As Trump Declares "Golden Era" in the Arab Gulf, Gaza Burns and Netanyahu Threatens to Wipe Palestinians Off the Map
Hamas tells Drop Site it is not optimistic that the U.S. will press Israel to end the war, despite reports of tensions between Trump and Netanyahu.
Days before Donald Trump took off for his tour of the Gulf, his administration reached a deal with Hamas to release U.S. citizen and Israeli soldier Edan Alexander. Hamas officials always viewed it as a risk—they received nothing official in return—but they had been assured by regional mediators that this “goodwill gesture” would lead to the U.S. pressuring Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to make a deal that would offer a path to ending the war.
Instead, as Trump winds down his self-declared “Golden Era” tour of the Arab Gulf, where he was feted by the rulers of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, Gaza remains engulfed in the flames of genocide. While Trump marveled at the wonders of the palaces and skylines overseen by kings, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presided over a horrifying mass killing spree in Gaza, including the terror bombings of two hospitals and the assassination of more journalists. Netanyahu has vowed that Israel will begin a new phase of the genocide: the conquest of Gaza and the indefinite occupation of the entire territory. Before Trump landed in Saudi Arabia this week, Netanyahu issued an ultimatum that if Hamas did not capitulate to his demands, Israeli forces would implement its own “final solution” in Gaza with the ultimate aim of removing the Palestinians entirely.
On Wednesday and Thursday, Trump’s top emissary Steve Witkoff and his hostage affairs envoy Adam Boehler held extensive talks in Doha with ceasefire mediators from Qatar and Egypt, as well as with an Israeli delegation. While Witkoff and Boehler both suggested in recent days that a deal may be on the horizon, a senior Hamas official told Drop Site there has been no significant progress and that the movement is “not optimistic” Trump’s team will apply meaningful pressure on the Israelis.
That concern was echoed in a statement released by Hamas on Thursday. “While the mediating parties are making strenuous efforts to put the negotiating process back on track, the Zionist occupation is responding to these efforts with military pressure on innocent civilians, through mass bombing and imposing more suffering on our people, in a desperate attempt to impose its terms under fire,” the statement asserted. “The occupation government's insistence on negotiating without halting its aggression and sending messages of disregard for the mediators' efforts reveals the essence of this entity's criminal mentality, which views a ceasefire as a mere tool to buy time and resume the war.”
Hamas’s gamble with Trump—the freeing of Alexander—was based on the recognition that there’s no nation or entity on earth capable of stopping Israel’s march of genocide other than the U.S.
“We expect, based on the understandings reached with the American side, and with the knowledge of the mediators, that humanitarian aid will begin entering the Gaza Strip immediately, a call will be made for a permanent ceasefire, and comprehensive negotiations will be held on all issues to achieve security and stability in the region, which is what we look forward to achieving,” Hamas said in a statement. “Failure to implement these steps, especially the entry of humanitarian aid to our people, will cast a negative shadow over any efforts to complete negotiations on the prisoner exchange process.”
In recent weeks, Trump has made little mention of his announcement in February that he wanted the U.S. to seize Gaza as a U.S. territory. But in Doha on Thursday, Trump declared, “I have concepts for Gaza that I think are very good, make it a freedom zone, let the United States get involved and make it just a freedom zone.” He added that he would be “proud” to have the U.S. “take it.”
When Trump met Netanyahu at the White House on February 4, he empowered Netanyahu’s agenda to forcibly displace all Palestinians from Gaza by proposing that Gaza should be emptied of Palestinians in order to create a U.S.-owned Middle East Riviera. “If you take the Palestinians and move them around to different countries, and you have plenty of countries that will do that, and you really have a freedom zone, you call it a freedom zone,” Trump said at the time. “A free zone where people aren't going to be killed every day. That's a hell of a place.”
Netanyahu has openly made this forced displacement a centerpiece of his genocidal aspirations in Gaza. Trump has also publicly threatened the entire population of Gaza with collective death, if the Israeli captives were not released, which is precisely what Netanyahu has spent the past year and a half doing already.
