Who had Donald Trump trying to take over Gaza on their 2025 bingo card? Certainly not me.
Trump’s supporters say the president keeps his campaign promises. Well, sort of. He is keeping his big promise to wage a figurative war on immigration (and not merely illegal immigration) but he seems to have abandoned any attempts to drive down consumer prices, instead focusing on touching off a trade war that will raise the prices of many consumer goods.
Likewise, the attempted annexation of Greenland wasn’t really a campaign promise. One can wonder what Trump’s fixation on Greenland is, but it is easier to understand why he would want the frozen island than why he would want to embroil the US in Gaza.
Yes, you heard that right.
In comments at the White House with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump said that Gaza residents need to be resettled elsewhere and that the US will take an ownership interest in Gaza.
“The US will take over the Gaza Strip, and we’ll own it,” Trump said.
If you’re keeping track, Trump went from saying that Democrats wanted to start a war to talking about a US invasion of the Middle East in [checks watch] in 15 days. The move seems somewhat colonial and imperialistic with Trump stating, “We’re going to develop it… and it will be something the entire Middle East can be very proud of.”
This plan is insanity and does not fit into traditional MAGA isolationism. Trump had planned to exit Afghanistan and pulled the rug out from under our Kurdish allies during his first term. He has considered withdrawing from NATO and South Korea. Yet with no warning whatsoever, the president is now considering a unilateral open-ended foreign adventure of his own.
Gaza? Seriously?
Make no mistake, a US occupation of Gaza would be a war. Trump says, “I do see a long-term ownership position,” and there is zero chance that Palestinians would sit idly by while American soldiers and corporations take control of their homeland, even if our goal was to create “the Riviera of the Middle East.” Keep in mind that Islamic fundamentalists tend to resist the sort of materialism that goes along with the Rivieras anywhere.
Israel has struggled to deal with the Gaza problem since 1967. There won’t be any magic solution to bring peace if the soldiers involved operate under American flags rather than Israeli ones.
And what of Israel? The Jewish state [among many others] would have to buy in on any American occupation plan.
As I watch the video of the statement, Netanyahu seems like the cat who swallowed the canary. The Israeli prime minister looks as if he is barely able to suppress a smile.
And who can blame him? As stated above, Israel has been stuck in the Gaza tar baby for the past 58 years. If he can pass off the albatross around Israel’s neck to some other sucker, he would probably be happy to do so.
And he seems to be seriously considering the proposal. The Times of Israel reports that Netanyahu said, “I think it’s something that could change history, and it’s worthwhile really pursuing this avenue.”
But Israel should think twice before signing on to a plan of US administration. Our track record of foreign policy isn’t very very good. We’ve lost Vietnam and much of Southeast Asia, Iran, Afghanistan, and Iraq is struggling to stay independent from both Iran and ISIS. Ukraine has been one of our best success stories, but Trump’s own party seems bent on handing it to the Russians.
Israel should not depend on American steadfastness for its security. Not only does the Democratic Party have a strong pro-Palestinian wing, but the Republicans are becoming more and more isolationist, the zeal of Trump’s base to annex Greenland and Panama notwithstanding, and there is an anti-Semitic and anti-Israel contingent on the right as well.
Not to mention a strong anti-immigrant contingent. Trump and the Republicans have been on an anti-DEI crusade, but wouldn’t the annexation of Gaza bring a plethora of new Americans (if not citizens then citizens of a US territory) of a nonwhite and nonchristian variety? There are lots of questions about the idea, I don’t even think it deserves to be called a plan at this stage, but people from radical and militant Muslim states are generally the sort of people that MAGA wants to keep out of the US.
And maybe that is where Trump’s comments about resettlement come from. Maybe he wants Arab countries to divide up Gaza’s current population so the area can be resettled with people more amenable to living in a new Riviera.
Historically, Arab nations have not wanted to take Palestinian refugees and that seems unlikely to change. Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia are all resisting the resettlement idea as well as the notion that Gaza could become American.
So are members of Congress. The AP reports that politicians from both sides of the aisle are skeptical about the proposal. A loyal Trumpist, Lindsey Graham (R-SC) was circumspect in his criticism but Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) was not.
“He’s completely lost it,” Murphy said.
I tend to agree.
Congress would have to sign off on any long-term occupation and development of Gaza. There are appropriations bills and the War Powers Act to consider for starters.
As is his habit, Trump is thinking like an autocrat rather than the leader of a democratic republic. We’ll see how far it gets him. I really wonder what the Muslim and Arab Trump voters think of their choice tonight.
