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Media Credit Trump for Gaza Truce—Sidelining Palestinian Resistance and Solidarity Gregory Shupak ([link removed])


WaPo: Trump’s ‘madman theory’ worked in Gaza when all else failed

Shadi Hamid (Washington Post, 1/16/25 ([link removed]) ): "Donald Trump might seem like a madman. But it turns out that might be a good thing—at least for the moment."

Many leading US media outlets were quick to attribute the suspension of hostilities in Gaza to incoming president Donald Trump’s intervention. Ariel Kahana argued in the Wall Street Journal (1/15/25 ([link removed]) ) that “Trump Forced Netanyahu to Make a Deal With the Devil”—Satan, in this formulation, being Hamas, as opposed to the parties responsible for more than 15 months of genocide ([link removed]) . In the Washington Post (1/16/25 ([link removed]) ), a Shadi Hamid column contended that “Trump's 'Madman Theory' Worked in Gaza When All Else Failed.”

Other coverage highlighted how Trump’s team coordinated with the Biden administration in its final weeks. The Journal (1/15/25 ([link removed]) ) foregrounded the “pointed debate over who deserves the credit” while the New York Times (1/15/25 ([link removed]) ) marveled at the “remarkable collaboration between President Biden and President-elect Donald J. Trump, who temporarily put aside mutual animosity to achieve a mutual goal.” The Post (1/18/25 ([link removed]) ) emphasized

how incoming and outgoing administration teams with little ideological affinity—and considerable political enmity—embarked on a virtually unprecedented collaboration to seal the ceasefire deal.

I ran a search using the news media aggregator Factiva and found that the New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal ran a combined 19 articles containing the words “Gaza” and “ceasefire” in the five-day period from when the ceasefire was agreed upon, January 15, until it took effect on January 19. Yet these newspapers consistently ignored other crucial features of the environment in which the ceasefire came together.


** 'Heavy losses on Israeli forces'
------------------------------------------------------------
Foreign Policy: Israel Is Facing an Iraq-like Quagmire

Foreign Policy (4/9/24 ([link removed]) ): The Biden administration warned Israel not to "get bogged down in an endless quagmire with no way out."

A major overlooked factor is that Israeli occupation forces faced fierce resistance from Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups in Gaza. Israeli media and former Israeli officials have described Israel as being in a “quagmire” in Gaza (Haaretz, 8/15/24 ([link removed]) , 9/16/24 ([link removed]) ). International media reached the same conclusion (Irish Times, 4/7/24 ([link removed]) ; Foreign Policy, 4/9/24 ([link removed]) ).

As it became likely that a ceasefire would come to pass, Haaretz military analyst Amos Harel (1/14/25 ([link removed]) ) wrote that

until a deal is signed, Israel is bleeding in Gaza.... The number of fallen soldiers in the area has risen to 15 in less than a week. It’s not just that time is running out for the hostages. Soldiers, too, are dying without any clear reason in a prolonged operation in Northern Gaza....

In practice, despite the heavy losses sustained by Hamas, it is clear that the operation has not yielded decisive results. The fighting in Jabaliya has subsided, but an estimated several dozen active [Palestinian fighters] remain there. A similar number are also active in Beit Hanoun and have managed to inflict relatively heavy losses on the Israeli forces.

Despite using nearly apocalyptic force against Gaza and inflicting incomprehensible suffering on its civilian population, the US/Israeli alliance could not vanquish Palestinian resistance forces, and Israel was forced to absorb substantial casualties.

However, the 19 Journal, Post and Times articles make only one mention of Israeli losses in Gaza. That occurred in the final sentence of a Post article (1/15/25 ([link removed]) ), which read, “[Israel] says 405 soldiers have been killed during its military operation in Gaza”—a figure that cannot be verified because the Israeli military is secretive and censorious (+972, 5/20/24 ([link removed]) ).


** Economic toll
------------------------------------------------------------
CNN: Israel’s economy is paying a high price for its widening war

CNN (10/4/24 ([link removed]) ): "As the conflict spills over into the wider region, the economic costs will spiral too."