At the same time, Israel’s war against Gaza poses annoyances for Trump’s broader agenda in the Middle East and complicates his self-portrait as a peacemaker who will end Biden-era wars. Before heading to the Middle East, Trump publicly stated that it was time for the “brutal war” to come to an end at the very moment Netanyahu was promising an open-ended military assault and war of conquest.
“Hamas has conveyed through all its communications, including with the U.S. administration, its willingness to engage constructively with all international stakeholders to achieve this goal: An immediate cessation of the war and the launch of a credible political process that leads to the establishment of a fully independent Palestinian state,” said Basem Naim, a senior Hamas official and a member of its political bureau. “President Trump possesses the necessary influence and authority to make this a reality, should the political will exist.”
If Trump ultimately embraces Israel’s narrative that the total destruction of Hamas and the demilitarization of Gaza is the only solution, which is a real possibility, then the bloodshed will continue. Israel will move forward with its war of annihilation and the Palestinians will continue to fight for their lives. Trump, however, is famously obsessed both with his legacy and with using the office of the presidency to enrich his family businesses.
There is no doubt that recent moves by Trump—negotiating with Iran, agreeing to a ceasefire with Ansar Allah (the Houthis) in Yemen, and engaging in direct talks with Hamas—have drawn the ire of Netanyahu and his cohort. But, as happened frequently with Biden, it is likely that leaks to the media about serious rifts between the U.S. and Israel are exaggerated and not indicative of any significant shift in the U.S.’s dedication to Israel’s annihilationist agenda.
It is also true that Trump is unpredictable and erratic. It is an obscene reality that the best hope for ending the Gaza genocide may lie in the possibility that Trump determines that his personal priorities are in such sharp conflict with Netanyahu’s agenda that he decides the war must end.
Trump of Arabia
As Trump hit the ground in the Arab Gulf Tuesday, Israel intensified its campaign of terror bombings against the Palestinians of Gaza. When Air Force One landed in Saudi Arabia—and Trump descended the stairs to greet a beaming Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman—it had been 72 days since any food, water, medicine, or fuel had entered Gaza. Israel welcomed Trump to the region by conducting a series of massive airstrikes on a hospital in Khan Younis, killing dozens of people, supposedly in the name of an assassination operation targeting the top living leader of Hamas’s armed wing, Al Qassam Brigades. Neither Trump nor the Saudis wanted the horrors of the Gaza genocide to dominate, or even substantively enter, the narrative. Likewise, the prospect of the kingdom normalizing relations with Israel was not significantly foregrounded.
During Trump’s visit to Riyadh, Gaza went largely unmentioned at the various public events and speeches. This was by design. Trump is in the Gulf to close business deals aimed at strengthening the ties of both the U.S. government and Trump family business in the region. He was there to try to close the deal on a series of economic arrangements worth more than $3 trillion, including a whopping $142 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia—the largest weapons agreement in U.S. history.
On Wednesday, Trump presided over a signing ceremony where Qatar committed to the single largest purchase of aircraft in Boeing’s history. During his first term in 2017, Trump said, “The nation of Qatar, unfortunately, has historically been a funder of terrorism at a very high level.” In Doha on Thursday, Trump heaped praise on its rulers. “We’ve never had a relationship with Qatar as strong as this,” Trump said. “We’re going to protect you.”
The glitz and glamour of Trump’s tour, and the euphoria his visit has inspired among the power elite in the Gulf, cannot obscure the fact that the U.S. is facilitating a genocidal war against the Palestinians. When Trump did raise the Gaza war, it centered around condemning Hamas, the October 7 attacks and vowing to free more Israeli captives. Though he did tell his audience in Saudi Arabia, “The people of Gaza deserve a much better future,” adding, “We continue to work to get that war ended as quickly as possible.”
Most of the Arab rulers who met with Trump have largely spent the course of the genocide doing little more than issuing strongly worded statements. In his speech welcoming Trump to the kingdom, Bin Salman only briefly addressed the Gaza war, saying Saudi Arabia joined other Arab nations in seeking to “de-escalate tensions in the region and to stop the war in Gaza and to find a permanent and comprehensive solution for the Palestinian crisis.”
