TEHRAN – Officials in Egypt and Jordan are between a rock and a hard place when it comes to Donald Trump’s Gaza displacement plan, said Max Blumenthal, an award-winning journalist, author, and editor-in-chief of The Grayzone, during an interview with the Tehran Times. 

Blumenthal argues that Trump's Gaza displacement plan puts Egypt and Jordan in an impossible bind. Agreeing to help displace over 2 million Palestinians risks widespread domestic revolt that could eventually lead to government collapse. Refusal, however, invites crippling U.S. economic punishments in the form of aid cuts.

In his remarks to the Tehran Times, Blumenthal also addressed Western media reports about alleged Iranian efforts to assassinate Trump. Influential Zionist figures in U.S. politics, as well as a Grayzone journalist’ arrest by Israel last year, were some of the other topics he discussed. 

Below is the full text of the interview: 

U.S. media recently claimed that Donald Trump had to use a decoy plane during his campaign days to protect himself from alleged Iran agents looking to down his aircraft with missiles. The Tehran Times knows through its sources that these claims are lies. Regardless, what are your thoughts on such fabricated narratives?

Israel's intelligence services are attempting to convince Donald Trump, through media leaks, that Iran is planning to assassinate him. 

Members of Trump's inner circle seem to believe that Air Force One, or Trump's plane, was tailed by Iranian drones, which makes no sense. We also saw Republican members of Congress claim that Iranian drones were operating off the coast of New Jersey when, in fact, these were American drones conducting experimental operations surveilling the American coastline. This is delusional but typical for a faction of the American national security elite that seeks war with Iran.

There are members within Trump's inner circle, such as Tucker Carlson and J.D. Vance, who do not believe these claims and oppose war with Iran. However, there is a faction, led by National Security Director Mike Waltz, that seeks war with Iran. 

U.S. intelligence has assessed that within the next six months, Israel will attempt to strike Iran and will require U.S. assistance, either with bunker-buster guidance or in-air refueling of its planes. The “leaks” about an Iranian assassination attempt on Trump are clearly designed to sway the pro-war faction within the administration to authorize or participate directly in these strikes.

Do you think Trump is surrounded and influenced more by Zionists and the Israeli lobby than his predecessor Joe Biden was?

Both Trump and Biden were surrounded by influential Zionists heavily funded by Haim Saban, the Israeli-American billionaire. Saban had a de facto agreement with Sheldon Adelson, the late American Zionist billionaire whose fortune is now controlled by his Israeli wife, Miriam, that they would both fund both parties: Haim Saban funding the Democrats and Sheldon Adelson funding the Republicans, in order to maximize Israeli influence over both parties.

The difference lies in the type of Zionists who influenced Donald Trump. These people are more oriented towards the religious nationalist, messianic elements in Israel—the "Greater Israel" faction—and the forces that surround Benjamin Netanyahu and hold his coalition together. They are more inclined to support Israel's annexation of the West Bank, large parts of Lebanon and Syria, and the ethnic cleansing of the Gaza Strip.

On the other hand, another faction of Zionists, the liberal Zionists represented by figures like Antony Blinken, would prefer to support Jordan and Egypt, as well as the Palestinian Authority, as imperial proxies or occupation subcontractors. In the case of the Palestinian Authority, this means that the forces around Donald Trump are more likely to lift the mask on apartheid Israel and remove the proxies and subcontractors who have made it seem like there is Arab consent for what Israel is doing.

What are your thoughts on Trump’s plan to relocate Gazans to Jordan and Egypt, and how do you see it affecting the authorities in those countries?

Donald Trump's threats against King Abdullah of Jordan and Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt place both leaders in an existential bind. If they accept Trump's plan, they risk being toppled either by a Palestinian rebellion inside Jordan or by a Muslim Brotherhood upsurge in Egypt. It is important to remember that the Muslim Brotherhood's party in Jordan outperformed expectations in recent elections, which served as a real referendum on disapproval of King Abdullah's handling, or mishandling, of the Gaza genocide.

If these leaders accept Trump's plan, they could fall, and if they do not accept it, Trump could potentially destroy them because they rely heavily on U.S. military and humanitarian assistance. The problem for them is that they have done nothing, nor has Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman done anything of substance, to challenge U.S. policy on Gaza or the support of the genocide during the more malleable Biden administration. They did not set up economic boycotts as King Faisal bin Abdul Aziz did when he ruled Saudi Arabia in the early 1970s, which actually helped Egypt regain its own territory from Israel after 1973. They did nothing.

As a result, when Trump sees weakness, he moves in for the kill. This is what he is doing to all allies across the board who seem weak, whether it's Denmark over Greenland or Panama over some Chinese holdings in the Panama Canal. Trump preys on weak allies, understanding that they are actually vassals, and extracts as many concessions as possible. The Sunni regimes have shown so much weakness that Trump has seized all the leverage in the world over them and placed them in this existential bind.

In contrast, for example, the Ansarullah government in Yemen stood firm and resisted the genocide. The Trump administration has no leverage over Yemen now, only a military option. The only thing standing in the way of Trump's ethnic cleansing plan in Gaza is the resistance inside Gaza and its allies in the Axis of Resistance.

Could you provide more information about the arrest of a Grayzone journalist by Israeli authorities while he was attempting to report on the aftermath of Iran's attack in October? 

Our reporter at The Greyzone, Jeremy Loffredo, was arrested by the Israeli authorities late last year and placed on trial, accused of assisting an enemy in wartime for doing reporting that other reporters credentialed by the Israeli government had done. His reporting was on Iran's retaliation against Israeli military and intelligence sites for Israel's attacks on Iran's sovereignty, including the assassination of Ismail Heniyah on Iranian soil and Israel's attack on Iran's consulate in Damascus, among other events.

Jeremy didn't uncover anything new; he simply confirmed that Iran's attacks were targeting military sites, whereas Israel's attacks target civilians or involve the assassination of leaders through decapitation strikes. I believe Jeremy was arrested for political reasons because he contributes to The Greyzone, and they don't like our politics. The charges against him have not been dropped, but he was essentially told to self-deport; they told him to leave the country.

During his detention, Jeremy witnessed abuse in Jerusalem's Russian Compound, where he heard Palestinian detainees screaming. He was held alone in a cell for days with very little food and water. Soldiers taunted him, took photos of him, and mocked him. This treatment is consistent with how Israel treats reporters. Had he been Palestinian, he would have been much more harshly abused, or as we've seen in Gaza, many Palestinian reporters have been simply assassinated for bringing the truth to light.