports that the deal is ‘back on track’—that IOF have relented and are allowing through the heavy equipment and mobile homes promised earlier; Netanyahu’s office seems determined to dampen expectations, insisting that reports of equipment being allowed through are ‘fake news’ with ‘no basis’. While it is remotely possible that the Israelis may pull back from the brink with a temporary fix, all signs point toward a resumption of IOF operations in Gaza.
Netanyahu’s preference to return to genocide is aimed at appeasing far right elements in his own unstable government who, like him, are outraged that despite Israeli claims of ‘total victory’, the Palestinian resistance remains largely intact and unbowed, and the people of Gaza undeterred. In this context Trump’s support amounts to incitement to genocide: his threats are now being repeated verbatim by the Netanyahu cabinet. ‘The gates of hell will open’ on Gaza, defence minister Israel Katz has declared. After 16 months of carpet-bombing, with Gaza decimated and the colossal civilian death toll that has brought, Katz vows that the ‘new Gaza war will be different in intensity from the one before the ceasefire.’
The reaction among Palestinians in Gaza and elsewhere has been clear. No one anywhere is more hopeful for an enduring peace than those who have borne the brunt of the Israeli onslaught. With Gaza in rubble, the vast majority have lost everything, suffering immense personal loss. Forced to move repeatedly over the past 16 months, for many the ceasefire has made it possible, at last, to begin to mourn their dead, to reconnect with families, and to begin the long work of rebuilding their lives. But even under immense pressure, their reaction to Trump’s deranged ramblings about real estate deals and a Gaza ‘Riviera’ is everywhere marked by defiance and a determination to remain. ‘Even if I have to rebuild stone by stone,’ one elderly woman declares from atop the rubble of her home, ‘I will stay’. “We would rather die here than leave this land,” 52-year old Abu Firas told the Guardian.
Western Rulers: Making Their Peace with Trump
In the face of repeated threats to recommence the onslaught—a threat wrapped in that grotesque combination of degenerate ignorance, transactional wheeling-and-dealing, and unconcealed racism embodied in Trump—it is mind-boggling to observe that not a single western leader has had the nerve to openly defy Washington. Trump’s insistence on displacing the entire population of Gaza constitutes an explicit declaration of US intent to carry out ethnic cleansing—a war crime by any standard under international law—yet not a single prominent European leader has raised their voice in dissent.
How do we explain this absence of opposition to what is, on the very face of it, lunacy manifested in the most powerful political office in the world? Partly, of course, the western ruling classes—including all the old colonial powers complicit in the carve-up of the modern Middle East—have been partners in the genocide all along, and on one level it is a simple case of ‘in for a penny in for a pound’. Across the EU, in the UK and in Ireland, governments have devoted immense resources to staying the course in Gaza—pouring massive military and diplomatic resources into supporting Israel and launching an unprecedented attack on democratic rights at home, all of it aimed at suppressing popular sympathy with Palestine and driving solidarity to the margins of public life. They are at this point heavily invested in the genocide, and could not find an off-ramp even if they wanted one.
For now, rulers across Europe seem to have calculated that the best response to looming conflict over tariffs and the potential for trade wars is to pander to the White House—to bow before Trump and kiss the ring. This has been true for Starmer in the UK and for von der Leyen in the EU, but nowhere is the obsequiousness more clearly on display than in the remarks of the Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin. In trying to justify his intent to lead a government delegation to Trump’s Washington on St. Patricks’ Day, Martin said that the trip presented a ‘wonderful opportunity for Ireland’, dismissing those calling for a boycott as ‘reckless’ and ‘irresponsible’.
The same glaring divide between this deep official cynicism and the overwhelming public solidarity with Palestine is present not just in Ireland, but across the globe. Leaving aside their utter disregard for Palestinian life, our rulers’ calculation that by ducking confrontation with Trump over Palestine they might carve out space for economic concessions is almost certainly mistaken. Instead, their toadying to the White House only encourages further belligerence.
Lest we grow nostalgic about life before Trump, it’s worth remembering that it was the so-called ‘liberal centre’ that prepared the ground for Zionism’s fulfilment of its ambition to eradicate Palestine. For all their excuse-making, none of Biden’s ‘friendly critics’ had the slightest impact in deterring the genocide. Sinn Féin’s assertion that they could talk sense into the warmongers was delusional even with Biden in the White House, yet the party is already positioning itself to take up the offer of a pilgrimage to visit Trump in March. Anyone holding on to such a delusional approach must be called out. The reality is this: the whole edifice of global capitalism is implicated in the great crime of our age, and we need to look to other forces for a way out of the present catastrophe.
The Arab Rulers: Dependable Allies for Palestine?
