It’s not just about Ukraine: the Trump administration’s interventionist policy that excludes Europe continues its pressures in the Middle East as well. Side by side, Secretary of State Marco Rubio on his first trip to the region, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, draw the lines of their joint policy: first, the gates of hell will open if every single Israeli hostage held by Hamas does not return; second, “Trump has clearly articulated his vision for Gaza: Hamas cannot continue to be the dominant force” in the territory.
The joint statement goes hand in hand with the press conference: Trump “is the greatest friend Israel has ever had in the White House,” Netanyahu told U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio at a press conference in Jerusalem. “Israel and America stand shoulder to shoulder in countering the threat from Iran. We agree that the ayatollahs should not be allowed to have nuclear weapons. We also agree that Iran’s aggression in the region must be withdrawn.” With Trump’s support, Netanyahu said, “we can and will get the job done.”
Certainly, Rubio has discussed the Gaza ceasefire and will have discussed Trump’s controversial proposal that the U.S. should take control of the Strip, rebuild it after the devastation of 15 months of Israeli bombardment, make it a “Middle East Riviera,” and relocate its more than 2 million residents elsewhere (where we do not know), which experts say would amount to ethnic cleansing.
Meanwhile, with Rubio’s arrival, a shipment of American MK-84 heavy bombs also arrived in Israel last night: Trump lifted the embargo imposed by the Biden administration on the export of these munitions, the Defense Department reported. Rubio landed in Tel Aviv Saturday just hours after the sixth prisoner exchange under the fragile truce between Israel and Hamas (three Israeli hostages versus 369 Palestinian prisoners). After Jerusalem, he will travel to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Negotiations on the second phase of the truce are expected to begin next week in Doha. The White House has said it is open to other ideas from Arab countries, but for now “the only plan is Trump’s,” who has written on his social platform, Truth Social, that “Israel will have to decide what to do. The United States will support its decision.”
The Israeli army meanwhile said it carried out an air raid in the early hours of Sunday against people approaching its forces in southern Gaza. Three Palestinian policemen who were securing the entry of aid trucks near Rafah, on the border with Egypt, were killed in the attack, according to Hamas.
