Despite the carnage in Gaza, United States President Donald Trump has received a hero’s welcome across the Middle East as he visited Israel and Egypt to celebrate the ceasefire deal.
Trump spoke at the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, on Monday before heading to Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt, where he participated in a signing ceremony for the ceasefire agreement along with regional and international leaders.
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Throughout the trip, Trump expressed joy and took personal credit for ending the Israeli war on Gaza, which killed nearly 68,000 Palestinians in a campaign that leading rights advocates have described as a genocide.
The US president delivered several sets of remarks throughout the day, emphasising his support for Israel and asserting that the Gaza ceasefire marks the start of a peaceful era in the region.
Here are key takeaways from Trump’s remarks:
A new Middle East
It’s not uncommon for US presidents to envision and promote “a new Middle East” – one that is friendly to Washington and Israel, stable and ripe for trade and investments.
Trump on Monday became the latest US president to talk of a fundamental transformation in the region.
“This is the end of an age of terror and death and the beginning of the age of faith and hope and of God,” Trump said.
“It’s the start of a grand concord and lasting harmony for Israel and all the nations of what will soon be a truly magnificent region. I believe that so strongly. This is the historic dawn of a new Middle East.”
Throughout his remarks, Trump painted the agreement in Gaza as an all-encompassing solution to the issues in the region.
But Palestinian rights advocates have warned that there can be no lasting peace and stability if Israel continues its occupation and subjugation of Palestinians.
Israel has continued to launch attacks across Lebanon and Syria, while continuing to expand illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.
While countries across the world have welcomed ending two years of horrific atrocities in Gaza, it remains to be seen how the deal will affect broader conflicts in the region.
Calling for Netanyahu pardon
Trump sang the praises of Benjamin Netanyahu and tried to boost the Israeli prime minister, who is facing corruption charges domestically.
While Trump has previously called for dropping the legal cases against Netanyahu, on Monday, he called on Israeli President Isaac Herzog publicly to pardon the prime minister, downplaying the allegations against him, which include receiving lavish gifts as bribes.
“I have an idea: Mr president, why don’t you give him a pardon?” Trump said as the Israeli parliament erupted in cheers. “Cigars and champagne – who the hell cares about it?”
Trump called Netanyahu one of the greatest wartime leaders.
“He is not easy,” the US president said of the Israeli prime minister. “I want to tell you he’s not the easiest guy to deal with, but that’s what makes him great.”
Trump also recounted how Netanyahu would request specific weapons from him.
“We make the best weapons in the world, and we’ve got a lot of them, and we’ve given a lot to Israel, frankly,” the US president said.
“I mean, Bibi would call me so many times – ‘Can you get me this weapon, that weapon, that weapon?’ Some of them, I never heard of.”
Israel has used US weapons to turn most of Gaza into rubble and attack countries across the region. Washington has provided $21bn to its Middle East ally over the past two years.
Acknowledging international pressure
Despite lauding Netanyahu, Trump recognised that global opinion was turning against Israel due to the horrific atrocities in Gaza.
“The world is big and is strong, and ultimately the world wins,” Trump said.
Several of Israel’s Western allies recognised a Palestinian state in the past months, partly in response to the horrors Israel was unleashing on Gaza.
The US president said he congratulates Netanyahu for taking the “victory” instead of continuing the war indefinitely.
“If you would have gone on for three, four more years – keep fighting, fighting, fighting – it was getting bad. It was getting heated,” he said.
“The timing of this is brilliant. And I said, ‘Bibi, you’re going to be remembered for this far more than if you kept this thing going, going, going – kill, kill, kill.’”
Trump suggested that Israel’s issues are now over. “The world is loving Israel again,” he told the Knesset.
But rights advocates have vowed to continue to push for accountability for the genocide.
A passing message to Palestinians
In his comments throughout Monday, Trump took a proverbial victory lap. focusing on what he said would be a bright future for Israel and the broader region.
But he had a brief message to Palestinians in his Knesset speech.
The US president called on Palestinians in Gaza to focus on “stability, safety, dignity and economic development”.
There was no acknowledgement of Israeli atrocities or of the decades of displacement, dispossession and occupation that the International Court of Justice says amount to apartheid.
“The choice for Palestinians could not be more clear. This is their chance to turn forever from the path of terror and violence. It’s been extreme, to exile the wicked forces of hate that are in their midst,” Trump said.
He reasserted the claim that Palestinians’ grievances with Israel are driven by hate, rather than by the material conditions Israel has imposed on them.
“After tremendous pain and death and hardship, now is the time to concentrate on building their people up, instead of trying to tear Israel down,” Trump said of Palestinians.
At no point did he recognise Palestinians’ right to their own state.
Mixed signals to Iran
Trump once again reasserted that the US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities obliterated the country’s nuclear programme.
He also gave Israel a pat on the back for killing Iran’s top military leaders and many of the country’s nuclear scientists.
Trump also suggested that if Israel and the US had not attacked Iran, the Gaza deal would not have come together.
He said that taking out the Iranian nuclear programme paves the way for more Arab states to establish formal diplomatic ties with Israel.
“We don’t have a Gaza and we don’t have an Iran as an excuse. That was a good excuse, but we don’t have that anymore,” he said. “All the momentum now is toward a great, glorious and lasting peace.”
But despite painting Iran as defeated and weakened, Trump kept the door open for talks with Tehran.
“I think Iran will come along,” he said.
Israel attacked Iran in June, days before Iranian and US negotiators were set to meet for a round of talks in Oman.
“I’d love to take the sanctions off when they’re ready to talk,” Trump told reporters on Monday. “They can’t really survive with those sanctions; those sanctions are very tough.”
