US president Donald Trump has put the price of a permanent seat on his ‘Board of Peace’ at $1 billion in what is being interpreted by many as an attempt to create an alternative to the United Nations completely under his control.
At the weekend, Trump’s proposed charter for the Board was sent out to around 60 countries – hand-picked by Trump – along with an invitation to potential members for them to apply for places on the board.
There is no mention of Gaza in the draft charter, leading to speculation that this group is intended to have a much wider mandate involving other conflicts throughout the world and creating a US-dominated alternative to the United Nations Security Council.
Like all cheap hustlers, Trump is not bestowing the privilege of sitting on the board – conceived by him as part of the plan to control Gaza – for free.
Instead, he is charging $1 billion for the privilege of nations having a permanent seat on a board that would be dominated by the US and by Trump as its Chairman.
In his role as Chairman Trump has the final say in any decision this so-called ‘Board of Peace’ may make.
According to the draft, Trump would be the Board’s chair and decide who is invited to be a member. While decisions would be taken by a majority, this would be subject to Trump’s approval.
It is also reported that this draft suggests that Trump would control the $1 billion charged for sitting permanently on this Board, and that this money would allegedly go towards rebuilding Gaza.
Having found their way into the pocket of the big capitalist Trump, the chances of any of these billions being used to ‘rebuild’ Gaza are nil.
The board is intended to oversee the second phase of Trump’s 20-point plan for Gaza.
The initial phase focused on halting Israeli genocidal attacks on Palestinians, enabling an exchange of captives and defining the limits of Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, along with the reopening of the Rafah Crossing between the enclave and Egypt, allowing access to full humanitarian aid.
The Zionist regime has broken every single one of these conditions, with Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) killing at least 464 Palestinians and injuring 1,275 since the start of Trump’s peace plan on October 10 – an average of nearly five deaths a day under what was proclaimed to be a ceasefire.
Meanwhile, aid has trickled in at a painfully slow rate at a time when famine and disease are rampant throughout Gaza.
Trump’s second phase involves the ‘Founding Executive Council’ at the top of a pyramid controlling all the money and setting the US strategic mission all under the control of Trump himself.
Operating alongside this controlling body is an ‘International Stabilisation Force’ – led by the US – with a mandate that includes ‘permanent disarmament’ of the Palestinian resistance.
This force will be used to enforce the Israeli agenda of disarming Hamas without any political settlement aimed at addressing the issue of occupation, and the struggle by Palestinians for the independent state of Palestine.
Trump’s ‘peace plan’ was designed to rescue the Israeli regime after its failure, despite a genocidal war, to crush Palestinian resistance to occupation while at the same time opening up the prospect of making money for himself and US business out of the ‘reconstruction’ of Gaza.
Trump intending to charge $1 billion each for the privilege of sitting on a board to rescue Zionism and enrich the US over the bodies of Palestinian men, women and children, is symptomatic of the corruption and degeneration of world imperialism.
The working class in the US, UK, Europe and across the world have the power to put an end to imperialism and to support the Palestinians in their fight for the right to an independent state of Palestine.
Now is the time for workers across the world to demand their trade unions call general strikes to bring down their capitalist governments and go forward to Workers Governments that will end all support for the Zionist state and immediately recognise the independent state of Palestine.