Azra Hoosen | ah@radioislam.co.za
30 May 2025 | 11:30 CAT
3 min read

In this week’s Middle East Report on Radio Islam, award-winning journalist Dr James M. Dorsey laid bare some of the complex and troubling dynamics unfolding in Gaza and the broader region, where aid, politics and long-term strategy are colliding in unsettling ways.

At the heart of the conversation was the issue of food distribution in Gaza, a move that appears less about addressing starvation and more about geopolitical manoeuvring. According to Dorsey, the United States and Israel’s orchestrated food distribution is not about feeding food-starved Gazans. “It’s about sidelining the United Nations and international organisations that endorse Palestinian national aspirations,” he said.

Dorsey highlighted that what we are witnessing is a “very flawed and problematic attempt to distribute a very limited amount of aid, humanitarian goods, food, medicine, but particularly food in Gaza.” Under pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump, Israel reluctantly agreed to allow some aid in, but in a tightly controlled and symbolic manner.

He noted that instead of empowering international humanitarian efforts, Israel has implemented centralised distribution centers “forcing Gazans to essentially walk great distances, and then in a sort of humiliating form of distribution under guard of U.S. private security men.” According to Dorsey, the goal is clear: “Israel sees the United Nations as a party prejudiced towards the Palestinians… and that is exactly what Israel is trying to prevent.”

Dorsey argued that the strategy extends beyond just aid; it strikes at the heart of Palestinian identity and self-determination. “This war is increasingly a war about squashing Palestinian national aspirations,” Dorsey stated. He pointed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s increasingly stark rhetoric. “Netanyahu has now gone a step further by saying that the war’s goal is not only destroying Hamas, but also resettling the Palestinian population,” he added.

This shift in narrative is one that could carry severe diplomatic consequences. “That’s going to make it very difficult for anybody at this point, but the United States, but certainly not the Europeans, to continue supporting Israel,” Dorsey said.

Another key dimension of the report was a long-term vision quietly gaining traction, one that could dramatically reshape Israel’s military relationship with the United States. Dorsey revealed what he described as a strategic plan crafted by the “brain trust of the Trump administration,” which would shift Israel from a U.S. aid recipient to a self-reliant buyer of military equipment.

“What the plan basically is, is that Israel would continue to receive aid until 2047, but increasingly that aid would no longer be grants. By 2047, Israel would be a net buyer, not a net recipient of U.S. military equipment,” he explained.

When it comes to Iran, Dorsey said the Trump administration and Iranian leadership appear to share a mutual desire to avoid direct military conflict. “They want an agreement, if at all possible,” he said. “The way that they see of managing this is to agree on a framework of sort of broad principles… even if those principles camouflage the differences over issues like enrichment.”

Reaching such an agreement in just two months is unlikely. “It may very well be that those broad principles simply camouflage the differences… but broad principles that would guide negotiations that are certain to take much longer,” he concluded.

Dorsey emphasised that the Middle East, week after week, is a region where surface-level headlines often conceal deeper strategic plays, ideological battles and shifting alliances.

LISTEN to the full interview with Muallimah Shaakirah Hunter and Dr James M. Dorsey here.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr James M. Dorsey is an award-winning journalist, scholar, and Senior Fellow at the National University of Singapore’s Middle East Institute. He is the author of ‘The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer’.

Listeners can follow Dr. James M. Dorsey’s insights via his blog The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer at www.jamesdorsey.net.