Al Mayadeen English

  • Ar
  • Es
  • x
Al Mayadeen English

Slogan

  • News
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Sports
    • Arts&Culture
    • Health
    • Miscellaneous
    • Technology
    • Environment
  • Articles
    • Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Blog
    • Features
  • Videos
    • NewsFeed
    • Video Features
    • Explainers
    • TV
    • Digital Series
  • Infographs
  • In Pictures
  • • LIVE
News
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Sports
  • Arts&Culture
  • Health
  • Miscellaneous
  • Technology
  • Environment
Articles
  • Opinion
  • Analysis
  • Blog
  • Features
Videos
  • NewsFeed
  • Video Features
  • Explainers
  • TV
  • Digital Series
Infographs
In Pictures
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Asia-Pacific
  • Europe
  • Latin America
  • MENA
  • Palestine
  • US & Canada
BREAKING
Factions' statement: The attendees agreed to support and continue implementing the ceasefire agreement measures, including the withdrawal of the occupation and lifting the siege.
Factions' statement: Calling for an end to all forms of torture and violations against prisoners in occupation prisons and the necessity of obligating the occupation to do so.
Statement: The current moment is crucial, making the meeting a true turning point toward national unity in defense of our people and their right to life, dignity, and freedom.
Factions' statement: Call for an urgent meeting of all Palestinian forces and factions to agree on a national strategy.
Factions' statement: Continuing joint work to unify visions and positions to confront the challenges facing the Palestinian cause.
Statement of the factions: Emphasis on the unity of the Palestinian political system and the independent national decision.
Statement: Approval to establish an international committee to oversee the financing and implementation of the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.
Statement: The committee is responsible for managing life and services in cooperation with Arab brothers and international institutions, based on transparency and accountability.
Resistance factions' statement: Agreement to hand over the administration of the Gaza Strip to a temporary Palestinian committee of independent technocrats.
Al Mayadeen's correspondent: Two people martyred in the Israeli airstrike that targeted a vehicle in Toul.

Trump’s apparent push for Gaza ceasefire only magnifies Biden’s wickedness

  • Samuel Geddes Samuel Geddes
  • Source: Al Mayadeen English
  • 18 Jan 2025 14:41
  • 1 Shares
6 Min Read

The ease with which the US president-elect has forced the Israeli leadership to fall into line has torched the last fig leaf of justification that the Democrats were ever interested in doing anything but stalling for time.

Listen
  • x
  • Trump’s apparent push for Gaza ceasefire only magnifies Biden’s wickedness
    How Trump’s role in the Gaza ceasefire exposed Biden’s true intentions (Illustrated by Zeinab al-Hajj; Al Mayadeen English)

This week’s “breakthrough” in ceasefire negotiations to end the genocidal campaign against Gaza came, according to regional sources, after a single intervention by US president-elect Trump’s designated envoy Steve Witkoff in which he ordered Netanyahu's government to capitulate. While we might be skeptical of Trump’s habit of claiming credit for any progress, it was corroborated by the far-right members of the Netanyahu government erupting into the kind of tantrum for which they are now world-famous, framing the deal as a disaster imposed on "Israel" by the incoming administration.

While a welcome relief, the imposition of the ceasefire on "Israel" by Trump also brings into stark focus the pointlessness of the last year and a half of slaughter as well as the regionalization of the war to the occupied West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Yemen.

In the aftermath of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, Biden, while parroting "Israel’s" atrocity propaganda about beheaded infants in ovens, gave Netanyahu a carte blanche to declare total war on the people of Gaza. As the unique scale of the atrocities in the Strip became clear, Biden proceeded, through his spineless UN ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, to provide diplomatic cover for the genocide at the Security Council. Breaking even with its European surrogates, the US vetoed every resolution that called for an end to the butchery, clearly straining to invent new objections to deflect global outrage at such cold-blooded cynicism.

The free rein given by the American government only emboldened the Israeli regime to widen the scope of the war. It achieved this to great effect through its airstrike on the Iranian consulate in the Syrian capital Damascus. In addition to violating every rule of modern (and ancient) diplomacy, the attack killed several high-ranking Iranian officials, guaranteeing that Tehran would retaliate directly, which it did with the largest volley of drones in military history (thus far) against "Israel".

As was clear from the warning Tehran issued as the attack unfolded, it was deliberately calibrating its response to avert further escalation. By this point, the urgent need for a ceasefire was indisputable. It was, however, to presage the most shameful chapter of the US administration’s complicity.

Related News

How Islamophobia became a tool of Western politics

Manufacturing civil war: The Zionist doctrine to destroy resistance

Shortly afterward, in June, Biden lied that a ceasefire deal had finally been reached, that it was at the initiative of the Netanyahu government, and that the Israeli leadership had accepted it. Secretary of State Antony Blinken clownishly trumpeted this falsehood, along with the claim that the only impediment to the ceasefire was Hamas’ refusal of its terms. It was well known at the time to be a lie, but the breakthrough of the last week confirms it beyond all doubt.

