Dear Donald Trump, Gaza needs Berlin Airlift-style rescue mission and you can make it happen
After Israel agrees to allow aid into Gaza from other countries, the world must respond decisively
Earlier this week, Henry McLeish, a former First Minister, wrote what was essentially an open letter to Donald Trump, urging him to intervene to save lives in the Gaza Strip. “Mr President, the United States must act now or forever be associated with this catastrophe, ethnic cleansing and genocide,” he said.
Another former First Minister, Humza Yousaf, and his wife Nadia El-Nakla, a Dundee councillor, posted a video online in which they said the latter’s relatives, including her cousin Sally, were being starved in Gaza. “Sally is one of millions in Gaza. Her husband goes out all day searching for food, often to come home with nothing. And when I say home, I mean a tent and almost 40 degree heat,” Yousaf said, adding children were being “starved, displaced, bombed, all while the world watches”.
And the current First Minister, John Swinney has said it is his responsibility to raise “the unimaginable suffering we are witnessing in Gaza” with Trump, ahead of their meeting during the President’s visit to Scotland.
Gesture politics
This country may be far away from Gaza, but there are bonds of family, friendship and simple, shared humanity that make the suffering of innocent Palestinians an urgent issue for many Scots.
Trump is in a unique position to help Gaza’s population of more than two million. According to some, the US and other countries should do so by recognising the state of Palestine, an idea he has dismissed. This may be necessary at some point, but it seems like gesture politics when what Gazans really need is a ceasefire, food and medical help.
Israeli army radio has reported Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has now given permission for foreign countries to resume parachuting aid into Gaza. The international community should respond by launching a Berlin Airlift-style rescue mission.
Trump has the power to make an operation on that scale happen by utilising America’s military and economic might to rush in food and medical supplies. He is said to want the Nobel Peace Prize. Saving the people of Gaza from starvation and war would certainly warrant one.
‘Gaza to be wiped out’
If the world continues to fail to address the situation, Palestinians in the Strip face a horrifying fate. A joint statement issued by more than 100 humanitarian organisations on Wednesday said: “Every day without a sustained flow [of aid] means more people dying of preventable illnesses. Children starve while waiting for promises that never arrive.”
When is this going to stop? How many more people are going to starve to death? Israel’s ultimate intentions are unclear but far-right politicians, including some in government, have made some truly terrifying statements.
In November 2023, Israel’s heritage minister Amichay Eliyahu suggested dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza was an option, claimed there was “no such thing as uninvolved civilians in Gaza”, and said “we wouldn’t hand the Nazis humanitarian aid”.
He has remained in government and claimed earlier this month that “the government is racing ahead for Gaza to be wiped out... Thank God, we are wiping out this evil”. Hours later, after midnight, Netanyahu released a statement on social media – in English – saying Eliyahu “does not speak for the government I lead”.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres yesterday criticised “the lack of compassion, the lack of truth, the lack of humanity” displayed by many countries. It may be too much to hope for but, with Trump in Scotland, our politicians must do all they can to convince him that Israel has gone too far, it is time for the death and destruction to stop, and for the world to rediscover its lost humanity.
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