Reckless plan undermines safety, security
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 06/02/2025 (303 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
U.S. President Donald Trump says that Palestinians in Gaza should be permanently resettled outside the area. He proposes that the U.S. would take “ownership” of the area and redevelop it into “the Riviera of the Middle East.”
He says that “The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it, too … We’ll make sure that it’s done world-class. It’ll be wonderful for the people — Palestinians, Palestinians mostly, we’re talking about.”
He isn’t ruling out the deployment of U.S. troops to support his scheme.
The plan marks a shocking departure from decades of U.S. policy that supported the establishment of a Palestinian state that includes Gaza and the West Bank. Even worse, it may confirm widely held suspicions that Israel’s prolonged military mission against Hamas, which resulted in the near-total destruction of Gaza’s buildings and infrastructure, was carried out in order to permanently remove the two million Gazans from the territory.
Trump announced his plan while welcoming Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House. He said that he and his team had been discussing the possibility with Jordan, Egypt and other regional countries, adding that “Everybody loves it.”
That is categorically untrue. The Israeli government apparently supports the plan, but it has been soundly rejected by many other nations.
It was suggested that Jordan and Egypt would each accept displaced Gazans, but Jordan’s King Abdullah has rejected any plan to annex land in Gaza and displace Palestinians. He insists that we “need to ensure Palestinians remain on their land.”
Contrary to any suggestion that it would accept Gazan refugees, Egypt says it continues to support plans to rebuild Gaza. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi says the displacement of Gazans “can never be tolerated or allowed because of its impact on Egyptian national security.”
The government of Saudi Arabia rejects the proposal outright, saying that its position on the establishment of a Palestinian state is “firm and unwavering.” The nation’s former intelligence head, Prince Turki Al-Faisal, told CNN that “it is a fantasy to think that ethnic cleansing in the 21st century can be condoned by (a) world community that stays on its behinds and does not respond to that.”
Trump’s proposal has also been rejected by several non-Middle Eastern nations, including both Russia and China. The German government warns it would bring “new suffering and new hatred.”
Given the pivotal role that the Saudis, Jordanians and Egyptians play in the region, it is unlikely that Trump’s proposal has any hope of proceeding. The harm caused by even floating the idea, however, is incalculable.
The weeks-old ceasefire between Israel and Hamas appears to have been adhered to by both sides up to now, but Trump has undermined the level of mutual trust that is necessary to ensure the ceasefire will continue to proceed toward the release of all hostages and a lasting peace in the area. The prospect of forced relocation could easily cause Gazans to question the point of such a peace, if it ultimately means losing the land their ancestors have lived upon and fought to hold for generations.
From a global perspective, Trump’s Gaza plan is just his latest destabilizing of a nation and undermining of international order.
He has only been in office for 17 days, yet has already mused about a U.S. takeover of Greenland, threatened a military invasion of the Panama Canal, and threatened tariffs with the ultimate goal of making Canada America’s 51st U.S. state.
Now he wants to drive Gazans out of Gaza and transform the area into a new U.S.-owned playground of the rich and famous. It’s only Thursday; what’s next?
The man is a clear and present danger to the safety, stability and security of the world’s nations. It’s time for those nations to rein him in before he causes lasting harm and human suffering. If there was ever a time for the United Nations to take a stand in the pursuit of international peace and harmony, now is that time.