Trump has no interest in stopping Netanyahu – he just wants to avoid a headache ...Middle East

SEATTLE – There was a question that until today had remained unanswered: would Donald Trump do anything meaningful to stop Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to occupy the entire Gaza Strip? 

We now have our answer. Amid international outcry after the Israeli Prime Minister told Fox News he intended to take control of the enclave, there has been a notable silence from one individual, the US President.

There was no anguished appeal on social media of the type he made to Russia’s leader to stop his bombing of Ukraine – “Vladimir, STOP” – or call-ins to friendly media outlets to explain his thinking.

Indeed, as Israel’s security cabinet approved a plan to seize control of Gaza City, in what appeared to be a prelude to occupying the entire enclave, Trump was busy on Truth Social denouncing as a “total loser”, a Republican politician in Georgia who had decided to join the Democratic Party.

Though Trump did send envoy Steve Witkoff to the region to work for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and help return the 20 living hostages, many experts say neither the previous President, Joe Biden, nor Trump tried to rein in the Israelis, whose military operations in the aftermath of the 7 October 2023 attack by Hamas have killed at least 60,000 Palestinians.

Gaza has been reduced to rubble, while images of skeletal children and reports of youngsters dying from starvation belie Netanyahu’s claim that there is no crisis.

Samer Shehata, associate professor in Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, questions the idea that the White House made any meaningful effort to use its influence to stop an expanded offensive.

“Neither [Trump] nor the previous administration has tried hard, sincerely or intensely, to put pressure on Netanyahu. He’s not stopped weapon sales. He’s not stopped diplomatic support for Israel,” Shehata told The i Paper. “So he has not really put pressure on Israel.”

Since 7 October 2023, the US has sent billions of dollars in aid and weapons to Israel. Analysts at Brown University suggest that Israel received $17.9 billion (£13.3bn) in US military aid during this period.

Dr Shehata said the proof the US could have done more, and with ease, had come from the comments of serving and former Israeli military leaders.

One of them, retired Gen Yitzhak Brik, said last year: “All of our missiles, the ammunition, the precision-guided bombs, all the airplanes and bombs – it’s all from the US. The minute they turn off the tap, you can’t keep fighting.”

Another senior officer with the Israeli Air Force told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that his country would struggle to sustain operations for more than a couple of months without being resupplied by the US.

Last summer, Netanyahu dispatched his then defence minister Yoav Gallant to Washington DC after Biden – in a rare moment of defiance – said he would not provide Israel with bombs if they were to be dropped on cities such as Rafah.

“Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centres,” Biden said.

The visit of Gallant underscored the necessity of US weaponry, which with a few exceptions has continued to be used.

However, when it comes to Gaza, the aggressive oscillations in Trump’s comments make it a challenge to ascertain what he might do.

At one point he talked about forcing Palestinians out of the Strip, a move critics said would amount to ethnic cleansing, to create a “riviera” in the Middle East.

Then, recently he contradicted Netanyahu when he said he believed there was “real starvation” in Gaza. One report even suggested that he shouted at Netanyahu about starving children during a recent phone call – something denied by Israel.

But Trump has also suggested that the Israeli military should “finish the job” against Hamas in Gaza.

square ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR Analysis

Netanyahu is prepared to destroy Israel as well as Gaza to save himself

“There’s a great deal of space in terms of what Trump would accept,” claims Dr Shehata. “He just doesn’t want a headache. He doesn’t want pictures of starving children. Doesn’t want the international community talking about genocide or ethnic cleansing.”

Other experts say that without a peace deal, and with Israel set to take full control of the Strip, from which it nominally withdrew 20 years ago next month, the prospects for civilians are even more dire.

Dr Bree Akesson, associate professor Wilfrid Laurier University, in Ontario, Canada, has researched how children and families are affected by war.

She said the scale of the destruction and loss was “absolutely staggering and has no signs of letting up”. 

“It’s hard to imagine things could get worse in Gaza. But they could. What we are seeing is not just war, but the destruction of an entire civilian population,” she says. “If Israel takes full military control of Gaza, there will likely be even more mass displacement beyond the current levels, rendering Palestinian communities stateless and without shelter.”

For children it will be especially tough, if research carried out in places such as Chechnya, Syria, Afghanistan is a guide.

“Pervasive stress and trauma can alter children’s brain development and impair their learning,” she said.  “War doesn’t just destroy homes and neighbourhoods and infrastructure, it also destroys family life and childhood.”

Hence then, the article about trump has no interest in stopping netanyahu he just wants to avoid a headache was published today ( Friday 08/08/2025 - 07:20 PM ) and is available on inews ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.

Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Trump has no interest in stopping Netanyahu – he just wants to avoid a headache )

Also on site :

• Blessing Muzarabani ditches PSL team, joins KKR for IPL 2026
• Metal Logic Purchases Pilbara Site to Deploy Grade-Agnostic, Scalable Modular Clean Steel Smelter
• Ukraine-Russia war latest: Trump removes sanctions on oil from Moscow ahead of Zelensky’s talks with Macron