The Golden Pager and the 'Regular' Pager

Trump's insane plan for Gaza

At the press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu [née Benzion Mileikowsky] yesterday, Trump announced one of the most bizarre and brazenly criminal plans I’ve ever heard spoken aloud in American political discourse. Of course, I’m referring to Trump’s suggestions for the Gaza Strip that would remove the Palestinians from their homeland, send them to other countries, rebuild the region, and create “housing for the people of the area.” The area would become, as Trump put it, “the Riviera of the Middle East.” Since most Palestinians would be gone, by the “the people of the area,” Trump undoubtedly meant new Israeli settlers.

Further, the U.S. would be the responsible party for clearing Gaza of rubble and people and rebuilding the Gaza Strip:

The US will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it too. We'll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out. Create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area. Do a real job, do something different (emphasis mine).

That is, Trump promised that the U.S will do Israel’s dirty work by completing the 17-month operation undertaken by the IDF. Asked whether American troops would be required for this post-democidical cleansing and rebuilding operation, Trump suggested that U.S. troops would be sent, if necessary.

Instead, that is, of international and U.S. condemnation of Israel’s actions and Netanyahu’s leadership, Trump promised to reward further the state of Israel and Netanyahu, whose own political future hangs in the balance. Unless he finishes the job in Gaza and if the ceasefire lasts for too long, Netanyahu faces the prospect of being unseated in a preemptory election and standing trial for political corruption, to say nothing, for now, of the International Criminal Court’s warrant against him for genocide.

Further, not only would the U.S. clean up, rebuild, and send troops to Gaza if necessary, it would, Trump said, end up “owning that piece of land, developing and creating thousands of jobs with something that will be magnificent in a really magnificent area that nobody would know” (emphasis mine). On what grounds and under what international law such a land grab would be legal was not mentioned, except by a reporter whose question went unanswered.

Earlier in the day, Trump referred to the state of Israel as “a tiny land” and drew an analogy: Israel is to the Arab world as the tip of his pen is to his desk. The implication was clear. Israel needs to expand and broaden its borders. During the press conference, Trump suggested that the U.S. would make this expansion possible.

Trump and Netanyahu praised each other so much during the press conference that someone should have told them to get a room. The groveling on the part of Trump was debasing and seemed part of a ritual humiliation rite for the American audience. Video later emerged of Trump treating Netanyahu to his chair like a butler:

During the presser, Trump talked about the horrors and “miserable existence” of people in the Gaza Strip, while the person primarily responsible for this misery stood across from him and smiled. The people of Gaza, Trump said, have simply been “unlucky” to be bombed regularly; to have their homes, towns and cities reduced to rubble; and to have to fear for their lives on a daily basis.

Before you say, well, FAFO—if Gaza’s people hadn’t voted for Hamas, and if Hamas had not “kidnapped, tortured, raped and slaughtered innocent men, women, children and even little babies,” none of this would have happened to them—let me point you to the facts as we know them now. Although most of these claims have been debunked, Trump duly repeated them. It is now well known that the IDF killed hundreds of Palestinians in the West Bank (where Hamas has no role) in 2023, previous to October 7; that the IDF was responsible for many of the Israeli deaths on October 7 (thanks to Israel’s employment of the Hannibal Directive); that Israel had the plans for October 7 for over a year before the event; that the IDF stood down for some seven hours after the attack began; that no evidence of burned babies have been found; and that reports of rape have been exaggerated. In retaliation for the attack, Israel has killed an estimated 500-700 thousand Gazans, as evidenced by the fact that of the 2.3 million who lived there, only 1.5-1.7 million remain to be removed.

And to the “human shields” argument, as reports from +972 Magazine and Local Call revealed, the IDF employed AI systems in its bombing campaigns on Gaza, and the IDF knew that its use of AI necessarily would lead to mass civilian casualties, yet undertook them anyway:

Compared to previous Israeli assaults on Gaza, the current war — which Israel has named “Operation Iron Swords,” and which began in the wake of the Hamas-led assault on southern Israel on October 7 — has seen the army significantly expand its bombing of targets that are not distinctly military in nature. These include private residences as well as public buildings, infrastructure, and high-rise blocks, which sources say the army defines as “power targets” (“matarot otzem”).

The bombing of power targets, according to intelligence sources who had first-hand experience with its application in Gaza in the past, is mainly intended to harm Palestinian civil society: to “create a shock” that, among other things, will reverberate powerfully and “lead civilians to put pressure on Hamas,” as one source put it.

Several of the sources, who spoke to +972 and Local Call on the condition of anonymity, confirmed that the Israeli army has files on the vast majority of potential targets in Gaza — including homes — which stipulate the number of civilians who are likely to be killed in an attack on a particular target. This number is calculated and known in advance to the army’s intelligence units, who also know shortly before carrying out an attack roughly how many civilians are certain to be killed (emphasis mine).

“You are the greatest friend Israel has ever had in the White House,” Netanyahu said during the presser, demonstrating that he knew just how to manipulate Trump—through flattery.

At some point during the visit, Netanyahu reportedly gifted Trump with a golden pager and a “regular” pager, references to the clandestine operation that decimated the Hezbollah terror group as well as killing and maiming non-Hezbollah victims.

“That was a great operation,” Trump responded, according to Israeli Channel 12 news.

In return, Trump gave Netanyahu a photo of the two of them from the visit, with the dedication, “To Bibi, a great leader.”

Although in some sick twisted way the gift of the golden pager makes sense, the “gift” of the “regular” pager is most curious. Was it an implicit and subtle threat?

Anyway, if Trump is playing 5-D chess with Netanyahu, the whole meeting with the war criminal was nevertheless a national and international disgrace. When Lyndsey Graham suggests that your plan of putting troops on the ground is a bad idea, you know you’re in strange territory.