When Trump took office in January, he predicted that Saudi Arabia would join the Abraham Accords and normalize its relations with Israel, potentially before the end of the year. During his visit to Riyadh, Trump shifted his tone, saying the kingdom would enter into a normalization agreement on its own schedule, though he did tell the Saudi leaders, “you’ll be greatly honoring me” by making a deal with Israel. “I think it’ll be a tremendous tribute to your country, and it will be something that’s really going to be very important for the future of the Middle East,” Trump added. “They’ve been an absolute bonanza for the countries that have joined.”
As Trump has railed against European nations for taking advantage of U.S. protection and failing to pay their fair share, the Gulf rulers stand poised to spend record amounts of money buying U.S. weapons. Unlike Israel, whose military support from the U.S. is subsidized by American taxpayers under the guise of “military aid,” the Gulf States pay cash.
“Before our eyes, a new generation of leaders is transcending the ancient conflicts and tired divisions of the past, and forging a future where the Middle East is defined by commerce, not chaos; where it exports technology, not terrorism; and where people of different nations, religions, and creeds are building cities together — not bombing each other out of existence,” Trump declared in his speech in Riyadh before an audience of investors and entrepreneurs. “The gleaming marvels of Riyadh and Abu Dhabi were not created by the so-called ‘nation-builders,’ ‘neo-cons,’ or ‘liberal non-profits,’ like those who spent trillions failing to develop Kabul and Baghdad. Instead, the birth of a modern Middle East has been brought about by the people of the region themselves … developing your own sovereign countries, pursuing your own unique visions, and charting your own destinies.”
Trump told the audience, “I am willing to end past conflicts and forge new partnerships for a better and more stable world, even if our differences may be very profound,” adding, “My preference will always be for peace and partnership, whenever those outcomes can be achieved. Always.”
In Saudi Arabia, Trump also met with Ahmed al-Sharaa, also known as Abu Mohammed al Jolani, a former ISIS and al Qaeda commander turned interim president of Syria. Trump received loud applause when he announced he was lifting U.S. sanctions on Syria. He later praised al Shaara, calling him a “young, attractive guy, tough guy. Strong past, very strong past—fighter. He’s got a real shot at holding it together.” Trump told reporters he encouraged al Shaara to join the Abraham Accords. “I told him, ‘I hope you’re going to join when it’s straightened out.’ He said, ‘Yes.’ But they have a lot of work to do.”
That Trump decided to visit with the rulers of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates with no planned stop in Israel is, in part, symbolic of the current dynamics of Trump’s posture toward Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
There is no doubt Trump is a staunch supporter of Israel and its wars against the Palestinian people. When he was sworn in, he swiftly moved to increase weapons shipments to Israel, expediting the delivery of 2,000 lb bunker buster bombs, which Biden had temporarily slowed. Trump’s administration is packed with committed Zionists, and the single greatest contributor to his election campaign, Miriam Adelson, has long advocated the total Israeli annexation of the West Bank. The U.S. ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, a fanatical Christian Zionist, has said, “There’s really no such thing as a Palestinian”; “There’s no such thing as a West Bank”; and “There’s no such thing as an occupation.”
It is unfathomable that Trump would significantly alter the arc of the bipartisan U.S. consensus that Israel’s broader agenda should be backed with the full weaponry and political support of Washington. Trump often calls himself the best friend Israel has ever had in the White House. But, in the short term, there remains the prospect of unexpected decisions by Trump, motivated not by humanitarian concern, but by business interests, which could stall Netanyahu’s war of conquest and annihilation against Gaza.
