Mr. Trump, the Road to Hell Has Many Paths
This was true until Donald Trump arrived at the White House under ambiguous circumstances. With him, America no longer needed complex stupid moves to make us wonder; his tenure was, in itself, a perpetual state of chaos.
The world will never forget his first term at the height of the COVID-19 crisis, when he interfered in medical affairs, suggesting in a live televised briefing that Americans might inject themselves with disinfectants, as though chemical cleaners could kill viruses on human skin and clothing. That presidency ended in utter turmoil, culminating in his call to supporters to take to the streets and prevent certification of the election results—an incitement that led to the storming of the U.S. Capitol, an unprecedented event in American history.
Four years later, Trump reemerged in his second term with grand promises of having learned from past mistakes: to stop wars and bring peace. Yet within seven months, he had managed to spark crises with virtually everyone—friends and foes alike—plunging the world into a dark spiral of endless turmoil.
Trump awoke to the echoes of explosions carried out by the so-called “government of legends,” this time targeting Doha. Israeli jets struck a virtual meeting of senior Hamas leaders, convened to discuss the “Caesar of the White House’s” plan to end the Gaza war. The strike took place on the sovereign soil of a state long accused of complicity in the Palestinian file, in coordination with successive U.S. administrations—from the era of the Al-Thani patriarchs down to Emir Tamim bin Hamad.
After much anticipation, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt read a carefully worded statement that raised more questions than it answered: the U.S., she insisted, had no role in the strike, though it had been informed of it by the American military and passed the warning to the Qataris through Steve Witkoff. The goal, she added, was the noble one of eliminating Hamas leadership, but the location chosen—on the soil of a U.S. ally—was not endorsed by Trump. She claimed Trump had spoken with the Emir and Prime Minister of Qatar to explain his dissatisfaction and also held a vague conversation with Benjamin Netanyahu.
Trump canceled a scheduled press event tied to one of his routine executive orders and instead appeared at a nearby restaurant, where reporters pressed him again. He repeated Leavitt’s statement, adding only that “perhaps these strikes support the peace process,” urging Qatar to continue its efforts, and promising the strikes would not recur on its soil. He assured journalists of a fuller briefing the following day.
But questions lingered: Was the strike timed deliberately to coincide with Trump’s “peace plan” discussions? Was his initiative itself a trap designed to lure Hamas leaders into one place for Netanyahu’s opportunistic strike—just as Israel once struck Hassan Nasrallah amid negotiations with Iran? Could Trump really convince anyone that Israeli jets traveled 1,800 kilometers across heavily monitored skies without prior approval from U.S. Central Command? Why did the advanced defenses at Al-Udeid airbase—covering a thousand kilometers of airspace—fall silent at the crucial moment?
Hours later, Qatar’s prime minister and foreign minister held a delayed press conference, offering evasive, grief-choked answers. After seventy thousand dead, 170,000 wounded, and an entire country destroyed, they spoke neither of U.S. promises nor of Israeli guarantees. When asked about warnings, they admitted receiving an American alert only ten minutes after the explosions. On their failed air defenses, they mumbled about the effectiveness against Iran but claimed Israel used “advanced weapons” this time. The unspoken truth: activation decisions weren’t theirs to make—the real sovereign had already disabled the systems before the jets even took off.
Meanwhile, Trump recycled Netanyahu’s infamous “five conditions”:
Hamas disarmament,
release of Israeli hostages,
a demilitarized Gaza,
Israeli security control, and
a civilian administration unaffiliated with Hamas or the PLO.
Instead of his own “Witkoff Initiative”—a temporary truce with partial prisoner exchange—Trump now pushed Netanyahu’s maximalist agenda. The U.S. president abandoned mediators like Egypt and Qatar, striking a direct channel with Hamas at Netanyahu’s request.
Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz added fuel, declaring that Gaza’s “towers of terror” would fall unless Hamas surrendered hostages and weapons. Between Trump’s “last chance” politically and Katz’s “final warning” militarily, Hamas found itself trapped—unable to accept, unable to reject, and dragging two million Gazans toward catastrophe.
On the ground, hundreds of thousands were being funneled westward toward Gaza’s seacoast, under Israeli encirclement from north, south, and east. With infrastructure obliterated, three chilling options emerged:
Starve and bombard civilians until they flee south.
Forcefully expel them after sealing the siege, separating men, women, and children
Or commit a massacre of those who refuse to leave, branding them part of Hamas’s “popular bass.”
The darkest speculation yet: a plan of forced deportation by sea, using vessels secretly contracted through U.S.-Israeli coordination with a third country.
The American-Israeli complicity was no longer hidden. Trump and Netanyahu were two sides of the same coin, locked in mutual political survival. Trump’s electoral victories leaned heavily on Netanyahu’s networks and the financial muscle of Jewish-American lobbies; in return, Trump bent U.S. policy to Netanyahu’s needs. The balance of power was clear: Trump was the dependent, not the master.
Netanyahu had succeeded in luring Hamas into direct negotiations, sidelining a unified Arab stance and securing precious time for his own embattled political survival. Even Qatar, before the strike on its own soil, had urged Hamas to consider Trump’s proposals positively—a futile gesture in what had become a deadly theater written in blood.
And so, the road to hell continues, paved by Trump and Netanyahu’s intertwined calculations, with Gaza’s people paying the price at every turn.
تعليقات
إرسال تعليق