Opinion: Trump is turning Gaza into a brutal colonial protection racket

The West has spent two years partnering with Israel in its campaign of wanton destruction in Gaza.

Now the United States - with the permission of a cowed United Nations Security Council - has appointed Donald Trump to preside over the ruins.

Like a Roman emperor, the US president will be able to dictate the fate of Gaza’s people with a simple gesture. Whatever he decides - whether the thumb turns up or down - it will be called "peace". 

Trump’s most likely side-kick in this depraved charade will be Tony Blair, the former British prime minister. He won his war-crime spurs more than 20 years ago, when he joined one of Trump’s predecessors, George W Bush, in launching an illegal invasion of Iraq and a subsequent, catastrophic occupation that left that country in ruins too. 

Satire cannot do justice to this moment.

The eradication of Gaza could be achieved only with the complete hollowing out of international law - the legal global order that was established many decades ago to prevent a third world war and the horrors of the Holocaust. 

Marking the demise of that era, the Security Council voted 13-0 this week to endorse Trump’s "peace plan" for Gaza, with only Russia and China daring to abstain. 

Trump is turning Gaza into a brutal colonial protection racket Opinion by Jonathan Cook