Opinion | What Trump Should Keep in Mind on His Big Middle East Trip

During a conference on May 5 sponsored by the religious Zionist newspaper B’Sheva, Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s far-right finance minister, made a bold statement: “We’re occupying Gaza to stay,” he declared. “There will be no more entering and leaving. The local population will be squeezed into less than a quarter of the Gaza Strip.”

Haaretz military expert Amos Harel raised concerns about the potential consequences of this aggressive stance: “Since the army will try to minimize casualties, analysts predict the use of particularly aggressive force that could result in extensive damage to Gaza’s civilian infrastructure. The displacement of the population to humanitarian camps, combined with the ongoing shortage of food and medicine, may lead to further civilian deaths. Israeli leaders and officers could face legal proceedings against them.”

This strategy not only risks war crime accusations against Israel but also threatens the stability of neighboring countries like Jordan and Egypt. Both fear that Netanyahu’s actions could lead to an influx of Palestinians into their territories, sparking instability that could spill over their borders.

This approach also undermines efforts to enhance U.S.-Arab-Israeli security integration in the region, potentially playing into the hands of Iran and China. Hans Wechsel, a former senior policy adviser to U.S. Central Command, warns of the consequences: “The more hopeless things seem for Palestinian aspirations, the less likely we are to see long-term security advantages in the region, without the need for extensive U.S. military presence.”

Addressing the President directly, the article highlights the potential repercussions of current actions: “Your Jewish grandchildren may grow up in a world where the Jewish state is viewed as a pariah state.”

The article concludes with a poignant excerpt from a May 7 Haaretz editorial, urging for an end to the violence: “On Tuesday, the Israel Air Force killed nine children, between the ages of 3 and 14… We must not avert our eyes. We must wake up and cry out loudly: Stop the war.”