from Mondoweiss
Donald Trump has completed his brief tour of Middle East states, the first of his second term in office. It was a headline-grabbing tour, with scandals, important announcements, and events happening alongside the President’s appearances. It was equally notable for what was missing: Palestine.
The issue of the genocide in Gaza could not be relegated to complete invisibility, of course. It’s too important to the host countries, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, all of whom have some interest in seeing the genocide end and allowing the comfortable fiction of a two-state solution to re-enter diplomatic discourse.
But the big announcements from Trump and the gathered Arab leaders did not include any measure to stop the genocide raging in Gaza, and didn’t even mention the escalation of ethnic cleansing in the West Bank or Israel’s recent decision on land registration which amounts to full annexation of more than half of the West Bank.
Trump would like the public to focus on his exaggerated, though still significant, trade and arms deals. And, indeed, it is important to recognize that Trump is sharply escalating the long-term American project of flooding the Middle East with ever greater quantities of increasingly sophisticated weapons. In the process, the Trump administration is dramatically strengthening support for some of the most brutal dictatorships in the world, and is very blunt about doing so...
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