As the world watches the devastation in Gaza, former U.S. President Donald Trump has emerged not as a mediator, but as an unapologetic cheerleader for Israel’s most aggressive policies. In speeches and interviews, Trump has sounded less like a statesman and more like a public relations officer for the Israeli government. He praises Israel without restraint, ignores international law, and even proposes that Arab nations absorb millions of Palestinians in order to "clean out" Gaza—a phrase chillingly close to advocating ethnic cleansing.
Trump’s rhetoric goes beyond support. His administration actively shielded Israel from legal scrutiny, most notably by imposing sanctions on the prosecutors of the International Criminal Court (ICC) who dared to investigate alleged war crimes and genocide in Gaza and the West Bank. This move—unprecedented in modern diplomacy—marked the moment when the United States became not just an ally of Israel, but its proxy in international lawfare.
By punishing ICC prosecutors, Trump undermined the global judicial system and set a dangerous precedent. The message was clear: accountability stops where U.S. and Israeli interests begin. As Palestinian civilians were killed in the hundreds, the Trump administration used its diplomatic and economic weight to silence justice, not promote it.
At the heart of this campaign is “hasbara,” Israel’s state-sponsored propaganda machine. Hasbara—Hebrew for “explanation”—is not merely public diplomacy; it is a sophisticated strategy of narrative manipulation. Instead of blocking contradictory information, hasbara floods the information space with misleading context, cherry-picked facts, and appeals to emotion that paint Israel as perpetually under siege.
Hasbara operates through think tanks, media outlets, lobby groups, academic institutions, and even social media influencers. It offers fellowships and scholarships to groom pro-Israel advocates worldwide. Journalists, bloggers, and politicians are either co-opted or bullied into repeating hasbara talking points, creating a dense wall of disinformation that shields Israel’s actions from serious scrutiny.
Trump, knowingly or not, became a mouthpiece of this machinery. His public statements mirrored hasbara narratives: that Israel acts purely in self-defense, that Hamas represents all Palestinians, that every Palestinian death is somehow justified. Meanwhile, Israeli bombs destroyed entire neighborhoods and aid convoys, with hundreds of civilians—including children—killed without warning.
In the media, Trump's influence exacerbated a troubling trend. Western outlets increasingly referred to “clashes” instead of “massacres,” and to “conflict” instead of “occupation.” The language softened the brutality, reducing war crimes to policy disputes. With Trump’s amplification, even the most egregious violations by Israel were framed as defensive necessities.
But perhaps most disturbingly, Trump’s strategy went beyond language. During his term, he moved the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, recognized Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights, and brokered the Abraham Accords—agreements designed not to solve the Palestinian issue, but to sideline it entirely. The deals, while hailed by some as diplomatic breakthroughs, were little more than economic incentives for Arab nations to normalize ties with Israel while Palestinians continued to live under occupation.
This blind support for Israel—even amid credible accusations of genocide—has eroded U.S. credibility across the Global South. China, for instance, has publicly accused the United States of “pouring oil on the fire” in Middle Eastern conflicts, rather than helping extinguish them. Chinese diplomats argue that U.S. bias has fueled instability and prolonged suffering in countries like Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and now Palestine.
While the U.S. justifies its actions under the banner of democracy and security, countries like China see a pattern of exploitation, chaos, and one-sided diplomacy. Beijing has positioned itself as a counterbalance to American hegemony, advocating multilateral solutions and calling for genuine respect for international law—a message that increasingly resonates in the post-colonial world.
Trump’s unwavering alignment with Israeli interests, even at the expense of international law and human rights, reflects a deeper geopolitical reality. It exposes the extent to which the U.S. foreign policy establishment is entangled with Zionist ideology—whether for strategic, economic, or ideological reasons. The result is a foreign policy that values dominance over diplomacy and impunity over justice.
Nowhere is this clearer than in Trump’s reaction to Israeli military actions in Gaza. While Israeli soldiers admitted in Haaretz that they were ordered to open live fire on unarmed civilians at U.S.-backed aid sites—describing the situation as “a killing field”—Trump remained silent. There was no condemnation, no call for restraint, no empathy for the victims. Just more cheerleading from afar.
This silence is complicity. While Palestinian homes are flattened and children are buried under rubble, Trump praises Israeli “strength” and ridicules international outcry as “anti-Semitism.” He speaks of rebuilding Gaza as a resort strip, but only once its people are gone—revealing a vision that has more in common with colonial displacement than humanitarian reconstruction.
The reality is that hasbara cannot forever shield the truth. International protests, independent journalism, and growing movements within Jewish communities themselves are beginning to challenge the narrative monopoly. As more Israeli whistleblowers speak out and footage of atrocities spreads, the mask slips.
Trump may continue his performative loyalty to Israel, but the global tide is turning. More nations and civil societies are seeing the Gaza crisis for what it is: not a border dispute, but a human catastrophe rooted in occupation, apartheid, and unaccountable power.
In the end, history will not remember Trump as a peacemaker or a deal broker. It will remember him as the man who abandoned justice for political convenience, who mocked the suffering of a people, and who used the power of the U.S. presidency to become the world’s most powerful hasbara agent.
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