Only reason to care Trump agrees Gaza’s starving. Will he use his power to stop it?
There is only one reason to care that Donald Trump has actually acknowledged Gaza is starving: Will he use his power to stop it?
Mr Trump has the power and influence to call a halt to the naked suffering – and deaths from starvation – of Gaza’s people.
Not by the US actually feeding them but by telling Israel to fulfil its legal obligations as the occupying force and do so itself, as well as to allow others actively to help.
Humanitarian organisations say that some two million Gazans are in a hunger crisis after more than 20 months of Israeli military action on the Palestinian territory as well as severe restrictions on the entry of food and fuel trucks.
It is within Mr Trump’s power to end starvation in Gaza by saying the word to Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Will he?
If he ends starvation in Gaza, the world would forgive Donald Trump nearly a decade of linguistic, stylistic and ethical affronts. He will have taken a moral stance and saved lives.
There are signs Mr Trump is inching towards a moral position on this hideous and heartbreaking issue. On July 28, for the first time, the US president actually acknowledged the reality of starvation. There is “real starvation” in Gaza, he said, “I see it, and you can’t fake that”. Asked if he agreed with a recent assertion by Mr Netanyahu that there was no starvation in Gaza, he said not “particularly”. He also said that the children in Gaza “look very hungry” and that “we have to get the kids fed”.
Until now, he had appeared indifferent to the plight of the Palestinians, seeming content largely to echo the Israeli government’s accusation that Hamas was stealing food delivered to Gaza. Just days ago, Mr Trump made known his one great concern about Gaza – that no one had thanked him enough for providing millions of dollars for the two-month-old aid distribution system set up by Israel in Gaza and mostly run by private US contractors. The efforts of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation have resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Palestinians every day near its distribution sites.
And yet, Mr Trump complained on July 27 that he was the aggrieved party. He hadn’t been thanked enough for providing American money for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. “Nobody said, ‘Gee, thank you very much. And it would be nice to have at least a thank you”.
That was Sunday. On Monday, Mr Trump was acknowledging the urgency of reaching starving children.
Will he do what’s right, rightaway?