“An Agreement Must Be Reached”
In the weeks leading up to Trump’s Middle East tour, the White House engaged in a flurry of diplomatic activity that sidelined Israel. The Trump administration intensified its negotiations with Iran aimed at returning to some form of a nuclear deal, and a deescalation of hostility between Tehran and Washington, DC. Trump also signed a ceasefire deal with Ansar Allah, commonly known as the Houthis, in Yemen. As part of the deal, Ansar Allah agreed to not attack any U.S. ships—military or civilian—passing through the Red Sea, and the U.S. agreed to end its campaign of massive airstrikes against Yemen. Significantly, Ansar Allah was not required to halt its attacks against Israeli territory or Israeli-linked ships and vessels.
Since then, Ansar Allah has launched a series of missile attacks on Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, piercing through Israel’s much-hyped air defense systems. As Trump delivered a speech in Riyadh on Tuesday, the group fired a hypersonic missile that passed over Saudi airspace before striking the airport, an incident that was reported in some Israeli media as “the missile flew over [Trump’s] head.”
This series of moves by Trump is not what Netanyahu expected from his return to the White House. During Trump’s first term, he sought to create an alliance, built around confronting Iran, that included Israel and Arab Gulf states. The Abraham Accords were a central component of the campaign to enforce Israel’s status as the regional superpower that could operate freely with the cooperation of Arab nations. Backed by the Trump administration, the Accords would hasten the end of the Palestinian struggle for liberation and statehood in Netanyahu’s eyes.
Soon after assuming office four months ago, Trump authorized direct talks with Hamas—an extraordinary move that drew condemnation from Democrats and Republicans alike. The negotiations to win the release of Edan Alexander, the U.S. citizen and Israeli army soldier, were conducted without Israeli involvement. Israeli officials have suggested they learned about the negotiations by spying on Hamas officials, not through official channels with the White House. Alexander, who was taken by Palestinian fighters on October 7, 2023 in his army uniform from a military base near Gaza, was the first male soldier freed by Hamas since the start of the war. His release was the culmination of a process started in February when Trump’s special envoy on hostages, Adam Boehler, met directly with senior Hamas officials for talks that both sides described as extending beyond the scope of U.S. citizens held in Gaza.
Israel was deeply concerned that the U.S. was engaging Hamas outside of Israel’s purview, one that necessitates that Hamas be falsely viewed as akin to ISIS or al-Qaeda. Israeli officials leaked the news that the talks had taken place and sought to smear Boehler as a naif who got played by Hamas. Trump, however, refused to throw Boehler under the bus, though Hamas officials told me that Israel did succeed in quashing a potential direct meeting between Hamas and Trump’s top special envoy, Steve Witkoff. Nonetheless, on Sunday night, Hamas announced that it would release Alexander, and said it did so as a gesture of goodwill to Trump.
“We affirm the movement's readiness to immediately begin negotiations to reach a comprehensive and sustainable ceasefire agreement, including the withdrawal of the occupation army, the end of the siege, a prisoner exchange, and the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip,” Hamas said in a statement announcing the deal. “We urge the Trump administration to continue its efforts to end this brutal war waged by the war criminal Netanyahu against children, women, and defenseless civilians in the Gaza Strip.”
Soon after Alexander’s release was announced, Witkoff met with the families of Israeli captives held in Gaza. “We want to bring the captives home, but Israel is not willing to end the war,” he told them, according to Israel’s Channel 12. “Israel is prolonging it even though we don’t see any way to advance further, and an agreement must be reached.”
Netanyahu’s Threats
Israel does not face the risk of a major disruption of its relationship with the U.S. under Trump. Combined with media leaks from his inner circle about the U.S. abandoning Israel, Netanyahu’s recent comment that Israel will “reach a point where we wean ourselves off” U.S. military aid is part of a choreographed performance, largely staged to pressure Republicans to push Trump into continuing to do Israel’s bidding in line with Netanyahu’s vision. At the same time, Netanyahu’s stated commitment to continue the Gaza genocide at all costs may become untenable should Trump decide the war must come to an end.
Since the end of the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal, signed in January, Netanyahu has dramatically ratcheted up his genocidal onslaught against Gaza. As the regional mediators from Qatar and Egypt tried to get the deal back on track after Israel unilaterally abandoned it, Israel expanded the scope of its attacks—killing nearly 3,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, since March 18. Israel made clear that it will not return to the original deal framework, which would have included the release of all remaining captives from Gaza in exchange for large numbers of Palestinians held by Israel and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and an end to the war.
