As I am writing this column, the Israeli military is converging on Gaza to destroy what has been left after 22 months of relentless war that killed more than 60,000 Palestinians and leveled to the ground 80 percent of its infrastructure.
To say that this is unconscionable is an understatement. The whole world must awake to this unfolding disaster, which is tantamount to a second genocide against the Palestinians. The Netanyahu government is not hiding its intended crimes against humanity. Eli Cohen, a minister in Israel’s security cabinet, despicably stated, “Gaza City itself should be exactly like Rafah, which we turned into a city of ruins.”
The whole world should be up in arms and stop at nothing to stop Netanyahu’s new catastrophic offensive. Trump, more than any other global leader, has the power not to ask but demand that Netanyahu stop his second genocide that will kill thousands of Palestinian women and children and displace hundreds of thousands, making Gaza entirely uninhabitable.
Trump must remember that if he does not act immediately, given his power and ability to stop the Israeli new offensive, history will judge him as an accessory to the genocide that will inevitably occur, because the U.S. is supplying Israel with the weapons and ammunition to kill Palestinians.
President Trump must also remember that even if Israel succeeds in its campaign to commit a total ethnic cleansing of Gaza, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will only enter a new phase of violence unfathomable in its scope and catastrophic implications. Hamas will not be liquidated as a movement, no matter what Israel does. Beyond that, new radical movements will mushroom throughout the Middle East and destabilize the entire region to a level unseen before. Instead of forging new peace accords, Trump will face new, raging, violent conflicts that will be beyond his control.
This is the time when Trump’s leadership will matter the most. There is no time to spare. It may seem oversimplified, but it will indeed take only a phone call to Netanyahu to demand that he stop his offensive immediately. This is a humanitarian issue of the highest order. Even the most ardent supporters of Israel in the U.S. will understand that America still has a moral obligation that it cannot forfeit, even when a close ally is involved. Instead of aiding the butcher Netanyahu, Trump will emerge as a statesman who rose to the call of the hour.
And if Trump is still dreaming of earning the Nobel Peace Prize, he should not only stop the new Israeli genocidal offensive but also push for an end to the war in Gaza, demand an exit strategy from Netanyahu, and work toward finding a permanent solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Dr. Alon Ben-Meir is a retired professor of international relations, most recently at the Center for Global Affairs at NYU. He taught courses on international negotiation and
Middle Eastern studies.
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