The White House’s persistent attempts to strongarm its regional partners—above all Egypt and Jordan—into facilitating the displacement of Palestinians show the depth of the Trump administration’s commitment to Zionist expansionism. Urged on by Netanyahu, the calculation among Trump’s inner circle seems to be that despite the immense strain that the genocide has foisted on the US’s Arab allies, there is room for pushing them further.
The evidence so far is conflicting: publicly, Egypt and Jordan both came out unequivocally against Trump’s plans, insisting they would not be complicit in Netanyahu’s expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank. But the self-humiliation of Jordan’s King Abdullah II in Washington over the past week shows the folly of placing any faith in the corrupt Arab regimes. His wobbling in Trump’s presence (‘I finally see somebody who can take us across the finish line to bring stability, peace, and prosperity to all of us in the region’) will reinforce the White House’s arrogance in assuming the bluster is meant for public consumption, and that with enough arm-twisting Jordan can be brought on board. The same applies to the Al-Sisi regime in Egypt.
All of these regimes run the risk of alienating Arab popular opinion, however, and there is a very real danger that complicity in Trump’s plans will detonate a social explosion that they cannot contain. Thus they walk a tightrope (as many western governments do) between placating strong public support and staying on Washington’s good side. Even in a relatively stable and highly repressive state like Saudi Arabia—the centrepiece of the Abraham Accords, and of Israel’s hopes for normalisation—the pro-Trump regime led by the butcher prince Mohammed Bin Salman is acutely aware of the perils it faces. Internal critics of the regime report the MBS ‘fears assassination’ if he signs on to normalisation. Abdullah Alaoudh estimates that 98% of Saudis ‘absolutely support the Palestinian cause’ and 90% are ‘completely opposed to normalisation’.
The only dependable allies for Palestinian liberation in the region are the Arab and North African masses, who have a stake in taking on the corrupt regimes that hoard the region’s great wealth and collaborate with Israel and the US in enforcing Palestinian oppression. Any resumption of war in Gaza, any attempt to expel Palestinians from the West Bank must light a fire under a regional upheaval that is there as a potential, but which has so far not materialised.
The Solidarity Movement Must Rise to the Challenge
The ominous turn toward renewed war poses a crucial test for the global solidarity movement over the weeks ahead. Those of us in Ireland or elsewhere, across the UK and Europe, have little direct power to shape events in Gaza, or to restrain Netanyahu in the immediate term from another bout of genocidal rampage. In our tens of thousands we have built an impressive movement, with a presence in almost every city and town and village across the length and breadth of this island. Public sentiment is squarely behind Palestinian liberation. Despite the horrors of the genocide and the despair that the immense suffering in Palestine inevitably forces on all of us, large number of activists and ordinary people are prepared to march, week in and week out, in solidarity—and to enforce BDS and ensure that the politicians feel our wrath.
The solidarity movement that has emerged here has scored some impressive wins, but the urgency of the present situation demands that we raise our sights higher, and rethink much of the routine that activists have settled into. Mass marches and public mobilisations are critically important, but our aim must be to shut down the system that makes the war on Palestine possible. To do that the movement needs, first of all, to move beyond words and resolutions and organize energetically in the trade unions, for workplace action to end the genocide. It is not enough that a handful of trade unionists—mostly from the ranks of the bureaucracy—turn up now and again with a banner on the marches. We need an ambitious and systematic plan to take Palestine solidarity into the broad ranks of the worker’s movement, and to build toward action that can have a real impact. There is massive potential among organised workers that has, so far, gone mostly untapped, but which must be brought to bear.
The second essential arena for renewed activism is among students in secondary-level education and in the colleges and universities, whose sympathies are overwhelmingly with Palestine, but who have been largely neglected to date by the broad solidarity movement. It’s hard to understand how, a year and a half on, there has been no national student conference aimed at coordinating action across the schools and universities. The aim has to be to organize teach-ins, walkouts and student strikes—actions that formed an important element in the [smaller] movement organised to oppose the Iraq war a couple decades ago, but which have been thin on the ground over the past sixteen months. In Ireland it is intolerable that our airports are being used to facilitate genocide, and we need to find a way to end Irish complicity. How can it be possible, given the weight of public opinion here, that Fine Gael ministers are meeting with Israeli intelligence officials in the Taoiseach’s office, or that—given the persistent hostility of the Israeli state, and its base accusations about Irish antisemitism—nearly two dozen former Israeli intelligence and security officials live openly in the south? How can any political party here get away with declaring an intent to sidle up to Trump without being sent a clear message that they will pay a heavy price? The movement needs to re-organise, to consolidate and grow our ranks, and to think carefully about how to put our hands on the levers that can end Irish complicity in the genocide. For all the impressive organising that has taken place to date, the urgency of the situation demands that activists set our sights on ending the Irish government’s disgraceful charade of feigning sympathy with Palestine on the one hand and green-lighting genocide on the other. Its long past time to call them out.
