Mad Hatter strikes again…and again
Rashed Rahman
US President Donald Trump, in his inimitable style and thrust, continues to rock the boat globally. Not only has he unleashed (without, it seems, any consultation, and almost as a parting shot in his joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu) his ridiculous ‘cleanse Gaza, develop a riviera front there’ absurdity, he has threatened higher, punitive tariffs on friends, allies and ‘adversaries’ alike, triggering fears of a global trade war. The former has, as expected, evoked condemnation across the board and the world. The latter has transpired, at least in the case of Canada and Mexico, as bargaining chips intended to ‘persuade’ both neighbours to negotiate solutions to illegal immigration and trade issues. And let’s not even tarry on Trump’s threats to retake the Panama Canal and rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. Trump thinks he can strike deals to reverse the decline of the US as a major industrial and trading power, the former having been depleted by globalisation and its concomitant shift of industries abroad, particularly to the lower cost, lower wages developing world, the latter highlighting the trade deficits of the US with most major trading partners, which have become a permanent fact for long.
Is Trump stark, raving mad, as some writers have suggested? I do not flatter myself that my characterisation of him as the Mad Hatter has prompted this description. In my view, Trump is a sane, albeit extreme and not always well informed, defender of what he calls nostalgically “America Great Again”. The facts, however, which Trump may or may not be aware of, point to the gaps and fallacies of his flurry of pronouncements since assuming office. Take illegal immigration for example. The southern states of the US, including Texas and California, have for years relied on illegal immigrant Mexican labour to bring in fruit and other agricultural harvests. The total clampdown on illegal immigration that Trump has initiated, without considering legitimising seasonal visiting labour during harvest seasons, is likely to cause major economic disruptions in these southern states because American labour, particularly white, is reluctant to take such jobs. The higher tariffs imposed on Canada and Mexico, now halted till negotiations on trade and illegal immigration issues are being conducted, cannot match the disruptive effects of a trade war between China and the US. A tentative start of this war has been signalled by China raising tariffs on some US imports as a warning shot across the bows against proceeding further down this path. Europe too is girding up its loins for a possible retaliatory raft of tariff increases if Trump carries out his threat to ‘reverse’ the US’s trade deficits, whether with friend or foe. Whether he succeeds in this enterprise or not, his attempt to do so is likely to cause severe repercussions and ripples through the global economic order touted as ‘rules based’. The fallout will not leave any part of the globe untouched. The declining hegemonic power (the US) is desperately trying to reverse the relentless march of history towards a multi-polar world, in which China threatens to overtake the US economically (perhaps not yet militarily).
On Palestine, almost on cue, Netanyahu has added fuel to the fire sparked by Trump’s insensitive, ill thought through, seemingly impromptu remarks on Gaza by suggesting the Palestinians should be ‘liberated’ from the world’s biggest open air prison (Gaza). This ‘thoughtful’ follow through to Trump’s silliness has added new feathers to this ‘comic’ duo’s circus act. Netanyahu generously absolves the US from the onerous task of sending American troops to ethnically cleanse Gaza, offering Israeli troops for the task. Further, he proclaims loftily: only those Gazans will be allowed back who forego terrorism. If this were not adding salt to Palestinian wounds inflicted by Netanyahu and his fascist settler colonialist, expansionist state, one might be tempted to laugh. Clearly Netanyahu has not drawn the correct conclusions from the incredibly courageous Palestinian resistance to Israeli genocide in Gaza. The Palestinians in reply to Netanyahu’s nonsense have reiterated their love of their land and their right to live on it. They have rejected any repetition of the 1948 Naqba (displacement). Despairing of the ruins their homes have been reduced to by the Israeli terror inflicted by its military machine, oiled and fed by the US-led west, the Gaza Palestinians have reiterated their patriotic love of their land. And lest we forget, despite the ceasefire a month ago, Israel has continued its killing spree in Gaza. The casualty count in this period alone is 110 Palestinians killed, 900 wounded. Add to this the raids by the Israeli military in the West Bank, and you get an inkling of what Israel’s real plan is: evict the Palestinians by hook or by crook from Gaza and the West Bank and annex both. Intone therefore the funeral dirge for the much touted, seemingly more and more impossible, ‘two-state’ solution.
Now there is only one solution. The Palestinians must continue their resistance struggle against Israel despite the odds and the many more sacrifices required of them in order to overthrow, liquidate the Zionist state and liberate Palestine, no matter how long it takes. Jewish citizens of Israel innocent of crimes against the Palestinian people can then be offered the choice of remaining as equal citizens of a liberated Palestine, or emigration to a country of their choice. Those Israelis found guilty of atrocities and crimes against the Palestinian people must face charges and be punished justly for their abhorrent past. The Palestinians unfortunately cannot, and, given the track record, should not rest too many hopes in the Arab or Muslim world. These are toothless entities, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
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