David Vance SubstackRead More
As suggestions for the Gaza Strip go, it was very much an eye-opener. US President, Donald Trump, had suggested America buying that ribbon of cursed land sandwiched between Israel and Egypt for the purposes of transforming it into a Middle Eastern version of Monaco – complete with shiny new buildings, a buoyant economy and a magnet for international tourists.
From all the usual suspects came condemnation, for those who viscerally loathe Trump will always view anything he says purely through the prism of their own intense dislike. Take yesterday’s, admittedly, unedifying row between Trump/Vance and Zelensky. For the bulk of the European media today, the spotlight will be on the ‘bullying and haranguing of a Ukrainian hero’. They won’t have see a serial grifter making demands in front of the press gathering, suggesting what he will and will not accept before an outline of a peace plan has even been pieced together! They will have conveniently missed the outrageous statement from Zelensky that Ukraine had been ‘alone’ in this war, notwithstanding the billions in military equipment provided courtesy of generous grants from both Europe and the United States. If, and in my mind it’s a big ‘if’, Putin (who I detest) comes out of all this the unquestionable victor after invading another sovereign country, then I would be the first to condemn Trump’s diplomatic skills.
However, I am willing to give time and plenty of space before rushing to judgement. By the way, anyone who thinks this type of exchange DOESN’T go on between leaders – but out of sight of the media in situations of intense international negotiations – needs their head examining! Or perhaps they think serious political history is made by the sort of bargaining we witnessed from Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd in the final scene of ‘Spies Like Us’? I credit Donald Trump with a lot more nous than many of his loose-lipped language forays would suggest. Only time will serve to prove if I am right.
It’s the same with the Gaza Strip proposal. I suppose on paper the idea of a Mediterranean Las Vegas is outlandish (https://news.sky.com/story/trump-posts-ai-video-of-gaza-vision-featuring-golden-statues-bearded-belly-dancers-and-netanyahu-on-a-sunbed-13317241). But would that not be a better outcome than allow it to fester as in incubator for Islamic radicals motivated by nothing other than the eradication of Israel and the mass killing/displacement of Jews? When Israel withdrew both its soldiers and civilian settlements from the territory in 2005, the Gazans were gifted an opportunity to begin to transform their land into something viable and attractive to international investment. What did they do instead? They bestowed a huge electoral mandate on a violent, regressive terrorist organisation that went on to build a network of tunnels larger than the subway systems of many cities! Not for the purposes of mass transit, you understand, but for the movement of terrorist personnel and weapons designed for attack on their neighbour. Hamas could have used the billions given to them by the USA, the UK and the EU for the betterment of their own people. They could have created wealth for their people. What they actually did was squirrel the money away for the Hamas leadership (which is why many of them live the high life in Qatar). By simply returning Gaza to the situation it was in prior to October 7th, all we are doing is creating another scenario where Hamas terrorists will attack Israel down the line; Israel will retaliate; and its enemies will be chalk up a fresh propaganda coup with mass support from a rancid collaboration of Muslim extremists and the Western Left. Is anyone telling me that is a preferable outcome for the good of Gaza and its citizens than what Donald Trump was suggesting?
Politicians, media commentators and other interested parties immediately slapped down the idea. And they did so for the same reason they’ll back Zelensky to the hilt with warm words after yesterday’s White House showdown; or for the same reason they all want to hold hands and sing “Don’t Look Back In Anger” after every new Islamic terrorist attack on British soil. It’s all performative gesturing. These gestures do absolutely nothing useful, but are designed to give the pretence of action from a globalist political class who, in truth, possess little clue as to what they are doing. They are mere histrionics – denoting incompetence, emotional vacuousness and/or geopolitical childishness. OK, so I probably wouldn’t have had an argument with Zelensky in front of the cameras yesterday, or suggested that Gaza be turned into a sunbathers paradise in quite the egotistical tones that President Trump did. That said, I at least get the feeling he is very serious about using his political position to effect meaningful change in both Ukraine and the Gaza Strip. By contrast, what do the likes of most EU leaders, or the dire premierships of Canada and Australia offer? I’ll tell you! In Gaza, they offer a precursory set of conditions for an emboldened Islamic terror organisation – be it Hamas or something new – to keep attacking Israel in a rinse and repeat cycle of deliberate Jewish slaughter. In Ukraine, they offer an unwinnable war without end. A bottomless of pit of Western taxpayers’ money that only ultimately benefits the self-importance of a malevolent dictator on the one hand (Putin), and a serial agitator/ingrate (Zelensky) on the other.
If you’ve bought into the lies, carefully crafted by a mixture of Left-leaning statecraft and a slanted media, that Ukraine can carry on this war to a pre-2014 victory, or that Hamas wants peace and co-existence with Israel, then their silver tongues have filled your mind with fools gold. Because these are the lies that come from the same place and the same people who forced you to sacrifice your freedoms for two years for a strain of the flu. From the same people who propagandised so successfully to the extent millions actually thought wearing a bit of cloth over your face actually prevented viral transmission; or that airborne diseases were rendered harmless if you stood at least six feet away from somebody else. Trump certainly does do/say things very differently. But ask yourselves this: What successes have been in evidence for the last few decades by always doing/saying things the same?
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