By Robert Inlakesh
Upon the election of Donald Trump for his second term in office, immense speculation commenced over how the American President’s administration would handle its Israel and wider West Asia policy. It is now apparent from his cabinet picks that a similarly aggressive approach to that of his predecessor is afoot.
An initial announcement, made on X (formerly Twitter) from the account of the US President-elect, asserted that Nikki Haley (former UN ambassador) and Mike Pompeo (former Secretary of State) would not be included in the coming administration.
The joy widely expressed on social media, over the choice not to include these two figures who are viewed as hawks of Washington’s foreign policy establishment, was quickly undermined by what was to come.
Donald Trump has now announced his United Nations ambassador will be Elise Stefanik, who has received around $917,821 from pro-Israel lobby groups and is a staunch Zionist.
Stefanik received a bump in her personal profile as a politician earlier this year, after a video of her questioning the former President of Harvard University Claudine Gay. The soon-to-be UN ambassador angrily labeled “from the river to the sea” and “Intifada” as “advocating for the murder of Jews”.
The involvement of Elise Stefanik, along with other members of the Trump cabinet, in the active undermining of free speech on college campuses and censoring of entire academic institutions, demonstrates that the US President will seek to curtail free speech on Israel.
“If you get me reelected, we’re going to set that movement back 25 or 30 years,” back in May, Donald Trump said of the pro-Palestine student protests, before proposing deportations of the students. Stefanik has voted in favor of 10 pro-Israel bills that undermine freedom of speech as a congresswoman.
Trump’s pick for his ambassador to Israel is the fanatical Christian Zionist Mike Huckabee, who has openly said he refuses to use the words West Bank and calls the territory “Judea and Samaria” instead. Also, a Christian Zionist fanatic is the new Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles. Trump’s pick for Middle East envoy is business tycoon, Steven Witkoff, a staunch Zionist of Jewish descent.
Israel’s richest billionaire Miriam Adelson bankrolled the Trump campaign, donating a whopping 100 million dollars with the quid pro quo that he would recognize Israeli de-jure annexation of the West Bank.
Mike Waltz will serve as the new National Security Advisor, a man who has taken hundreds of thousands of dollars from pro-Israel lobby groups and is an avid supporter of Israel.
Secretary of Defense is going to be Pete Hegseth; he is also a Christian Zionist who has claimed that the Bible gives Israel the right to the land of Palestine.
Hegseth is an ex-marine and host of a show on Fox News, on which he gave a pandering interview to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, filled with softball questions and condemnatory remarks against the idea of a ceasefire in Gaza.
Tipped to be Secretary of State is Marco Rubio, who has received in excess of a million dollars from pro-Israel donors and is a fully-fledged supporter of Israel, along with just about every single regime change war imaginable.
Donald Trump’s pick for CIA director is John Ratcliffe, a man who has accused Joe Biden of not being pro-Israel enough and of being tougher on Hamas, he is in favor of a war with Iran and is regarded as a foreign policy hawk.
These are the most relevant positions that make up the Trump administration when it comes to a potential impact on West Asia policy as it affects the Palestine-Israeli conflict.
Every single pick is either a Christian Zionist or Jewish Zionist, all of them hardliners in their stances on the issue and most have received significant financial contributions from pro-Israeli lobby groups.
The cabinet is indicative of the kinds of policies that can be expected under a second term of the Republican Party leader, in what appears to be the most extreme pro-Israel cabinet in US history so far.
While it is currently unclear what impact this will exactly have on the trajectory of American support for Israel’s war against the people of Gaza and Lebanon, it appears that there will not be any change from the White House’s long-standing “unconditional support” for Israel.
Reprinted from The Palestine Chronicle
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