A letter someone sent to Josh Marshall:
My feeling about Qatar gifting Trump a 747 is simply that it is just embarrassing for the United States. The US can afford and can build its own state-of-the-art Air Force One. The US doesn’t need a gift from a little country of a used plane that is out of production and largely used for freight. It’s not becoming of the United States nor the President of the United States. It’s just embarrassing.
I’m reading that retrofitting of the plane to have Air Force One capabilities and being sure there are no bugs or other security risks built into it will cost hundreds of millions of dollars. And it will probably take at least a couple of years. The plane may not be ready for Trump to fly before his term ends. And even a lot of Republicans are opposed to accepting the “gift.” Never mind the emoluments clause thing. This transaction may be doomed. We’ll see.
But the bribe may have already done its job. There are all manner of news stories out today reporting on a rift between Trump and Netanyahu. And it so happens Qatar is a major supporter of Hamas. Hmmm.
A senior Hamas official tells Newsweek that the Palestinian militant group saw “positive” potential in signs of a growing rift between President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, after offering the U.S. leader a political win in the form of an American hostage release ahead of his Middle East trip.
“Given the unlimited support of the American administration for the entity, any disagreement between them would certainly be a positive development that would weaken Netanyahu’s stubborn position and open the door to the possibility of reaching an agreement to end the war,” Hamas Political Bureau member and spokesperson Basem Naim told Newsweek.
“This is especially true since the continuation of the war does not serve Trump’s strategic projects in the region,” he added, “and Hamas will not accept any agreement that does not lead to an end to the war, ensure the withdrawal of hostile forces and rebuild the Gaza Strip with the participation of its residents.”
During his first major overseas trip this week, President Donald Trump is set to visit three countries in the Middle East — Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates — without stopping in Jerusalem.
From embarking on nuclear talks with Iran to attempting hostage talks with Hamas without Israel’s knowledge, Trump has increasingly sidelined Netanyahu, stoking anxieties in a country long accustomed to being consulted by successive U.S. administrations.
Last week, Israelis thought they saw more cracks emerge between the “America First” president and Israel, after Trump said he had struck a truce with Yemen’s Houthi rebels that curbed the group’s attacks on U.S. ships — but did not cover Israel. Days later, reports emerged that Trump was considering offering Saudi Arabia access to civil nuclear technology without demanding that the kingdom normalize relations with Israel, a precondition that had been set by President Joe Biden.
And so on. Let’s face it — the Trump family can make a lot more money dealing with the Arab states than with Israel. I guess Trump has given up on his luxury Gaza development plan.
I don't know for sure what hold Putin had on Trump. Helsinki was something – Trump was on Putin's leash that day. For a long time, it looked like Putin held out the prospect of Trump Tower in Moscow, the tallest building in Russia. The deal was under consideration while Trump was running the first time. The thing is: Putin never gave Trump what he was teasing Trump with. Did Qatar borrow that page from Putin's play book?
Consider this: the 747 in the center of the global poker table is not chump change. Qatar knows what they want out of the deal – they do not intend to give title of the plane to the US Air Force (or DoD) for the US Congress to nullify the transfer to Trump in 2029. The US gets a nifty AF1 and Trump would not honor the deal. IMO, the messages from Qatar that the deal is not final means they don't want to give up the plane unless they are certain they get what they want. The question is: what do they want?
Postulating that rumors are true…. Qatar wants the Palistinians to prevail, or at least survive with ownership of Gaza. Is Qatar committed to the eventual extermination of Israel? (That's completely speculative.) If Qatar has been a major backer of Hamas, were they "in on" the murder of civilians (which I find abhorrent) or merely trying to give the rebels some tools to fight back against the IDF (which I consider morally justifiable.) None of which would matter to Trump – Arabs and Jews are subhuman to Trump but Arabs have more money.
Previously, Trump fantasized about Gaza as a Riviera. Problem: there's around two million Palestinians in Gaza. They don't want to leave. Nobody wants to take them. Previously, Arab states had financed the rebuilding of Gaza, and they probably would again. If Palestinians are there, in Gaza, and Trump tries to build a seaside resort, it would be a target for terrorism, to put it mildly. This might inhibit people from planning a vacation. Could Trump bankrupt a second casino? Before Trump and Netanyahu can "develop" Gaza, the Palestinians have to go – completely. IMO, this is why a 747 is more attractive to Trump than Trump Tower – Gaza. Trump has no place to put two million people who do not want to go. If Netanyahu solves the problem his way, Trump will never get a Nobel Peace Prize. As an accessory during the act, Trump might wind up in the Netherlands in a cell next to Duarte for crimes against humanity.