The Biden Administration’s refusal from that point on to impose a ceasefire cleared the path for the Israeli regime to massively escalate the war by assassinating Hamas’ political leader Ismail Haniyeh in the Iranian capital Tehran, which, along with its flagrant campaign of terrorism against Lebanon, culminating in the assassination of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, compelled Tehran to forcefully retaliate with a further massive drone and ballistic missile barrage against Israeli military targets.

Seizing the opportunity, Netanyahu used the response to his own provocations to launch a cynical war of choice against Lebanon in the vain belief that Israeli infiltration had "decapitated" Hezbollah. This most destructive war in Lebanon’s recent history displaced more than a million Lebanese and obliterated civilian infrastructure in the South, Beirut, and the Beqaa Valley, killing at least 4,000 civilians and wounding nearly 17,000. Despite this blitzkrieg, Israeli ground forces found themselves unable to advance as much as one kilometer along the entire stretch of the south Lebanese border. Along with a mounting casualty rate, "Israel" was forced to accept a ceasefire, albeit one that has given it cover to continue detonating villages on the border and launching drone and air strikes against Lebanese targets.

Throughout the entirety of this catastrophic year, US voters were shamelessly gaslit by the Democratic Party. First, they were fed the laughable falsehood that Biden was being repeatedly "deceived" by the Israeli leadership and that he personally detested the Israeli Prime Minister. Clearly, it was never to the extent that he would even consider withholding the deluge of armaments without which Tel Aviv could not prosecute the genocide or its spill-over in more than half a dozen other regional theatres. Secondarily, we were admonished, even by supposed supporters of Palestine, that to not vote for Vice President Kamala Harris would be to see the genocide intensify in a second Trump presidency.

While there is more than ample cause for skepticism, the ease with which the US president-elect has forced the Israeli leadership to fall into line has torched the last fig leaf of justification that the Democrats were ever interested in doing anything but stalling for time so that Tel Aviv could ‘finish the job,’ even at the cost of losing the election to what they claimed is the "Hitler of our time."

Even as the Palestinians may take comfort that the last year has thrown their cause to the forefront of the global agenda; it has nonetheless come at a still uncalculated cost in life and property. When the true toll is eventually calculated, as well as the fascists of Tel Aviv, every drop of blood will be on the heads of the now-former Biden administration that so willingly offered up an entire region for slaughter. 

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect Al Mayadeen’s editorial stance.
  • United States
  • US President Donald Trump
  • Gaza Strip
  • war on Gaza
  • Palestine
  • Israel
  • US
  • ceasefire
  • Gaza genocide
  • US President Joe Biden
  • Israeli occupation
  • Ceasefire in Gaza
  • Gaza
Samuel Geddes

Samuel Geddes

Journalist

Most Read

All
Ellison and Blair are working together to open up huge data-mines for profit-making, and the British NHS is a key prize. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Batoul Chamas)

Who is Larry Ellison? And how does he tie digital ID, Trump, Blair and genocide in Levant?

  • Opinion
  • 13 Oct 2025
Zionists Fundamentally Misread Iran Due To Their Own Echo Chambers

Zionists fundamentally misread Iran due to their own echo chambers

  • Analysis
  • 15 Oct 2025
Manufacturing civil war: The Zionist doctrine to destroy resistance

Manufacturing civil war: The Zionist doctrine to destroy resistance

  • Opinion
  • 21 Oct 2025
For the ALBA-TCP, this dynamic confirms that the Summit of the Americas is a space “tutored by imperial interests.” (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Zeinab el-Hajj)

Exclusion of Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua from X summit of Americas: Fracture in hemispheric diplomacy

  • Opinion
  • 12 Oct 2025

Coverage

All
Gaza: An Epic of Resilience and Valor

More from this writer

All
What Marr evidently didn't seem to understand was that Hedges isn't saying that Western journalists manipulate the truth, but that they systematically amplify Israeli narratives they know are false. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Batoul Chamas)

Western journalists know they have a case to answer for their betrayal of Gaza, and it frightens them

There is a great uncertainty over how the president will use the remaining three years of his term, to say nothing about his prospects for re-election. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Batoul Chamas)

Iranian opponents of diplomacy have definitively won the debate

The reek of desperation hangs over Albanese’s Iran conspiracy theories

The reek of desperation hangs over Albanese’s Iran conspiracy theories

The ‘Arab Façade’ for Israeli occupation in Gaza

The ‘Arab Façade’ for Israeli occupation in Gaza

Al Mayadeen English

Al Mayadeen is an Arab Independent Media Satellite Channel.

All Rights Reserved

  • x
  • Privacy Policy
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Authors
Android
iOS