A strong and unbreakable thread of connection runs throughout America’s recent foreign policy moves, certainly since the start of Trump’s second term. Whether it be in Palestine, Greenland, Russia or Ukraine, and now, quite possibly, Venezuela, that thread, that theme, is, quite simply, real estate and what lies beneath it, and, of course, the promise of huge returns on investments paid for by the public purse, the federal defence budget.
In Gaza, there’s an obvious plan to dispossess the remaining Palestinians of as much land as possible in order to redevelop the Strip as a new American and Israeli-owned Riviera. Although I must admit that the very first time I heard Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner mention the huge redevelopment potential of Gaza I laughed out loud. It was so… incongruous.
Given the genocide, the blatant lies, and later the ethnic cleansing, not to mention the appalling suffering of the residents of Gaza, how could any decent human being talk about 5-star resorts on the foundations of totally destroyed family homes, entire communities flattened with bombs provided by the US and with aerial surveillance offered free of charge by the ever-complicit Brits.
Yet he was serious. And remains so.
Now we see the same or very similar theme play out as the US pretends to be an honest broker in ending the Russian-Ukrainian war. In this case, the business opportunities dwarf the more modest ambition of redeveloping Gaza. Russia possesses vast resources that Trump and company would love to get their hands on, or at very least exploit in more roundabout ways. Clearly, the idea that Trump lies awake at night lamenting the human toll of suffering in Ukraine is clearly not reality-based.
In Greenland, the Americans hope to get their hands on rare earth minerals – no matter what it takes, in Trump’s own words. And in Venezuela, well there’s rather a lot of oil lying around so-far largely undisturbed.
So, when we hear that so-called peace efforts to stop the Russian-Ukrainian war are currently being led by Steve Witcoff, from New York, and the ubiquitous Jared Kushner – more or less the same team that helped to bring about the so-called ceasefire in Gaza – we need to stop for a moment and ask the question: “What do these two gentlemen have in common?”
Both are billionaire real estate developers, and so far neither of them in public life has shown a jot of interest in alleviating human suffering. On the contrary, if it helps them to become even richer, in dollars or shekels, expect even worse to come.
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From left, Steve Witkoff, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Jared Kushner © @IsraeliPM/X