Editorial: Take Donald Trump’s Gaza threats seriously, not literally
During his brief time as White House communications director during Donald Trump’s first term, Anthony Scaramucci had a go-to line at the ready to neutralise press freak-outs about the President’s latest wild proclamation.
“Take him seriously, but don’t take him literally.”
It’s wise to apply that lens to Mr Trump’s startling plan for the US to seize control of Gaza, raze what’s left of it, remove its Palestinian inhabitants, and “develop” it into the “Riviera of the Middle East”.
Even Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, standing beside Mr Trump, seemed a little taken aback by the audaciousness of the President’s radical policy swerve.
Taken literally, it’s a mad plan, for which no legal authority exists. The proposal to “resettle” Palestinians elsewhere, presumably against their will, is not a scenario the world will or should accept.
Mr Trump himself has said he doesn’t want to put American lives and money on the line in foreign wars.
So why would he now be willing to do just that?
The generous interpretation is that he isn’t.
Under that interpretation, the intended audience for Mr Trump’s posturing are Gaza’s neighbouring Arab states.
For all their rhetoric about the plight of the Palestinian people, they’ve been reluctant to step forward to aid in what will be a eye-wateringly expensive and difficult reconstruction.
Mr Trump’s threat says: if you don’t, we will.
The hope is that those states will see taking responsibility for that reconstruction as the lesser of two evils when compared to a prospect of a returned US presence in the Middle East.
As a negotiating tactic, it’s unconventional. But so far, conventional approaches haven’t made a lot of headway in sorting out what has been a headache for the world for decades.
One who wasn’t open to any original thinking is our own Prime Minister.
When asked what he thought of Mr Trump’s proposal, Anthony Albanese refused to deviate from the line prepared by his army of spinners that he wasn’t willing to engage in a “daily commentary” on Mr Trump’s statements.
We get it, you don’t like the bloke. You’d rather Mr Trump stuck to the golf greens of Florida instead of returning to the international stage.
That doesn’t change the fact that he’s now the leader of the free world, and responding when he makes world-changing proclamations falls within your brief as Prime Minister.
Pleading to return to questions about Medicare instead of engaging thoughtfully and seriously with an issue which would have repercussions for the entire world — Australia included — made Mr Albanese look pathetically provincial.
Like it or not, we’re now living in a Trumpian world where the accepted rules no longer apply.
That’s a fact Mr Albanese needs to start taking both seriously and literally.
#Editorial #Donald #Trumps #Gaza #threats #literally