John Jefferson
This week, the final week before President Donald Trump’s second term officially begins, negotiators are reaching a ceasefire deal after more than 15 months of relentless bloodshed in Gaza. Observers close to the corrupt and unpopular government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are decrying the deal as a defeat—a clear signal that humanity and restraint have finally won out.
A few quotations from Israeli sources reported by The Middle East Observer are representative.
“This is a surrender deal,” said one. “We surrendered because of Trump and media pressure.”
Other Netanyahu allies have totally lost their cool. This week they’re speaking openly of their plans, now foiled by Trump, for ethnic cleansing in Gaza.
“We are the first to pay the price for Trump’s election,” said the journalist and Netanyahu ally Ariel Segal. “We expected that we would take control of northern Gaza and prevent humanitarian aid.” (Emphasis added.)
The outgoing Biden administration is putting out as many statements as possible to the press—breathless, face-saving comments that no serious person believes.
Everyone knows Trump’s team directly oversaw the Israel–Hamas negotiations leading up to this week’s deal. But more importantly, we all remember a 2024 presidential contest in which Trump spoke out again and again for the Palestinian people—while the Democratic campaign of Biden’s Vice President Kamala Harris avoided the topic like the plague.
As I wrote just after Election Day,
it took tremendous courage for President-elect Donald Trump to stand with the suffering people of Gaza during his own campaign. And when he did so, he also showed courage in standing with the American people in their revulsion for what he calls the “forever wars” of the foreign policy establishment.
And Trump also spoke out boldly on behalf of Middle Eastern minority communities in the U.S. during his campaign, promising to stand against “warhawks” like the Cheney and Bush families. Members of both those families, meanwhile, endorsed the Harris campaign—as did numerous pro-war political military brass and intelligence officials with cushy jobs in D.C.
Trump made visits to Muslim- and Arab-majority communities like Dearborn, Michigan, where a young immigrant voter last week called out to him: “Trump, what do you have to say about Gaza?”
“It’s gotta stop,” Trump answered on the spot. “What we want is peace.”
I personally did all I could to help bring about Trump’s reelection. And what did I focus on the most? Well, in a roll of the dice that had many of my acquaintances scratching their heads, I spent a lot of my time in the months leading up to Election Day with immigrant communities from the Middle East.
We talked about the genocide in Gaza, the urgent need for peace, and Trump’s willingness to stand with the vulnerable rather than the powerful.
And sure enough, one result of Trump’s outspokenness against Israel’s inexcusable actions in Gaza during his presidential campaign was a huge turnout for Trump among Middle Eastern immigrant voter communities in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and elsewhere, who helped hand him his reelection victory.
And Trump didn’t stop there. While others continue to either fawn over Netanyahu or stay nervously silent, fearing his now dwindling influence in Washington’s establishment foreign policy circles, Trump has blown right through the etiquette.
Just last week, Trump posted a video on social media of economist Jeffrey Sachs saying the quiet part out loud about Netanyahu.
“Netanyahu had from 1995 onward the theory that the only way we’re gonna get rid of Hamas and Hezbollah is by toppling the governments that support them,” said Sachs. “That’s Iraq, Syria, and Iran. And the guy’s nothing if not obsessive.”
“And he’s still trying to get us to fight Iran this day, this week,” Sachs added, referring to Netanyahu. “He’s a deep dark sonofabitch, sorry to tell you. ’Cause he’s gotten us into endless wars, and because of the power of all of this in the U.S. politics, he’s gotten his way.”
It’s clear enough why Trump would feel free to go after Netanyahu. When sacred cows appear on the road to securing the common good, Trump whips out a cattle prod. He’s a barnburner, a political outsider, and a guy with a strong nose for public sentiment—especially when it begins to murmur against positions artificially imposed on us by the ruling class.
The common sentiment between Palestinian expats and other Middle Easterners who stood in solidarity with them on the one hand and the Trump camp on the other turned out to be a powerful and historic bond. And it truly made America great again—specifically by returning our nation to its founding principle of solidarity with those whose inalienable dignity is abused.
I characterized the phenomenon as “How Gaza Saved America.” And this week, Trump saved Gaza right back.
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