Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Trump’s Gaza Proposal

 
Donald Trump seems incapable of qualifying his statements, a fault that may be connected with his tendency to exaggerate.  And so he needlessly inflames his enemies, who, given their biases, naturally took him to be advocating ethnic cleansing with his talk of "taking over" Gaza.   Anthony Flood here skillfully rebuts the suggestion.
 
I believe Tony is right, having carefully listened to the joint Trump-Netanyahu speech and the context-providing interview last night by Mark Levin of the Israeli Prime Minister. In the speech with Trump, Netanyahu  hung back, not sure what Trump was proposing with his "take over Gaza" remark.  But in the interview he put a positive spin on it. 
 
It is not quite clear whether Trump's  provocation is intentional, a sort of 'blue-baiting' if you will, or simply due to a lack of political skill. 
 
In any case, the interregnum did him a world of good. Our boy is learning the ropes, and if he plays his cards right and does not succumb to hubris he may end up on Mt Rushmore. 
 
Dingbat Pelosi has proposed the benighted Joe Biden for that high honor, thereby underscoring her preternatural asininity and her unfitness both for high office and political commentary.
 
Trump's propensity for hubris does, however, worry me.  Merriam-Webster:

Hubris Comes From Ancient Greece

English picked up both the concept of hubris and the term for that particular brand of cockiness from the ancient Greeks, who considered hubris a dangerous character flaw capable of provoking the wrath of the gods. In classical Greek tragedy, hubris was often a fatal shortcoming that brought about the fall of the tragic hero. Typically, overconfidence led the hero to attempt to overstep the boundaries of human limitations and assume a godlike status, and the gods inevitably humbled the offender with a sharp reminder of their his mortality.

It is an index of the extreme polarization of our time that there are those who are quite sure that Trump enjoys divine protection. They speak, irresponsibly, of the 'miracle' of his escaping death by assassination at Butler, PA.  But how could anyone know, and confidently claim, that God intervened to save his life? I am not saying that God did not intervene in this instance, or that divine intervention in nature is impossible; I am saying that you are guilty of epistemic pretense if you pretend to know what cannot be known, but can only, at most, be reasonably believed.  

Hubris or providential protection? You are free to believe what you like, but in a case like this, the wise man suspends judgment.

The ever-helpful Dave Lull informs me that our friend Edward Feser has weighed in on the Gaza matter with an article in National Catholic Register, Trump's Gaza Proposal is Gravely Immoral.

Catholic opinion on Trump is divided, to put it mildly. See Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano's Letter to American Catholics.
 
Addendum (2/13)
 
Gaza Takeover

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Bill Vallicella

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7 responses to “Trump’s Gaza Proposal”

  1. Joe Odegaard Avatar
    Joe Odegaard

    One does not know, but yes, it can be reasonably believed. A similar, almost miraculous escape happened to George Washington, as mentioned at the end of this article. It gives one pause.
    Link:
    https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2025/01/boy_did_we_dodge_a_bullet.html

    Reply
  2. BV Avatar
    BV

    Thanks, Joe. I wasn’t aware of that GW story.

    Reply
  3. Dmitri Avatar
    Dmitri

    Trump’s Gaza proposal is bold and could have worked in a different region with different values. But it won’t work in Gaza. The death cult is in charge of this strip of land and it is fuelled by absolute and unqualified hatred of the Jews by most of the inhabitants of Gaza and by constant brainwashing of Arab children to that hatred from infancy.
    On a side note, Feser’s moralizing disregards history and, in a typically pretentious fashion, applies Western analytical standards to an Islamic religiously motivated war (jihad).
    Trump’s behaviour is erratic & his bullying diplomacy is doomed. I hope he does not move too far beyond words and some tariffs as he is pushing good neighbours and allies like Canada to look for alternative economic and military alliances. US with all its might can’t do much without spilling massive amounts of blood against a bloc of EU, Japan, China and other bullied countries, not to mention the regimes of Iran, Russia and North Korea who are biding their time with their backs pressed to the wall and waiting to explode the West.
    Here in Canada many people are cancelling vacations in the States and boycott American goods already. Canadians are booing US anthem at sports events — an unheard of phenomenon. They understand what Trump after and they will not let it happen. Here are the real reasons Trump bullies Canada (the economist David Rosenberg compiled it and published in National Post):
    • 318 billion trees (30 per cent of the world’s timber);
    • 164 billion barrels of proven oil reserves (nearly 10 per cent of the world’s supply, ranking fourth on the planet);
    • 34 critical minerals (sixth most in the world — everything from cobalt to graphite to chromium to nickel to potash to lithium to manganese to uranium — Canada is a global mining powerhouse, ranking in the top five of world production);
    • Seven per cent of the world’s renewable fresh water;
    • Access to the Arctic since 40 per cent of Canada’s land mass is in the Arctic.
    In sum, Canada has net national wealth estimated at $19 trillion and a very strong balance sheet that America would surely covet — not too shabby for a population of a bit more than 40 million. Canada, in other words, is Greenland on steroids.

    Reply
  4. BV Avatar
    BV

    Excellent comments, Dmitri.
    As for Canada, I do not know what game Trump is playing with his ’51st state’ proposal.
    He was elected in large part because he fearlessly stood up for the national sovereignty of the USA in the face of vicious, mendacious-to-the-core, hate-America, Democrats. And now he expects he can get the Canadians to give up their national sovereignty?
    On the other hand, he is doing so many good things so fast with his EOs that I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
    One things is for sure, MNNGA: He is making the nightly news great again. I can’t wait ’til five p.m.!

    Reply
  5. Dmitri Avatar
    Dmitri

    Thanks for kind words Bill. I still believe that Trump is better than Kamala and by far for US for sure and for the world as well — definitely for Israel, but his tendency, in poker terms, to overplay an already strong hand is not encouraging. His talented VP gives me hope as a counter-balance. One point that deserves a close attention is the depth of the mandate given to Musk. And I am talking as an admirer of Musk in business, he is indeed very special. But the information disclosed through his unlimited access to the federal payments transactions that came with DOGE responsibilities creates a h-u-g-e legal liability that Dems will use against Trump. And Musk can be tempted to overuse these enormous powers as he is prone to theatrics and appears to think that he is more than a genius entrepreneur. He is not.

    Reply
  6. BV Avatar
    BV

    Dmitri,
    One reason Trump was elected was to ‘drain the swamp.’ To do that someone has to audit the USAID payments, and those auditors have to be trusted. Can Musk be trusted? We shall see. Of course the fat Dems will squeal like stuck pigs deprived of their feed. But so far their ‘resistance’ is meaningless noise and lies about a ‘constitutional crisis’ and vile language, e.g. calling Musk a ‘dick’ and throwing F-bombs at him and Trump. What’s next? The ‘C’ word applied to the super-competent press secretary Karoline Leavitt?

    Reply
  7. Dmitri Avatar
    Dmitri

    This is the key point Bill: “Can Musk be trusted? We shall see.”
    The regular leftist noise and name calling should be ignored or fought against by the people who are experienced in that. The left has destroyed its trustworthiness with the centre (Biden’s senile presidency, his lies and pardons, Hunter’s laptop, Russia-owns-Trump, judicial activism etc.) — the left is done for a few years… The important thing is not to screw up the mandate given to Trump — that’s the only real risk. It requires strong discipline and moral and intellectual integrity — and an ability to build bridges with the proper new allies and a willingness to use US power wisely so as not to burn bridges with old allies.

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