Understanding the Gaza Crisis: Netanyahu and Trump's Influence

Abbey Makoe

This week’s sudden bombardment of Gaza by the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) at the instruction of the Jewish State’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leaves much to be desired.

It is an appalling act of genocidal intent made a lot worse by revelations that Netanyahu had given the White House prior warning of the bombardment, and received a go-ahead by commission or omission.

The out-of-the-blue mass killings that claimed 104 lives and destruction of the little that is left of the Gaza Strip were a flagrant violation of the ceasefire that has halted two years of genocide, albeit momentarily. Hamas, the Palestinian resistance movement that on October 2023 launched a rare, spectacular violent attack inside Israeli territory has been in subsequent rebuke by the IDF thoroughly vanquished.

Gaza Strip, the once vibrant community of some 2 million Palestinians, has been almost completely obliterated by the 200,000 bombs that have fallen on the enclave since October 2023.

An estimated 70,000 of those bombs failed to go off, posing a major threat to the rest of the Gaza Strip, which has become heaps of mountainous rubble formed by collapsed buildings that lie atop one another. Tens of thousands of unaccounted-for Palestinian victims of Israel’s genocide are believed to remain trapped under the massive rubble, presumed dead.

Officially, just fewer than 70,000 Palestinians had been killed in the Israeli onslaught on Gaza under the collective punishment principle that has seen scores of innocent men, women, and children perish under the US-sponsored Israeli military annihilation of Gazans.

And this brings into sharp focus the role of the US as a peace broker between Israel and the Palestinians. Since October 2023, Washington has vetoed at least six resolutions of the UN Security Council calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. As of October 2025, the US has used its veto power in the UNSC more than 50 times to block resolutions critical of Israel, according to the UN database.

At the same time, the US provided Israel with increased weapons, including high-caliber concrete-piercing bombs that sought to reach Hamas’ secret location in the underground tunnels. Israel has benefited enormously from every US administration, be it Democrats or Republicans.

The diplomatic cover through the use of the veto power by the US, one of the only five permanent members of the UNSC that possess veto power, has meant Israel is literally untouchable. For too long, fighting back against Israel’s unmatched military might with weakened capability, Hamas has sought to raise a white flag, which the US and Israel had ignored.

“Finish the job” has been Netanyahu’s favourite phrase as he fought off intensifying domestic opposition to his incumbency. US President Donald Trump has sadly sung from the same hymn book as the Prime Minister, also called “Bibi”.

Now, as the Muslim and Arab world line up to give effect to the fragile ceasefire that Israel is determined to undermine at will, questions are being asked about the credibility of the US as a peace broker between Hamas and Israel.Washington has never hidden its iron-clad protection of Israel’s interests in relation to the Palestinians’ self-determination, or geopolitics in general.

The US is determined to talk with Hamas whilst the organization’s hands are tied behind its back, and a heavily armed Israel is allowed to choose and pick the terms of the ceasefire at its free will. Washington has loaded the dice so heavily against Hamas that it raises questions over whether Hamas will ever have any legitimate space to express the desire of the Palestinians in their war of resistance against decades-old illegal Israeli occupation.

Israel’s undermining of the US-brokered ceasefire has taken various forms since it came into effect recently. First and foremost, Israel refused to allow the 800-a-day aid trucks to enter Gaza, as initially agreed. The continued restrictions of the Rafa Crossing serve to restrict the freedom of movement for Palestinians, thereby confining them to what has become a bigger prison, that is, Gaza.

There is a virtually non-existent health system, with victims of Israeli aggression oftentimes treated without painkillers, or simply dying when they should be alive. For form, the worst in the Israeli genocide was the excavation of graves with TLB tractor loaders, leaving human skeletons exposed above the surface.

The Israeli state has no regard or respect for Palestinians – dead or alive. Dead or alive, there is no good Palestinian in the eyes of Tel Aviv.Netanyahu is beholden to the dictates of the right-wingers in his fragile coalition that comprises hawks who want Palestinians never to have a state of their own.

In fact, the right-wingers in Netanyahu’s corner want Palestinians to be driven out of the land of their forefathers. The US has attempted to pressure neighbouring countries such as Jordan and Egypt, among others, to accept Palestinians as permanent refugees.

Evidence abounds to the effect that Netanyahu does not want peace with Hamas or the Palestinians. His government is actively shoring up Settlers in their reign of terror, whereby they willy-nilly attack Palestinians in the West Bank, destroying their farmlands and killing and maiming many whilst the IDF watches.

The approval by the Netanyahu administration for the erection of more illegal settlements – in contravention of international law – is one of the key indicators of Netanyahu’s ultimate endgame. The expansion of the Jewish state is the primary objective of Netanyahu and his kind, pursued by any means necessary. Israel has beaten Hamas to a pulp, with the help of Big Brother.

The fact that Hamas is unable to locate some of the dead Israeli captives it wants to hand back to Israel ought to surprise no one. As Hamas explains, they were killed in Israel’s indiscriminate bombardment that left hordes of corpses buried under heaps of rubble, including those of the captives.

To compound matters, Hamas has neither the capacity nor the machinery to exhume the bodies. As if the conundrum were not enough, Israel does not allow any form of assistance to reach Hamas, even as they seek to locate the missing bodies of the captives. This is the basis Israel has used to break the ceasefire this week, arguing that by failing to return the bodies of the captives, Hamas has transgressed the terms of the ceasefire.

US Vice President JD Vance was among the first voices to stress that the ceasefire was still holding. For how long, only the Knesset and the White House know. Trump himself justified Israel’s violation of the ceasefire, typically blaming Hamas.

As for the rest of the Arab League, the Muslim world, and the rest of the international community, there appears to be nothing by way of diplomacy or any other means that they can do, individually or collectively, to ameliorate the plight of the Palestinians.

The Gaza situation makes a mockery of international diplomacy. Our world order is fully unilateral, with the powerful on top of the weak. Spare a thought for Gaza and all the Palestinians. As long as Washington holds sway, there will never be a Palestinian State.

Netanyahu has already spelled it out categorically, saying over his dead body. Trump has warned his Western allies not to recognize the Palestinian state. And, even if they did, the obsolete UN system has long been replaced by the US-led unipolar world order.

And the rest of the world is too scared to be on the wrong side of Washington, more so with the wrecking ball that is Trump in the White House. Four years feels like an eternity.

* Abbey Makoe is Founder and Editor-in-Chief: Global South Media Network. The views expressed are his own.

** The views expressed here do not reflect those of the Sunday Independent, IOL, or Independent Media.