In the latest symbolic episode of the political theatre we call democracy — a game show more than governance — "The White House on Uber: How to Prepurchase an American President," former U.S. President Donald Trump appeared, if only momentarily, to read from the right script.

In Riyadh, he publicly condemned liberal interventionism, declaring that "you can't make or break nations," citing Russia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Yemen as grim testimonies to failed U.S. imperial adventures.

His rhetoric seemed revolutionary. He halted bombing in Yemen and reversed longstanding sanctions on Syria — two policies that had significantly bolstered Israel’s strategic dominance over a fractured Middle East. But, as Iran learned too well during the broken promises of the nuclear deal, what a U.S. president says and what he does are rarely the same. Even Trump's own Treasury officials were caught off guard by his Syria announcement. Years of layered sanctions could not be dismantled overnight, and certainly not by a single speech.

Yet this moment of apparent course correction came at an astronomical price. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar poured over $3 trillion into placating Washington’s political establishment and currying favor with its latest emperor. Gifts ranged from multi-billion-dollar deals and AI centers to aircraft for the Trump family. But while this spectacle unfolded in Riyadh and Doha, Israel marked the anniversary of the 1948 Nakba — not with reflection, but with devastation.

Nearly 100 Palestinians were killed in Gaza and the West Bank that very day. Bunker-busting bombs targeted key Hamas leaders, including Muhammad Sinwar. These were not acts of defense; they were executions. These actions, paired with the assassination of another Hamas figure, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran, reveal a chilling truth: Israel had no interest in hostage negotiations. A hostage deal requires a leadership capable of negotiation. Netanyahu’s mission, instead, was to eliminate that possibility altogether.

What’s unfolding in Gaza is not simply a war. It is a starvation campaign — a siege of 2.1 million people denied food, water, and electricity for months. UN officials now issue near-daily warnings that genocide is taking place. Some European leaders have begun to speak up: Emmanuel Macron called Israel’s actions “shameful.” Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez went further, labeling Israel a genocidal state and pledging no trade with such a regime.

But in the Gulf, not a word of condemnation was uttered. Not from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, nor from UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed or Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim. The pageantry of wealth offered to Trump was a betrayal not only of the Palestinian people but of Arab dignity itself — something Palestinians, sadly, are all too accustomed to.

Despite the intense bombardment and the structural weakening of Hamas and Hezbollah, the spirit of resistance remains alive. Israeli military casualties continue to rise in Gaza, even as the media underreports them. Hostages remain held, not out of cruelty, but because no Palestinian guard has yet chosen self-preservation over solidarity. This is not defeat — it is defiance.

The parallels to Vietnam are haunting. In eight years, the U.S. dropped over 5 million tons of bombs on Vietnam. Israel, in just a few months, has dropped at least 100,000 tons on Gaza — an 18-fold increase in bomb density per square kilometer. Like the U.S. in Vietnam, Israel is learning that military might cannot crush a people’s will to resist. As the U.S. once failed to distinguish between Viet Cong and Vietnamese villagers, it declared entire zones "fire-free," targeting civilians indiscriminately. Israel’s current doctrine echoes the same logic: Palestinians who remain must be combatants.

Then, as now, villagers were starved, displaced, and labeled enemies. Strategic hamlets in Vietnam have become "evacuation zones" in Gaza. The rationale is unchanged — to empty the land, not for peace, but for dominance. The American general who once claimed that "Orientals don’t value life the way Westerners do" has his ideological successors today in Israeli leaders who call Palestinians "human animals."

The cycle of colonial violence is intact. Netanyahu’s campaign, like Lyndon Johnson’s or Nixon’s in Vietnam, is doomed to historical disgrace. What Vietnam did to the American psyche, Gaza will do to Israel’s. Netanyahu, battling serious health concerns, may soon be succeeded by figures like Naftali Bennett, but the stain of this war — and its moral bankruptcy — will linger.

And so, while the richest Gulf leaders kneel at the foot of Western thrones and Palestinians are buried under rubble and silence, one truth grows ever clearer: history does not forget the empires that built themselves on bones. Nor does it forgive them.