The new ‘rules-based order’ is that there are no rules, except the capricious decrees of the strongman, writes Yoav Litvin [photo credit: Getty Images]
After two weeks of Donald Trump at the helm, it’s clear the warnings about creeping fascism and America going rogue were too optimistic. The bar wasn’t just low, it’s six feet under, buried alongside the last remnants of US neoliberal democratic norms and illusions courtesy of Biden, Harris and Blinken.
In a spectacle of diplomacy with the delicacy of a bull in a china shop, President Donald Trump, flanked by his war criminal buddy Benjamin Netanyahu, announced his latest real estate venture — turning Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”
Forget the outdated Israeli tactic of “mowing the lawn,” it’s time to turn Palestinian property into a cash cow and AirBnB that muthaf*cka to the highest bidders.
Why get caught up in annoying details of an eight-decade-long occupation, mass displacement, genocide-for-land-grabs and trivial irrelevancies like international law? Trump’s selling a new ‘rules-based order’ so bold it might just earn him a Nobel Peace Prize, where he’d join the sordid pantheon of legendary “peacemakers” like Henry Kissinger, Barack Obama and Menachem Begin.
The plan? Relocate 2 million Palestinians like tenants overstaying a lease, clear out the “bad vibes” (read: unexploded ordnance) and roll out tacky luxury resorts faster than you can say “ethnic cleansing.” Perhaps, in this generous display of US benevolence, Trump might allow a token number of Palestinians to remain, just enough to staff his casinos and peddle discount tobacco and gasoline.
Il Duce 2.0
Back in the Wild West, the new lawless sheriff and his deputy Elon Musk have been busy consolidating control of the federal government, aiming to privatise and profit from every remaining inch of public welfare, enough to make Il Duce and the Fuhrer flush green with envy.
Meanwhile, Democratic Party politicians, including the newly-minted “Palestinian” Chuck Schumer, stand by, either unable or unwilling to stop it, shaking their fists and lamenting the failure of their own genocidal candidate who ignored the party base’s pleas to recognise Palestinians as human beings.
Trump, first and foremost a real estate magnate, follows in the footsteps of his father, Fred, who was reportedly linked to the Klan, viewing the Middle East much like old-school Queens or Brooklyn — territory to be seized and monetised.
Fred Trump’s empire thrived on aggressive gentrification and allegedly illegal, discriminatory housing practices, a legacy Donald is promoting on a grander, global scale.
Ever eager to make a buck off the working class, Trump now aims to merge his real estate hustle with US-led settler colonialism. In his fever dreams, Gaza is destined to transform from “a symbol of death and destruction for so many decades, to “something really spectacular,” potentially with American boots on the ground ensuring wealth and peace for all, or else.
What about the Palestinians, you ask?
They weren’t consulted. Perhaps they could not take time out of their busy schedule surviving 15 months of Zionist genocide, bagging, digging up and re-burying their relatives, or searching for their next meal.
No matter. Chauffeured by Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the doyen of white saviourdom Trump vows to swoop in with tacky resorts and gaudy real estate. After all, who wouldn’t want to trade “bad luck” for a shot at striking it rich in Trump’s imagined strip of sleazy casinos?
Gilded golf courses and luxury towers will rise atop blood-soaked Palestinian land and American bomb fragments, because as Native Americans, Hawaiians, pre-Castro Cubans, Puerto Ricans and Phillippinos can attest, nothing says peace and freedom like a slot machine jackpot, a pile of blow and an assortment of exotic prostitutes, AMIRIGHT?
Yet what does all this blunder and bluster really mean?
Trump and trial balloons
Aaron Blake at the Washington Post details four explanations for Trump’s ludicrous Gaza proposal: (i) a distraction from other illegal activities, e.g. seeking to weaken independent agencies, granting private individuals access to sensitive government systems (Musk’s coup of the federal government) and introducing unprecedented federal employee buyout programs; (ii) a negotiating ploy meant to raise the stakes in order to achieve a so-called “compromise” between a genocidal entity and its victims; (iii) “leaning into the madman theory,” as an intimidation tactic on the international stage, and; (iv) Trump has embraced American imperial expansionism.
Trump’s motives likely encompass elements of all four options above, his behaviour seamlessly aligning with the West’s and Zionism’s white supremacist, colonialist agenda and the fascist strongman playbook, driven by domination, privatisation, corporatism, personal gain and relentless promotion of imperial victory.
Obsessively inflating their own grandiose egos, strongmen show little regard for the integrity or well-being of others, routinely scapegoating society’s most vulnerable people to deflect criticism and consolidate power, placing in-group loyalty above truth and morality.
The new ‘rules-based order’ is that there are no rules, except the capricious decrees of the strongman.
However, before diving into taboo-shattering actions, strongmen often test the waters with a trial balloon.
Subscribe Now and Listen to our Podcasts OnTrial balloons are actions or statements used to calibrate societal reactions and redefine behavioural boundaries, often by challenging taboos.
If met with little resistance, they set precedents that can shift ethical norms in a regressive or progressive direction. They work best if a society is primed for change and when the action receives enough support to withstand criticism.
In war, trial balloons can involve testing public tolerance for violations, such as targeting hospitals or aid convoys, to gauge international and domestic reactions before further criminal escalations. The case of Israel’s attack on the Al-Ahli hospital on October 17 2023, was indeed such an event.
Gaza has long served as a testing ground for the booming Israel/US weapons industry, where cutting-edge tools of surveillance and warfare are trialled on its captive, occupied population before being marketed globally as “battle-tested” and ready for export.
With Trump in office, Gaza’s population faces the prospect of continuing to be a test case for US/Israeli expansionism and genocide — mass displacement, eugenics and control, an experiment with global implications as climate-driven catastrophes compound, while domestic unrest reacts to fascistic repression and tensions between the United States and its economic competitors intensify.
Trump’s recent proposal for Gaza functions as a trial balloon, as it does for Netanyahu’s continuing expansionist genocidal actions, testing and increasing the limits of public tolerance for illegal and immoral actions.
Though unsurprisingly cheered by Israel’s ultra-right who, along with liberal Zionist propagandists use ‘self-defence’ as justification for offensive resource and land theft, the global response will determine whether Trump can push his Shock Doctrine playbook even further, using disaster capitalism to gut public services, enrich private elites, scapegoat Indigenous communities and deepen inequality, all under the guise of “recovery” and US “greatness” both across the empire and within its core.
Yoav Litvin is a writer, photographer and doctor of psychology/neuroscience
Follow him on X: @nookyelur
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Opinions expressed in this article remain those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The New Arab, its editorial board or staff.