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Written by Uriel Araujo, Anthropology PhD, is a social scientist specializing in ethnic and religious conflicts, with extensive research on geopolitical dynamics and cultural interactions
After nearly two years of devastation in Gaza, US President Donald Trump’s freshly released 20-point peace plan has once again thrust the enclave into the geopolitical spotlight. Unveiled this week alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the blueprint promises an immediate ceasefire, hostage exchanges, and a demilitarized Gaza under transitional international oversight.
Chaired by Trump himself and featuring former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair as a key figure on the “Board of Peace”, this body would supposedly steer “redevelopment” until the Palestinian Authority reforms sufficiently to assume control. The proposal has elicited cautious applause from Arab leaders in Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, and Cairo, who see in it a potential pathway to regional stability.
Yet, beneath this veneer, the plan resurrects a specter supposedly long buried in the annals of Anglo-American foreign policy: the notion of Western stewardship over Palestinian lands, complete with economic zones primed for Gulf investments and, implicitly, access to untapped offshore gas riches.
This is no mere diplomatic flourish. As a matter of fact, Trump’s vision echoes his own earlier statements, dating back to February 2025, when he bluntly declared that the US should “take over” the Gaza Strip” and transform it into the “Riviera of the Middle East,” with America somehow “owning” the territory outright.
By May, amid a Gulf tour heavy on energy deals, the American leader doubled down, floating the idea of a US-led “freedom zone” with Palestinians resettled elsewhere while Washington dismantled Hamas infrastructure and rebuilt it with luxury resorts and job-creating hubs. Not surprisingly, since February, critics have been labeling such proposals ethnic cleansing, though Trump has typically brushed it off as pragmatic deal-making.
These statements align with underreported US intelligence assessments highlighting Gaza Marine gas field — estimated at 1.1 trillion cubic feet of reserves, potentially worth $4 billion in total revenue — as a strategic asset amid Europe’s scramble for non-Russian energy.
Thus far, Israel has blocked Palestinian exploitation of the field, citing security risks, but Trump’s plan cleverly sidesteps full annexation by Israel, instead paving the way for an Anglo-Saxon-flavored administration that could funnel revenues through international channels, thus benefiting US firms and allies like Egypt, which eyes pipelines to its LNG terminals.
One may recall that such Western meddling in the Holy Land is hardly unprecedented — and far from benign. In 1946, Zionist militants from the Irgun, led by a young Menachem Begin, detonated a bomb at Jerusalem’s King David Hotel, then the British Mandate’s administrative nerve center, killing 91 to drive out the British Mandate. This terrorist act, part of a broader insurgency against colonial rule, exemplifies the deep-seated Zionist aversion to foreign tutelage over what they viewed as nascent Jewish territory.
Fast-forward eight decades, and Trump’s blueprint — complete with Blair’s endorsement — revives that ghost. For Tel Aviv’s far-right, who have long championed a “Greater Israel” encompassing Gaza’s biblical corridors, this smacks of Western neocolonial overreach. Bezalel Smotrich, the hardline Religious Zionism leader and finance minister, has already signaled unease, warning against any dilution of Israeli sovereignty. Albeit cautiously welcoming part of the proposal, he denounced what he describes as “entrusting our security to foreigners and illusions that someone else will do the work for us.”
No wonder Netanyahu has vowed to “finish the job” if Hamas balks, a reminder that Jerusalem believes to retain the military upper hand, even as it relies on over $150 billion in cumulative US aid since 1948.
Yet, despite all the potential for collision, there is plenty of room for some convergence, for the time being. Trump’s plan complements his February ambitions by outsourcing the messy optics of direct US occupation to a Blair-led British-American consortium, while ensuring demilitarization milestones that would safeguard Israel. The IDF’s phased withdrawal — tied to hostage releases within 72 hours and the release of 250 Palestinian prisoners — meets Netanyahu’s red lines, including no Palestinian statehood and retained security perimeters.
In what appears to be a response to charges of ethnic cleansing, the document explicitly states no one will be forced to leave, though voluntary emigration to Jordan or Egypt is “encouraged”, which aligns anyway with Israeli far-right fantasies of a depopulated enclave ripe for settlements. Expert Michel Chossudovsky, in his June analysis, already captured this tension succinctly: Trump’s (initial) push to rebrand Gaza as a US territory somehow — complete with casinos and mansions funded by Gulf petrodollars — aims squarely at commandeering Gaza Marine’s gas, thus sidelining Israel’s “Greater Israel” maximalism in favor of American energy dominance in the Eastern Mediterranean, as I’ve written before.
Trump’s plan is less about peace than about resource control, and it thereby risks undermining Tel Aviv’s ideological project. It has sparked outrage in Ramallah too, decried as a “farce” that perpetuates occupation under a new guise.