Other costs were also exacted from Israel. For months, 68,000 Israelis living near the Israel/Lebanon armistice line have been evacuated from their homes because of rockets Hezbollah has fired, which the group consistently said it did to pressure Israel into a Gaza ceasefire. Although Hezbollah has stopped since it signed a “ceasefire” with Israel (that Israel has ignored—FAIR.org, 1/9/25 ([link removed]) ), Israelis have not gone back to their homes in the north, and are not expected to until March at the earliest (Haaretz, 1/1/25 ([link removed]) ).

None of the 19 Journal, Times and Post pieces I examined make any reference to these almost 70,000 Israelis who have been driven from their homes by the Palestinians’ Lebanese allies.

The drawn-out genocide exacted economic costs on Israel as well. In October, CNN (10/4/24 ([link removed]) ) said that Israelis’ living standards are declining and that, prior to the events of October 7, 2023,

the International Monetary Fund forecast that Israel’s economy would grow by an enviable 3.4% [in 2024]. Now, economists’ projections range from 1% to 1.9%. Growth [in 2025] is also expected to be weaker than earlier forecasts.... Inflation is accelerating, propelled by rising wages and soaring government spending to fund the war….

The conflict has caused Israel’s budget deficit—the difference between government spending and revenue, mostly from taxes—to double to 8% of GDP, from 4% before the war....

To shrink the fiscal hole, the government can’t rely on a healthy flow of tax revenue from businesses, many of which are collapsing, while others are reluctant to invest while it’s unclear how long the war will last.

A Reuters headline (10/15/24 ([link removed] Sponsored Content-,Israel GDP growth revised down to 0.3,Gaza war takes economic toll&text=JERUSALEM%2C Oct 15 (Reuters),continued to weigh on growth.) ) the next day noted that Israeli GDP growth for April–June 2024 had to be “Revised Down to 0.3% as Gaza War Takes Economic Toll.”

Nevertheless, the 19 Journal, Times and Post articles in my data set contained zero references to Israel’s economic problems.


** 'Costs piling up for importers'
------------------------------------------------------------
NYT: Houthi Attacks Turn Back the Clock for Shipping as Costs Pile Up

New York Times (12/11/24 ([link removed]) ): Yemeni attacks on cargo traffic in the Red Sea were "one of the most significant challenges that shipping has faced in a long time."

Along similar lines, the Yemeni group Ansar Allah ([link removed]) (usually referred to in Western media as the Houthis) has been intercepting commercial ships in the Red Sea since October 2023, promising to stop once there is a Gaza ceasefire. Ansar Allah’s commandeering the vessels has had a substantial impact on the global economy. A Defense Intelligence Agency report ([link removed]) said that Red Sea shipping usually accounts for 10–15% of international maritime trade, and container shipping through those waters declined by roughly 90% from December 2023 to February 2024.

A December 2024 article in the New York Times (12/11/24 ([link removed]) ) explained that Ansar Allah’s actions forced shipping companies to take a route "that is some 3,500 nautical miles and 10 days longer." While "Western-led naval fleets were sent to the Red Sea...the attacks continued, and commercial vessels have, for the most part, stayed away."

According to the report, “the costs are piling up for importers,” as shipping “rates have surged,” and economists say that “the Houthi attacks have contributed to inflation around the world.” The Times said that “the cost of shipping a container from China to a West Coast port in the United States is up 217% over 12 months.”

Meanwhile, AP (1/3/25 ([link removed]) ) reported that "Houthi attacks on shipping in the Red Sea have all but shuttered an Israeli port in the city of Eilat."

Nor have Ansar Allah’s activities been limited to the seas. As AP pointed out:

In recent weeks, missiles and drones from Yemen have struck nearly every day...setting off air raid sirens ([link removed]) in broad swaths of Israel.... The rocket fire is posing a threat to Israel’s economy, keeping many foreign airlines away and preventing the country from jump-starting its hard-hit tourism industry.

The 19 Gaza ceasefire articles in the Journal, Times and Post said nothing about the economic and military impact of Ansar Allah’s operations.

An accounting of the ceasefire is incomplete if it excludes how anti-Zionist and anti-imperialist forces in the Middle East thwarted US/Israeli designs for over 15 months, levying considerable battlefield and financial losses. Palestinians are protagonists in their own history, whether the US media like it or not.
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