World vs the US: Taking over Gaza the last straw - while in KL, Anwar's RM100 mil gift in scrutiny again

Written by Stan Lee, PoliticsNow Malaysia 

KUALA LUMPUR (politicsnowmy.blogspot.com) - It's hard not to comment on the madman antics of US president Donald Trump but so far most of the world's leaders have opted to let him rave and rant on, in the hope that he'll settle down once he has eased the paranoia he seems to suggest is now plaguing Americans - that they are no longer respected by the rest of the world.

Perhaps The Donald is right - Americans and things American command little respect anymore in the world. But respect is earned and not commanded by sheer bullying, cheating, lying and grandstanding. So to Americans, why not look in the mirror first. Even if Donald is to scaredy-cat to tell them to their faces, lest he loses their votes, the rest of the world has right to move ahead or faster than the US. The rest of the world has the right to be better and greater and it is for America to drop its siege mentality and catch up, rather than ratchet up dangerous threats to tear the world apart if the US does not get its way.

GROWING DISCONNECT BETWEEN THE US & THE REST OF THE WORLD

A good place to start when one is down is always to change whatever habits that are slothful and lazy, learning all over again how to trim the fat and tighten the belt, embracing humility and dropping for good the 'I must be first and you must be last' arrogance and wicked-heartedness. 

Above all, perhaps Americans need to open their eyes and see the elephant in their room. Instead of pointing their fingers at other countries, they need to question why is their economy so under the control of elites like Elon Musk, who by the way went to school every day in a chauffeured Rolls Royce, the Mark Zuckerbergs and the Bill Gates? Not to mention the already fat-cat for generations arms and weapons makers and the oil and gas producers that added uncountable billions to their bank accounts when Ukrainians were forced to flee their country and watch it shatter from afar. 

If the ordinary American did stop and think, perhaps they would not have elected another generational elite like Trump to be their president once again. As birds of a feather flock together, so will elites group together as they fight to make sure their slice of the pie never shrinks but keeps growing ever larger - even if it means the rest of their countrymen end up eating crumbs even more minute than before or if the entire world gets sucked into a World War 3 born of their spoiled pestering.

From threats of seizing the Panama Canal, declaring Canada the United States' 51st state and taking over Greenland again by force if Denmark refuses to sell, to slapping on tariffs as high as 25% on Canada, Mexico and China, Trump has been boasting he has already made Americans feel great again. According to him, he has made them feel feared and respected by the world again. Well, if Americans really do feel proud of themselves today because their president has used their military might to crush the rest of the world into submission, then good luck to them on Judgement Day! 

As for the rest the world, they certainly did feel the fear that bullies such as Trump like to exact from victims and potential victims. However, they also felt revulsion, disgust, hatred and most of all disrespect for Trump and the US - the sort of scorn that is usually reserved for daylight robbers, thieves, liars, loafers, freeloaders and hypocrites.

Indeed, the disconnect between how Americans see themselves (according to Trump) and how the rest of the world really see them is only too real and dangerously so. In fact, it is widening so fast that a point of no return is inevitable and imminent.

GAZA TAKEOVER - TIME FOR THE WORLD TO DISCARD US LEADERSHIP?

Perhaps, the trigger will be Trump's latest territorial ambition. His plan to take over the Gaza strip may well mark the spot 'X' that opens the door for doomsday to finally arrive in the US. It is now plain to see that it is the Gaza that Trump was really after and not the Panama canal or Greenland. His announcements are no longer the rhetoric of an old man-president leveraging on madman gimmicks to trick his countrymen into believing in him and in themselves - but a cold and calculated act of pure political opportunism and aggression. 

If the dementia-stricken Joe Biden started and prolonged the Ukraine war to satisfy the insatiable greed of America's arms and weapons makers and its oil and gas producers, Trump is now following through by positioning the US construction sector to harvest billions if not trillions from the rebuilding of Ukraine - as well as Gaza!

And as the world knows, it is Gaza which holds a special place in the hearts of the richest and most powerful in America, many of whom are of Jewish ancestry. But what if one day after the US-led grand plan now on world table to rebuild the Gaza has been achieved, Trump or the presidents who come after him were to decide to hand over the strip to Israel?

Will the governments of the world, cleverly invited by the US and its firms to take part in the Gaza reconstruct, really think twice about the Palestinian people now? Or will they race to bark in tune with Trump so as to protect the fat profits dangled before them and their own construction players?

Even in far-off Southeast Asia, small little Malaysia - a nation still struggling with poverty of its own - has announced a RM100 million donation to build new infrastructure including a school and a mosque in Gaza. Will Malaysia's embattled Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim suspend the plan now? The 77-year-old Anwar had praised Trump for his role in the Gaza ceasefire last month.

ETHNIC CLEANSING BUT HOW TO STOP THE US & TRUMP?

Now barely three weeks later, the 78-year-old Trump has shocked the world by declaring US plans to take over the war-ravaged Gaza strip. 

This would happen after the Palestinians living there are resettled elsewhere, with the US developing the Gaza economically and turning it into a "Riviera of the Middle East" and a home for "the world's people".

“The US will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too,” Reuters reported Trump as saying at a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington on Tuesday.

"We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site. I do see a long-term ownership position and I see it bringing great stability to that part of the Middle East,” Trump added that he had "studied this very closely over a lot of months".

According to Trump, he had spoken to regional leaders and they supported the idea. However, forced displacement of Gaza’s population would likely be a violation of international law and would be fiercely opposed not only in the region but also by Washington’s Western allies. 

Some human rights advocates have also likened the idea to ethnic cleansing.

Meanwhile, senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri condemned Trump’s calls for Gazans to leave as “expulsion from their land". "We consider them a recipe for generating chaos and tension in the region because the people of Gaza will not allow such plans to pass.” said Sami.

Most Muslim leaders from around the world, from Saudi Arabia to Indonesia, have yet to react to the Trump plan to take over Gaza. Will they dare to denounce him? Can they really stop him if he and Netanyahu decide to attack and take Gaza by force?

How will they and the rest of the world stop him and the US?

Written by Stan Lee, PoliticsNow Malaysia

https://politicsnowmy.blogspot.com/