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by Dr Saad Naji Jawad

President Trump’s re-election had established the analysts’ worst fears about his policy on Gaza and Palestinian rights. Despite campaign promises of a halt to the Gaza war in days, his policies have systematically protracted the conflict and invited Israeli escalation.

Breaking promises, escalating violence

Trump’s policy change began the moment he took up residence in the White House. Not only did he abandon his commitment to swift peace, but he went so far as to undercut his predecessor’s restraints by selling Israel forbidden advanced weapons. More troubling still, he openly encouraged Netanyahu to escalate military actions with the apparent goal of purging Gaza’s 2.2 million residents—accompanied by the absurd concept of turning the land into a luxury holiday resort destination.

The president’s confused rhetoric provided Netanyahu with repeated opportunities and additional time to stretch operations, rather than employing adequate pressure for humanitarian access to Gaza’s suffering population. The recent joint press conference with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in London revealed the harsh reality of his position.

The hostage-centric approach

When questioned regarding Gaza, Trump visibly bristled, calling Hamas’s 7 October  attacks “heinous and unforgivable crimes unprecedented in human history.” He emphasised that the top priority right now must be freeing all the hostages, both living and dead, “as quickly as possible.” Asked if hostage release would halt the war, his direct answer was simply: “Perhaps.”

This exchange exposed a chilling mathematics: Trump values 24 Israeli hostages’ lives utterly more than the lives of over two million Palestinians under constant bombardment that kills 70-100 individuals every day with American-supplied munitions. His utter devotion to population transfer, spurning Palestinian resistance to leave their homeland with “They will; we are in no hurry,” places the administration’s real motivations in relief.

READ: Trump says ‘real chance for greatness in the Middle East’

Diplomatic isolation

Trump’s stance was made clear when the US used its sixth veto since 2003 on a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire, release of prisoners, and access to humanitarian assistance in Gaza. The resolution received a unanimous vote from all other permanent members (Britain, France, Russia, and China) and non-permanent members, leaving America isolated in the blockade.

US Representative Morgan Ortagus justified the veto with stale arguments of Israel’s “right to self-defence” and claims that the resolution “equated Israel with Hamas.” These hollow excuses resonated especially callously as the representative of Denmark spoke of mothers boiling leaves to feed their children and fathers sorting through rubble to find food.

Algeria’s delegate, Amar Ben Jamaa, delivered arguably the most powerful words, reciting a list of apologies to the Palestinians: for the inaction of the Council to avoid the killing of over 18,000 children, 12,000 women slain, 4,000 older men slaughtered, 1,400 medical staff targeted, 250 journalists assassinated, and 500 aid personnel killed. He articulated the moral failure of the international community: “Israel kills and starves an entire people daily, and no one does anything about it.”

The Vatican’s alarming silence

America’s consistent support of Israel is a tradition going back to Lyndon Johnson’s time, while the Vatican position is an alarming departure from Catholic social teaching. In his recent interview, Pope Leo XIV revealed a cryptic dovetailing with US policy, at odds with the moral clarity of his predecessor.

READ: Pope Leo XIV condemns Israel’s displacement of Gazans, renews ceasefire call

While expressing “great concern” over Gaza, the Pope dismissed genocide charges, claiming “there’s a very technical definition about what genocide might be” and deeming the Holy See “not ready” to characterise Israel’s operation as genocidal. This claim contradicts, in direct terms, Pope Francis’s November 2024 genocide investigations appeal and overruled a 16 September UN Human Rights Council report documenting Israeli genocide in Gaza.

The Vatican’s withdrawal from moral leadership raises troubling questions about outside influence on Catholic policy. Has the Church surrendered its humanitarian mandate to political considerations, either under American pressure or internal Zionist lobbies?

The alignment of American political and Vatican moral influence in the cause of Israeli impunity is a profound failure of global institutions. When the world’s biggest democracy and the world’s oldest moral institution abandon Palestinian lives to safeguard Israeli interests, the entire edifice of human rights and global law falls apart.

Trump’s presidency has revealed that American assistance to Israel is more than just strategic interest—it is an ideological allegiance for which some lives matter more than others. The complicity of the Vatican is evidence that this moral hierarchy has spread even to institutions that profess to believe in universal human dignity.

As Gaza’s suffering continues with superpower approval and papal silence, the world witnesses not only Palestinian tragedy, but also the deconstruction of the moral foundations upon which global order is based.

OPINION: Does President Trump really want to stop the war in Gaza? Why is the Vatican not investigating the genocide in Gaza?