THE SORROW OF GAZA

President Trump and P.M. Netatanjahu have proposed, or better, imposed a plan for Gaza. The broad lines thereof were predictable. The Gaza sur mer option stands. The Palestinians are a footnote. The Israelies have a free hand, almost. Tony Blair becomes yet another "Roman Consul-like persona" in this century. But it could have been worse. The feared cleansing from within, and the arbitrary population swaps don't materialize.

Nobody will regret the sanctions against Hamas. Everybody notices the isolation of the Palestinian Authority however. It will need to reinvent its relevance. 

Israel got mostly what it wanted. Most Arab states may feel relieved that for the time-being their embarass is taken care off, thanks to Trump. As much as the mood in Europe is, rightly so, anti-Netanjahu, it is time to halt the growing, sheer unstoppable wave of anti-Semitism. 

It remains uncertain if this mantra will work in the short-term. The Israeli war machine is unstoppable after all. Hamas is a ragtag but has nothing to lose. If worse comes, more hell will follow. 

This conflict is in too many ways the avatar of bad memory and faulty assessments. Today's villains were yesterday's victims. Today's claimants were yesterday's intruders.

Trump came up with some form of real estate formula wherein  the potentially more ominous possibilities get diluted in the fine print. The wretched in Gaza might become a lost tribe looking for employment by the settlers. The building sector might provide for an easing of some of the hardships, that is, if the implementation follows. 

The united US/Arab front is an American diplomatic coup. All should wish the Gaza inferno to end and for some form of sympathy and support to overrule existing prejudice...A steep climb.