U.S. President Donald Trump is at it again. He made another bombastic Hamas threat last Monday to cancel the Israel-Hamas ceasefire and hostage release deal when he declared that if Hamas does not release all remaining hostages by noon on Saturday, the ceasefire should be canceled and the war in Gaza renewed.

To begin with, Trump has nothing to do with the ceasefire deal, even though he claimed credit for brokering it. However, the deal was reached:

• Before Trump took office.
• After more than a year of negotiation.
• Through heroic resistance by Palestinian factions.
• Due to Gazans' insistence on dying from bombs and starvation rather than leaving.

Netanyahu does not care about the hostages. He only cares about his coalition, staying in power, and not going to jail. He threatened war, and his sidekick Trump irresponsibly followed suit. Trump was misled by Netanyahu into believing that most of the hostages held in Gaza were dead.

Neither before nor after Trump took office did he express interest in the safety and welfare of the hostages, whether they were Palestinian, Israeli, or even American.

Where was Trump when Florida Governor Ron DeSantis arranged two flights for 270 Americans along with four of their dogs just one week after the war started? Many on the flights were from Florida.

Over 500 Palestinian Americans were stranded there for over six months and were not that lucky. Nine Palestinian Americans sued the U.S. government for failing to evacuate American citizens, American legal residents, and the family members of Americans trapped under Israeli bombardment in Gaza.

The lawsuit, according to Reuters' December 20, 2024, story, accuses the State Department of discriminating against Americans of Palestinian origin by abandoning them in a war zone and not making the same effort it would to promptly evacuate and protect Americans of different origins in similar situations.

Gadeir Abbas, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)'s National Deputy Litigation Director, stated: "The government has a duty to protect American citizens and has failed its duty here by abandoning our clients in Gaza. We simply ask the State Department to treat Palestinian Americans the way it treats Americans of other backgrounds when they’re trapped in conflict zones."

It looks like the rescue of American citizens stranded in Gaza did not make it onto President Trump's "America First" priority list.

Since 1979, the United States has given Egypt and Israel an average of $2 billion and $3.8 billion in annual aid, respectively. Can't Mr. "America First" call a shot every once in a while?

Make no mistake about it: Netanyahu has done a lot of damage to the United States over the past twenty years. He took the U.S. into Libya, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon, pushed for an attack on Iran, and damaged American world leadership and credibility to the point of no return. Now, he is manipulating President Trump, sanctioning the ICC, withdrawing from the UN Human Rights Commission, withdrawing from UNICEF, banning UNRWA, cutting U.S. aid, and using Trump to cleanse Gaza of its indigenous people. Who is going to listen to and follow the United States anymore?

Trump is a mad and dangerous man, and relying on him to do any good is absurd. The sooner the world sees this, the sooner he becomes irrelevant and stops wreaking destruction. Do not count on this man to save anything. All he cares about is money and himself.

Meanwhile, Qatari and Egyptian negotiators were able to iron out the differences, where Israel agreed, according to the deal, to send temporary shelters and caravans, as well as heavy-duty equipment, to remove the rubble for the returning Palestinians in the north of Gaza. Providing these things is certainly simpler than more war and destruction, God forbid. Hamas agreed to free the three Israeli hostages scheduled to be released tomorrow, Saturday—"Shabbat"—as originally agreed upon in the deal. Not all the hostages, as demanded by Trump. Is that so complicated?

Trump just adds fuel to the fire with his threat to the Palestinians. His statement about ethnically cleansing over two million Gazans by sending them to Jordan and Egypt is not only ludicrous and idiotic but also disrespectful and offensive to each and every Palestinian. Gaza belongs to the Palestinian people—not to Trump—and it is not for sale. Gaza belongs to the Palestinian people.

Mahmoud El-Yousseph is a Palestinian freelancer for Islamicity.com and ColumbusFreepress.com. He can be reached at elyousseph6@yahoo.com.