President-elect Trump has threatened Hamas – release the hostages or we will hit you “harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied history of the United States of America.” What? Harder than nukes on Hiroshima or Nagasaki? And that would kill the hostages too – as well as lots of Israelis.

So no nukes. But it’s still a stupid threat. And, for those who believe Trump knows the connection between the “forever wars” and MAGA, very disappointing to hear.

It’s a stupid threat because there is no thing that America can do that Israel hasn’t already done much more of. Ground troops? Done and failed – red triangle videos, desertions, PTSD. Bomb everything? Done, more than done, and the hostages not killed by the bombing are still unreleased. Yell louder? Couldn’t be louder. More threats? Done and overdone. Attack Hezbollah in Lebanon? Done and failed. America has some intelligence that it hasn’t given Israel on where the hostages are are? No. Aircraft carriers? B52s? Start a shooting war against Iran?

So what is the big hard hit that only America can provide?

To exaggerate (but not all that much) America has already sent all the ground warfare stuff it can spare to be burnt up in Ukraine. And now all the bombs it can spare to Israel. America can drain more of its reserves but how much more? And what difference will it make anyway? What’s left to blow up in Gaza?

It’s sad and frightening to see that Trump has not learned the Big Lesson of the 21st Century – the West is not as powerful and not as frightening as people used to believe.

The optimist can hope that it’s negotiating theater – gaseous emissions to cover an actual deal in which Hamas releases the hostages, Israel does a victory dance and the aerial slaughter stops. Maybe.

But it’s still an childishly empty threat that Hamas can laugh at.

Helmholtz Smith