After Hamas told regional mediators in late March that it had accepted a plan, based on a proposal from Witkoff, to resume the ceasefire and exchange of captives, Netanyahu responded by offering his own vision for how the war would end. “Hamas will lay down its weapons. Its leaders will be allowed to leave. We will see to the general security in the Gaza Strip and will allow the realization of the Trump plan for voluntary migration,” Netanyahu told his cabinet, referring to Trump’s threat to seize Gaza and remove Palestinians from their land. “This is the plan. We are not hiding this.”
There was almost no meaningful progress on the ceasefire front until a few weeks before Trump’s Middle East tour began. As Netanyahu watched the diplomatic activity aimed at clearing a path for Trump in the Gulf, he began to publicly outline his agenda. He said Israel would not accept any deal that did not result in the total elimination of Hamas and the full demilitarization of the Gaza Strip. He and members of his cabinet reiterated their aim of removing the Palestinians from Gaza.
As Israel and the Trump administration came under pressure to lift the lethal full spectrum blockade on Gaza, which was implemented on March 2, they began announcing plans to create zones in Gaza where limited aid would be distributed to Palestinians. The Trump administration promoted a newly created private organization that would formally run the program alongside U.S. security contractors. While Israeli forces would not distribute the aid, the army would be involved with security. The concept involved aid distribution based on a system of political vetting, calorie restrictions, and would require Palestinians to travel long distances and pass extensive security checks to receive meager quantities of food. Crucial for Netanyahu, it would not be linked to any ceasefire. The UN and dozens of NGOs refused to participate, saying it would legitimize the use of food as a weapon of war.
On May 4, the Israel cabinet approved a plan code named “Operation Gideon’s Chariot” that it threatened to implement if Hamas did not capitulate to Israel’s demands by the time Trump finished his tour of the Gulf. Its explicit aim would be the “conquest of the Gaza Strip”: an open-ended occupation enforced by “wide-scale” attacks and the destruction of Gaza’s remaining infrastructure. Palestinians would be herded into the wasteland of what was once Rafah, in southern Gaza.
In Doha this week, Witkoff and Boehler are engaged in an intense round of discussions with mediators from Qatar and Egypt as well as Israel. Both U.S. officials have expressed optimism that a deal can be reached. Senior Hamas officials told Drop Site that, while the movement was approaching the negotiations with “flexibility,” it would not agree to any deal that does not have a clear path back to a framework that includes a full Israeli withdrawal and a definable end to the war. It has also called Israel’s demand that the Gaza Strip be totally demilitarized as a “million red lines” that would be tantamount to a death sentence for the cause of Palestinian liberation.
U.S. and Israeli media outlets have reported that, among the proposals put forward by Witkoff, an extended 70-90 day temporary truce would include a framework for negotiations toward a permanent ceasefire. Hamas officials told Drop Site that it will not agree to vague language that omits a clear negotiating calendar toward a complete end to the war. Hamas officials received assurances from mediators that the U.S. would pressure Israel to make concessions in return for freeing Alexander, though sources within the Palestinian resistance told Drop Site there were no formally documented commitments made by the U.S. Multiple sources have characterized the “goodwill gesture” from Hamas as a “gamble” and a “risk” that Hamas had determined was worth taking. Those risks may prove a grave error if Trump’s team decides to back Netanyahu’s sweeping demands as a condition for a ceasefire.
“Any talk of negotiations is meaningless while Gaza is being devastated by starvation on one hand and bombardment on the other. The minimum requirement for a conducive and constructive negotiation environment is compelling Netanyahu’s government to open the crossings and allow the entry of humanitarian aid,” said Naim, the senior Hamas official. “The U.S. administration, under President Trump, has the capacity to enforce this humanitarian obligation, which was also a core component of the understandings that led to the release of the soldier Edan Alexander, among other elements.”
