Subject: Re: Qatar air force base on American soil
While I don't see how HAMAS is gotten rid of, I'm happy that this appears to be working. but wondering how HAMAS figures into the whole pic.

Ah, you just need to be more cynical.

One model of the Arab-Israeli conflict (as we used to call it) is that the Arab states in the region cared a great deal about the Palestinian cause and didn't give a flying fork about the Palestinian people. That's especially true of Egypt and Jordan, who generally regarded several of the Palestinian independence efforts as dangerous and threatening to their own countries. They loved the fact that the Palestinian issue caused enormous problems for Israel and their U.S. patrons, but that didn't necessarily extend to caring much about the Palestinians really getting their own country. Again, even now Egypt and Jordan probably have some very serious concerns about how an actual country of Palestine would affect them.

There's an old saying in politics: you can't beat someone with no one. You can't drive out Hamas for good unless there's someone that replaces them. But the only two alternatives have always been either Israel (which the Sunni nations would hate) or some group of Palestinians like the PA (which was also deeply unpalatable).

So the highlight of this deal is that Trump is proposing that Gaza be liberated from Hamas without putting the Palestinians in charge. It's going to be run by a "Board of Peace," meaning not the Palestinians who live in Gaza and not the PA and not Israel. Picture the cake scene from The Godfather Part II, but with Gaza instead of Cuba, and the various countries in the region all getting a "piece" instead of the crime families:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Because Trump doesn't care about Palestinian rights to self-determination and autonomy - even to pay lip service to them - he can offer this deal where no other President before or after can do it. He doesn't care and doesn't need to. So he can step in and "give away" Gaza to the other Arab states. As long as it doesn't go to Israel or to the PA, it's an acceptable outcome to them.

The proposal is to give those other nations a real incentive to force Hamas out of the picture and letting them be the ones in charge of the country (with the U.S. in the lead position). If Gaza goes well, then they all get to make tons of money and have some real security dealing with the United States; and they don't have to worry about there actually being a Palestine. So if all those countries start actually putting their own pieces into Gaza, then they'll have incentive to create their own power structure in Gaza.

The pitch is having an anti-democratic governing body that can rule Gaza instead of the Palestinians doing it. You can't drive Hamas out of power and replace them with a vacuum, so the question "If not Hamas, then who?" was a huge problem. Now, the answer is "Who ever Trump decides will make him the most money and get him a Nobel." Since that answer is not the PA, not Israel, and not any other Palestinian group, then everyone in the region how has a chance to win if Hamas is driven out. I mean, except for the Palestinian people of course. But that's why you need to be more cynical to see what the deal really is....