To Trump, deals are made to be broken. Playing pattycake with the Arabs may soften up Ntanyahu. If not, tough luck for Israel. The UN has been after Israel for war crimes for decades – only the US has held them back. That can change in a heartbeat if Israel does not pay up,
Trump may fancy himself in the role of Scarface, but remember the ending of Tony Montoya.
Honest to goodness, the plane might well have been a way of saying "Israel can't give you what we can!" and it might have been exactly that blatant. Trump doesn't need evangelicals to win elections any longer, so, it would make sense that he'd be willing to abandon Israel for richer prospects elsewhere. After all, giving Israel big sloppy kisses just gets him praise, but the evangelicals don't have the kind of branding and marketing opportunities in the oil-producing Middle East.
The letter to Josh Marshall isn't giving the full context – the 747-800 is "out of production" only since 2023, and sure, mostly used for cargo, but, that's why it can be retrofitted for AF1, because it's got lots of capacity. And, the new AF1 is being built on a 747-800 frame anyway.
What's embarrassing is that Trump, who is ultimately in charge of our dare-I-say intelligence, and counter-intelligence, operations can't realize that you could never convert the flying palace to AF1 *faster* than the new AF1 which has a multi-year head start, given the security (espionage *and* sabotage) nightmare of using a plane a foreign government gave us.
" reporting on a rift between Trump and Netanyahu"
Oh don't make me take Bibi's side! Here's a nice pic of the new AF!!
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f87021f725faad7180d48395e60cfb521c8121194d3a5ae842acc1a37de9ec62.png
Luxury airplanes and lavish state dinners make quite the harsh contrast to other Mideast news involving war by starvation and other stories.
Why does it take a rabbi to write a piece in the Washington Post about the evil of what is going on in Gaza? If all don't already know that, including all members of the Israeli Defense Force, then way too many of them have broken moral compasses. Sure, you are just following orders. Legal orders?
Then I read that Netanyahu is ruled by fear of fundamentalist religious zealots who are, one must suspect, screwing up everyone's moral compasses. How strange. Are these not the ones who contend they exist as custodians of everyone's moral compasses? Sounds to me like the custodians of hypocrisy are masquerading as fundamentalist religious zealots. Again? As Bill Clinton might say: it depends on what fundamentals fundamentalists call fundamental. Who is in charge of that?
Mabee our "friends in Turkey" which I never knew we even had. Our fearless leader failed to name names. Strange also.
A website called Defense One says that Boeing will charge 84 million dollars just for technical manuals and schematics for Airforce One.
Did my comment get stuck in the twit filter?
There it is at the top. I'm losing my marbles. Will any of you visit me in the home?
The only way that picture of the plane could better illustrated the craziness of the plane deal is if instead of trojan horse, the front was an elephant, a "trojan elephant" representing the GOP.
I love it! This whole damn story is a wonderful exhibition of how far we – the Good Ol' USA – have fallen.
The Boeing 747 is an iconic airplane, and perhaps the pinnacle of American Manufacturing. Designed by *real* Engineers – before Boeing was consumed by the Financial monsters – and built (originally) by Union workers, it was (and still is) a fantastic plane.
Qatar seems like the least horrific of the Sunni Arab Petro-Monarchies (faint praise, but sincere). They have hosted important negotiations which have ended (or slowed) several recent conflicts. They fund[ed?] Al Jazeera, a surprisingly balanced source of international news. I trust them *way* more than the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia…
…but of course we'd need to replace every damn rivet of the 747 they gave Trump before it could be used as AF1. I suspect that whoever runs Qatar knows this, and that they are smart enough to know that giving Trump a plane *Made in the USA* (but presumably refurbished by their finest Harem Decorators) is an insult to our country.
OTOH, if this blatant bribe helps break Netanyahu's stranglehold over US Foreign Policy, I'm all for it. Israel's continuing massacres in Gaza are blood on *our* hands. Our blind support for Israel through this has severely degraded our influence elsewhere in the world; it also was a big factor in Harris' loss to Trump.
But people (Young 'leftists', Michigan Muslims, etc) who voted against Harris because of Palestine were sadly deluded if they thought Trump would save the people of Gaza. I don't really expect Trump to 'abandon' Israel; the auction will continue, and the bidding will just get more expensive. And of course, bribery can be enhanced with extortion…