For $30 Million Trump Exports Chaos To Gaza

One of over 2,700 Palestinian demonstrators injured
by Israeli Defense Forces on Monday

Divisive presidential campaign rhetoric, incessant childish name-calling of various world leaders and the abandonment of basic principles of diplomacy and traditional foreign policy objectives are all defining features of what has passed as Donald Trump's chaotic foreign policy approach.

A chaotic, patchwork philosophy that's alienated America's traditional allies around the globe and destabilized the Trans-Atlantic alliance with Western Europe.

On the rocky road of the presidential campaign trail two years ago, what Trump ironically flouted as his "America First" approach to international relations has steadily eroded the image of the U.S. as the unofficial leader of the Free World in the eyes of many.

So it's difficult to stomach the embattled POTUS' current attempts to portray himself as the clever worldly diplomat ready to pull America from hard-fought international agreements like the Iran Nuclear Deal, the Paris Climate Accords and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) simply so Trump can flaunt his inexperience and naivete by doing "deals" off the cuff.

In the wake of Israeli Defense Forces killing of at least 60 Palestinian demonstrators who attempted to cross sections of the volatile 32-mile border that separates the Gaza Strip and Israel during mass protests on Monday and Tuesday, Trump's foreign policy has proven to be an unqualified disaster.

It was Trump's widely-criticized decision to move the American embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to the city of Jerusalem that aggravated the widespread Palestinian protests that have been taking place along various parts of the Gaza border for over a month.

Back on Friday April 6th, Israeli troops opened fire with live ammunition and rubber bullets on a mass demonstration by Palestinians in the city of Khuza'a in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, killing nine protesters and wounding hundreds.

Among those killed that day were 30-year-old Palestinian journalist Yaser Murtaja (pictured below), who was shot in the stomach despite wearing a blue flak jacket clearly marked "Press" - he later died in the hospital from his wounds.

Mourners carrying the body of Palestinian journalist
Yaser Murtaja, killed in Gaza by Israeli troops in April 

Those demonstrations were known as "The Greart March of Return", a series of planned demonstrations against the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land in 1948 and the U.S.-backed Israeli economic and political blockade of the Gaza Strip.

A land and naval blockade that has prevented Palestinians from entering or leaving since 2006 when the Islamic Palestinian organization Hamas won legislative elections and the right to govern the region.

Gaza is one of the most densely populated regions on the planet.

To put it into perspective, more than 1.85 million Palestinians live in the Gaza Strip, an area that's only about 21 miles long and between about 3.7 to 7.5 miles wide at various points.

The Gaza Strip is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea on its western border, Egypt sits on it's southern border, and Israel surrounds the eastern and northern borders where most of the violence that has dominated media coverage for the past two days, has taken place.

Israeli ships, planes, tanks and soldiers enforce a blockade that's been in place since Israeli forces withdrew from Gaza in 2005 - the blockade ostensibly prevents Iran from sending military weaponry to Hamas.

But the blockade has also choked off shipments of critical supplies, foreign aid and investment, as well as the freedom to travel in and out of Gaza by the almost two million Palestinians who live in a region where there are almost no jobs or economic or educational opportunities to speak of.

Palestinians behind the Gaza Strip blockade wall 

For example, earlier this morning I listened to a BBC Radio interview with a young Palestinian grad student who said that he's been unable to leave Gaza to complete his graduate studies abroad in a foreign college that offered him a scholarship, because the Israeli blockade prevents him from leaving.

The frustration with Israel and the U.S. inside Gaza that has festered over the past decade was already a focal point for anti-American resentment.


To say nothing of a recruiting tool for radicalized Islamic groups like ISIS and Al-Qaeda.

But Trump's decision to move the American embassy to Jerusalem was like pouring gasoline on a fire that's been simmering for almost 70 years - it was a decision that previous U.S. presidents, Democrats and Republicans alike, refused to make because of it's impact on the destabilization of the region.

Regional powers in the Mid-East including Saudi Arabia and Turkey also warned the Trump administration against making such a provocative and totally unnecessary move - even though he has no diplomatic experience and doesn't understand the complex history of the region he did it anyway.

Such ill-advised foreign policy decisions have become the hallmark of Trump's presidency, and the deadly results seen on the Gaza Strip border on Monday are hardly surprising given the current White House's attempts to remove scores of experienced, career foreign service officials from their positions.

Bizarre actions typified by Trump's attempts to gut the State Department's budget by a staggering 25% ($13.1 billion) for the fiscal year 2018 after appointing former-Exxon-Mobil executive Rex Tillerson, a man with no political or diplomatic experience, to head up the agency at a critical time for America' standing in an increasingly complex global landscape.

Tillerson (who privately called Trump "a fucking moron") has since become one the 37 former Trump administration officials and employees who've been fired or resigned since their erratic ex-boss took office in January of 2017.

Exporting Nepotism: Jared Kushner & Ivanka Trump
at the U.S. embassy opening in Jerusalem on Monday

The "brain trust" that Trump sent to Jerusalem for the ceremony opening the U.S. embassy is a sad reflection of his erratic clown-car approach to foreign relations.

Front and center were Trump's daughter-wife Ivanka and her embattled husband Jared Kushner.

The son-in-law Trump touted as some kind of boy-wonder who's actually accomplished little during his tenure as a "senior White House adviser" aside from accepting almost $500 million in loans from AGM and Citigroup for his family's real estate company.


Loans which were secured only AFTER Kushner met inside the White House with reps from both companies - sparking a federal ethics investigation that is ongoing.

And remember, Kushner is the guy who lied so many times on his federal disclosure forms about meetings he held with foreigners while he was acting as a member of the Trump campaign that his security clearance was revoked - essentially neutering him in terms of the White House power structure.

Look at the picture above.

The fact that Kushner is sitting next to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the embassy ceremony would almost be laughable, save for the fact that as the photo was being taken, hundreds of Palestinian protesters were being wounded and over 58 killed less than a hundred miles away.

Given the media reports back in February that a 12-month investigation by Israeli police revealed that Netanyahu had accepted hundreds of thousands in bribes and recommended that he be charged with breach of trust and fraud, in the world of "Trump logic" it's actually not surprising that a right-wing war-hawk with questionable personal finances is sitting next to Jared and Ivanka.

Ivanka takes a selfie as Palestinians
are shot at the Gaza border

Trump himself knew the decision to open the embassy would result in violence that would be widely condemned by the international community (which it was) so he was too chickenshit to bother to show up for the ceremony himself.

Instead he dispatched his disgraced son-in-law and ethically-challenged daughter for a photo op with a corrupt Israeli prime minister who praised IDF forces for gunning down unarmed Palestinian protesters.

And what was Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin doing there anyway? Did Trump just throw him in there to lend the whole affair some credibility?

Check out this People.com article about how Jared and Ivanka are getting ripped on social media for attending the ceremony and celebrating in front of cameras while Palestinians were being slaughtered.

Like Trump's foreign policy, it makes very little sense, but that's of little consequence to a man who continues to foist his unqualified relatives upon the American public in an effort to use the presidency to enrich the finances and influence of his own family.

With the Syrian conflict getting trickier and more violent, about the last thing Palestinians stuck in limbo in the Gaza Strip needed was Trump's chaotic leadership style or the destabilization of the already-fragile Palestinian - Israeli regional conflict by moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem.

But for the $30 million donated by casino magnate and Republican rainmaker Sheldon Adelson to the GOP for the upcoming midterm elections, Trump was willing to do just about anything.

Even if dozens of Palestinians were killed and more than 2,700 wounded.

So much for draining that swamp.