Netanyahu, according to news reports, has insisted that Israel would agree only to a shorter timeline, the release of half of the remaining 58 captives from Gaza, and no commitments about negotiating an end to the occupation of Gaza. Netanyahu has pledged that Israel would only negotiate the release of Israeli captives while maintaining the military assault on Gaza. “Maybe Hamas will say, ‘Wait, we want to release 10 more [captives].’ Fine, bring them. We’ll take them. And then we’ll go in. But there will be no situation where we stop the war,” Netanyahu said at a gathering of wounded Israeli soldiers. “The situation has changed. In the coming days, we will go in with full force to complete the operation. Completing the operation means subduing Hamas. It means destroying Hamas.”
Netanyahu added that Israel had set up a mechanism to coordinate the removal of Palestinians from Gaza, saying, “the main issue is this — we need host countries willing to absorb them. That’s what we’re working on right now.”
Three Scenarios for Gaza
As Trump met with the rulers of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, he frequently stopped to marvel at the construction of the palaces, the quality of the marble and the wonders of the skylines. It was clear from his expressions that he envied the idea of kings and lifetime rule.
Throughout his trip, Trump has basked in the glory of what he has described as a monumental moment in the history of U.S. relations with the Middle East. He proclaimed the dawn of a new era where capitalism paves the roads to peace. And as he did so, not so far away, Gaza burned in the fires that Netanyahu continues to unleash with intensifying ferocity.
Trump may actually believe that his own plan for a Middle East Riviera—in a Gaza free of Palestinians—is a viable path forward. In this case, all bets are off, because history has shown that Palestinians will not bow to colonial occupation. It is possible Trump would try to circumvent the Palestinians of Gaza entirely, and seek a deal with Israel and some conglomerate of business entities, Gulf countries, and elements connected to the Palestinian Authority. Any such moves would be fiercely resisted by Palestinians across the political spectrum.
In practical terms, there are only three plausible outcomes for the near future: Trump could force Israel to halt its genocidal operations, an option his predecessor Joe Biden staunchly refused to take, and initiate a process of negotiations for a long term peace deal. This is what Hamas has proposed and what Trump’s close friends in the royal courts of the Arab Gulf support. If Trump has any actual dreams of a Nobel Prize, this would be his best path, but also the least likely scenario.
Trump could also maintain the U.S. posture as it has stood since March 2, when Israel abandoned the ceasefire and two weeks later resumed its campaign of terror bombings of Palestinian civilians. Trump continued the flow of weapons and justified the slaughter. He could double down on his rhetoric of denouncing Hamas and deferring to Netanyahu’s campaign to wipe the Palestinians off the map of Gaza, buying into the fallacy that Palestinians can be bombed into submission. This would almost certainly mean the death of most, if not all, of the Israeli captives still alive in Gaza.
The third path is what is being discussed this week in Doha: a temporary truce that could, only through the intervention of Trump, lead to an end to the genocide. That road is riddled with landmines that Netanyahu has already planted. For it to be effective and shielded from Netanyahu’s lies and sabotage, it would require Trump to essentially handcuff the Israeli leader. While Netanyahu has long claimed Israel would continue alone if necessary, the reality is the U.S. has the ability to call the shots if Trump decides the slaughter is over or must pause. This move would be welcomed by many in Israel, particularly the families of Israeli captives, who have repeatedly said they trust Trump over Netanyahu.
If history is a guide, Trump will not enforce a resolution on Israel that Netanyahu truly opposes. Israel may not get all that it wants in Gaza, but Trump is unlikely to pursue any path that recognizes the rights of Palestinians to dictate their own future. The possibility that Trump will default to a position of permitting the genocide in Gaza to continue indefinitely, even if there is a temporary truce, is real.
I just want to say thank you, Jeremy, for consistently providing extremely high-quality journalism that makes me feel not only more informed but less crazy.
Thank you for your detailed and diligent reporting, Jeremy. It's quite awe-inspiring, especially since I can only imagine the amount of hell you get for speaking to Hamas. You and Drop Site are doing an amazing job. Thank you for keeping us informed and helping us bear witness to this genocide.