Trump famously said that he wanted the hostages released by January 20th or there’d be hell to pay.
Well, we now have what appears to be a ceasefire deal. All hostages won’t be released by the 20th, but it won’t be long afterwards.
As Ryan Grim states, Biden wasn’t “weak”, he was for the genocide. And as many of us noted, the war could always have been ended by the US with one phone call, because it could not be waged without US support. Israel is completely dependent on American weapons and ammunition shipments, as well as US economic aid.
Lots of stuff is still up in the air, including who will control Gaza afterwards, and we’ll see if Israel actually lets aid in. But the deal appears to be basically the same deal as the one offered in July which Netanyahu kiboshed. The difference now is that Trump, even if not officially President yet, is calling the shots. Biden could have ended it in July and saved a ton of lives.
I’m a little surprised by this, but apparently Trump wasn’t just pandering to Muslims when he said he’d end the war. As for Biden, he’s human filth, a genocidal bastard. I refused to endorse him because I won’t support genocide, period.
Those who said Trump would be even worse for Gaza appear to have been wrong.
Don’t support genocide. Ever.
This also appears to be a loss for Israel, though it will depend on the details. Israel’s goal was ethnic cleansing at the least. If the Gazans keep control of all of Gaza, Israel lost. Frankly, at this point, not something I expected, but we’ll see as the deal and Israeli compliance with the deal becomes more clear.
America is in decline, possibly terminal decline, but it’s still a great power and Israel is entirely America’s creature, though the influence of AIPAC often makes it unclear whether the dog’s waving the tail, or the tail the dog.
different clue
Yes, it does prove Biden wanted that particular genocide. If Trump turns out to be rather better for Palestine than Biden was, that would mean in hindsight that he will have been rather better on Palestine than Harris would have been.
mago
Israel holds the bull’s nose ring. No question.
Oakchair
Imagine telling someone in 2020, “4 years from now Trump will be president again because compared to Democrats Trump will be more opposed to genocide, he will be less of a war slut, and he will be more against poisoning the population for corporate profit.”
I wouldn’t be surprised if Trumps second term is another raging burning disaster, but the fact that it’s an open question if it will be less war sluttly, less genocidal, and cause less harm to peoples health than Biden’s admisntration is a testament to how much the Democratic establishment needs to be burned and salted.
Though this seems to be the trajectory of many major center-left western parties from the Canadian Liberals, Germen Social Democrats, Labour in the UK, et al.
DMC
Anything is better than nothing seems to be what what put Trump back in the Oval Office. Biden did nothing, so the electoate decided Harris wouldn’t either, so they figured if Trump did even 10% of what he said that would be SOME kind of chamge because the status quo was killing them and all the Dems would talk about was how many tens of billions we should send to Isreal so they did’nt run out of white phosphorous to frop on civillians.
j
Now whether any of this will stick, that’s another question. Or if it does, what will be the meaning of it. I had an eery feeling last time when he got out of Afghanistan – what did he free up the resources for? For Ukraine, it turned out, and the situation went from bad to worse.
A completely different, but fun topic – how is it that a guy who is not the president, is being the president? I mean yeah, the current one’s a zombie, and the other one is going to be the next one, but still, I’d expect there to be laws requiring one to be sworn in and such.
Mark Level
This should put a huge smile on my face, BUT knowing what kind of monsters the Deep State is wholly made up of, I’m going to suspend judgment until I actually see the slaughter stop.
As you say, the rub is, will any aid be allowed in or will they still be starving Palestinians? Keaton Weiss of the Due Dissidence podcast came up with a great metaphor for the election last summer. He said a President Harris would be a game of Russian Roulette with 6 rounds in the chamber; and President Trump II would be the same but with only 5 bullets in the chamber. (And he was speaking for us ‘Muricans, not for the Palestinians.)
For whatever reason, evidently seeing some “inconvenient” people disappear into the harbor or cement blocks at construction sites early in his Real Estate career, Trump is said to be somewhat disgusted by violence and death, & having a direct role in that. (This despite having Roy Cohn as his mentor!!) IF this proves to be true, I think we have the true reason Hillary and all the murderous ghouls warned us he is “unfit” to be President– they pretended it was the vulgarity, but after all we went through Clinton & Bush II, & Biden presidencies (“You’re a dog-faced pony soldier! Corn Pop was a Baaaad Dude!” “What if that Camera behind you fell forward & hit you in the head?”*), and chest-beating & crapping down onto the peasants’ heads was no problem then.
Another thing the DD podcast covered 2 days’ ago is Netanyahoo NOT being invited to the Trump inauguration. It’s stated he told people when Bibi wasn’t supportive of his “Stop the Steal” hysterics and immediately congratulated Bidet for winning, “Fuck Netanyahu! I’m done with him.” He is extremely transactional, as we all know, & certainly in no way above acting based on emotion. . . my biggest worry, however, is how Geminis can be extremely mutable and inconsistent.
In the figure of Dylan, one can see the deliberate & skilled use of the Gemini’s Mercurial nature– you have Oracular Bob (Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall), Cynic Bob (Ballad of a Thin Man), Country Bob, Folk Bob, Electric Bob, Epic Bob (Isis), Stoner Bob (Rainy Day Women), Zionist Bob (Neighborhood Bully), “Old, Weird America” Bob, Absent Bob (frequent disappearances, for up to 2+ years) & many more personas.
The one thing that gives me (some) hope is the Donald’s desperate need to be #1, loved, “Great”, admired. 1 does not see this in the truly hardened, murderous reps of TPTB– Henry Kissinger craved respect, but certainly not affection, Madelaine Albright cared not a whit (the death of half a million children? “a price that’s worth it”), most truly do NOT care because the POWER is drug enough, they are high on their own supply.
I certainly tired of all the Lib over-psychological analysis of Trump’s character. However, bearing in mind that both Hillary & Trump share one feature in early life, a violent and fascistic father figure who brooked NO independence or autonomy, who killed one of their siblings, they seem to have responded very differently to that scenario. Hils’ brother hung himself, as I recall, the Donald sibling drank himself into an early grave. Hill became the violent monster that Daddy was, abused her own daughter emotionally at the very least (frequently belittles her publicly, no love evinced– the perfect model for Selina Meyer in Veep), the Donald craves attention, love & sympathy. Even Libs who lived in Donald’s buildings admit he was always friendly, attentive & willing to engage with them.
Again, Obama taught me to beware “Hope” from our “Betters”, but we shall see.
*Max Blumenthal showed this clip. An Israeli journalist had asked Joe, “Can we soon see a Cease fire so we can get our hostages back?” Another such incident happened with a female reporter (don’t forget how Biden treated Anita Hill on behalf of his segregationist, R. buddies) some time back during a photo op was “driving” a Sports Car on a big open track. (Okay, a handler in the passenger seat had control of the steering & braking as well). She was standing right by his driver-side window & asked, “Will we see a cease fire soon?” He said, “If you step in front of the car I’ll answer you.” And her fellow press hooted and giggled just as Bush Jr. did back in the day over “Where are those pesky WMDs?”, at the prospect of a colleague’s vehicular homicide.