This project echoes the ill-fated neocolonial occupation of Iraq, which devolved into a $2 trillion fiasco and ended up empowering Iran — precisely the Tehran boogeyman Netanyahu now pressures Trump to confront.
Here, too, Tel Aviv’s itch for an anti-Iran war clashes with Washington’s war-weary calculus; Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff may have brokered the January 2025 ceasefire, but leveraging Israel’s UN vote against Ukraine aid exposed how the current American presidency is relatively bent on rebalancing the American-Israeli relationship. This complex enough relationship is further complicated by the intricacies of the so-called “Israel Lobby” and espionage/kompromat allegations, with the defense sector also being a power player in this equation.
In this cauldron, convergence on security and resources might cover underlying rifts, but the collision looms: a US-flavored Gaza erodes Greater Israel’s biblical claims, potentially igniting far-right domestic revolt in Tel Aviv — not to mention sidelining Palestinian leadership.
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you better tell me what dump’s plan is for iran with shah reza pahlavi. it is more than obvious that the iranians would have done better to give their drones to the houthis and not sell them to russia. russia has betrayed syria and iran now has a target on its back. but if iran had given drones to the houthis then, perhaps gaza would be free now. we will never know, but we do know that the mask has fallen off the russian face. do you, dear readers, remember utkin, soleimani, and nasrallah?
yeah……
arrested in damascus six days ago | fate of two doctors remains unknown
on oct 2, 2025
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damascus province: security forces of the transitional government arrested two doctors nearly six days ago in al-qaboun park in damascus city for unknown reasons.
according to sohr sources, the two doctors are of the alawite community, which raises concerns about their fate.
this coincides with ongoing arbitrary arrests in damascus city and surrounding areas.
on september 7, sohr sources reported that members of the general security carried out a security campaign and stormed al-rasafa village in hama countryside, where the members gathered four workers in a farm, tied them up and severely beat them, before releasing them and arresting a civilian, coinciding with sounds of light and medium machineguns shooting.
according to residents, the operations coincided with physical assaults and sabotaging to properties of civilians
following bloody actions and considerable tension | tense calm prevails in wadi al-nasara in homs
on oct 2, 2025
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homs province: sohr sources have reported that tense calm has been prevailing in wadi al-nasara area, inhabited mostly by christian citizens, in the western countryside of homs following intervention of security forces which contained the public anger
and considerable tension which the region experienced in the past hours.
yesterday, sohr sources reported that wadi al-nasara area experienced a state public anger following the killing of two christian persons by masked gunmen in front of the bureau of the elder of annaz village in the western countryside of homs.
once again mia spouts un related rhetoric
just throw up a smokescreen of joo orchestrated violence and terror elsewhere.
never blame the jooz, just blame their victims.
security vacuum | young man shot dead in western hama
on oct 2, 2025
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hama province: an alawite young man was found dead with gunshot wounds on the road to nabaa al-tayib yesterday.
according to sohr sources, the victim hailed from ain al-karoum village in sahl al-ghab in the western countryside of hama.
the syrian observatory has documented the death of 1,071 people, including 32 women and 21 children, in murder crimes and eliminations that come under retaliatory actions in differe
this is a gaza article? or a mia rhetoric display?
the latest in peace talks or deals is a simple hasbara plan to create false hope that israel would abide by any deal. history shows israel will never honor any agreement. this is just a ruse not worthy of your attention. all israeli prisoners would have been at home two years ago if israel had followed the first or second agreements they violated.
its simple, only remember what the native americans tells about the great white snakes ability to fulfill promises and deals.
the redskins made 330 treaties with the amerikunts. how did that work out for them.
there is no deal that israel will follow. this is hasbara theater for the masses. if israel had not violated the first deal. all hostages would have been exchanged for palestinian prisoners two years ago.
right now israel is fighting on 8 fronts. but during a government shutdown the us has magically purchased new bunker buster bombs, by printing more currency as always. while the us fleet is moving with tanker fuel supplies. how much of this fuel is jet and helicopter kerosene ?
hostages are useful for the religious zionism. october 7 was allowed to happen from the highest places in the israeli government. the british began wth the beheaded baby nonsense rally hate early on. religious zioism is satanism, it kills jews too for selfish interest
the zionist are having a nervous system meltdown
even if the pedo-in-chief found god and demanded a cessation (which is laughable) to all military destruction of gaza by his and i$raeli forces… $atanyahu would pull another false flag murdering his own in a “9/11 /october 7 style attack” to finish the job… trust me his goy in the white house is on-board -especially with king harrod aka tony blair making his list of new condo(s) to be put in place over all the mass graves…
…construction already underway with a trump casino designated… this read is pure bs!