On a final note, Trump’s evangelical base views much of politics through a prophetic lens. Interestingly, biblical end-time prophecies foretell a peace treaty between the Antichrist and Israel (Daniel 9:27). With almost every potential Mideast peace deal being trumpeted as a possible gateway for the Antichrist, I will be curious to see if evangelical Christians similarly decry Trump’s Gaza takeover.
I’m not saying that Trump is the Antichrist (although I’ve long thought that he is one of many antichrists with a little “a”). If he is able to pull off this occupation of Gaza, I may have to reconsider.
Honestly, I’m sure the MAGA base will rally to the occupation of Gaza as a stroke of genius. The dark, prophetic undertones and obvious flesh-and-blood world difficulties won’t discourage them at all.
Having said that, I expect the whole policy to fail spectacularly and then be forgotten as quickly as the annexation of Greenland and low food prices. This sounds like another case of Donald Trump speaking off the cuff and throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks.
Donald Trump is a man known for dumb ideas and this is one of the dumbest. It shouldn’t be taken seriously, but because he is president for the next 1,445 days, we have to.
This is just another distraction from his consolidation of power over Congress and the courts. It’s performative.
And you fell for it.Report
I’m trying to think if *ANYBODY* likes the idea of American Gaza. *ANYBODY*.Report
I can think of one.Report
Jared Kushner?Report
OK, 2.Report
Yeah, I haven’t seen any yet.
Funniest I saw was John Podheretz owning the maximalist Neo-Con a**hole blogger mantle saying, ‘WTF’
I mean, you can steelman Tariffs and argue whether he’s using his threat to get real or fake concessions… but so far I haven’t seen anyone steelman the fallback position…
… just pictures of Suzie Wiles losing her mind.
But, I’m sure there are people working on retconning a plan as we speak.Report
Here’s my *guess* at how they might reframe it.
US becomes a third-party (perhaps with other parties) guarantor of a ‘population exchange’ plan where the US commits XX(X) $Bs for relocation, resettlement and rebuild. Gaza become a multi-party re-development zone with, say, Saudis, Qatar, Egypt, etc.
Evan that would be a WTF proposal – especially if you announced it without the Saudis, Qatari, Egyptians, etc. already on-board — which they aren’t.
So, yeah, interesting to see how this morphs.
Possibly we frame it as the Steel Dock recovery act… and just never leave. 🙂Report
There are a handful of fallback plans that make sense to me…
1. Ethnic Cleansing and give Gaza to Israel. “From the River to the Sea! Well, the sea part is now covered.”
I mean, hey. Sometimes you’ve got a really unpleasant religious minority in your midst and the best solution long-term is to get rid of them.
2. Okay, you can stay… but, seriously, this is the last of the last chances. Calm the hell down, quit shooting rockets, and, for God’s sake, quit shooting your critics in the middle of the damned street.
3. Oh, you don’t like *MY* solution? Come up with your own that won’t make me say “yeah, I prefer waterfront real estate to this” and will continue to not make me say that.
But each of those involves other people acting in their own perceived best interest and so I can’t imagine that anyone in the region will do that of their own volition.Report
I mean Egypt and Jordan really really really won’t take the Gazan population in voluntarily. Jordan already suffered one regime threatening event due to Palestinian populations in their midst and Egypt is not exactly a stable government either to say nothing of how the Jordanians and Egyptian populations would absolutely hate it.
I don’t think this is something Trump could cajole or browbeat either state into doing. It’d be like offering someone escalating dollar amounts to slit their own throat- there’s not really a dollar amount that would do it.
I mean, the only scheme I could see potentially working is the Israeli’s just start scooping up Gazans and ship them into Syria- the Syrian state is so nascent, weak and unstable they probably couldn’t stop them. It’d be expensive, difficult, a humanitarian fiasco and morally abhorrent but logistically I suppose in theory they could do it.Report
I think the most the US could “give” (not sure what else to call it) is to officially tell Israel they have a totally free hand and no matter what they do, no matter how bad it is, there will be no repercussions from the US, no matter what anyone else in the region does or has to say about it.
Maybe that’s what this message really is. ‘Kill them all or drive them out, do whatever you want, we don’t care.’Report
Basically, pretty much the worst possible thing a friend could tell an addict friend.Report
Isn’t that currently the case, unless you count pro forma statements from Biden about how bad Israel’s behavior was that were roundly ignored by everyone?Report
Objectively I think you’d have to say yes. Maybe all thats gone is the fig leaf.Report
Probably not. Whatever was said in public the Israeli’s have had enough uncertainty about where the Americans limits were to be cautious about a lot of things. Even under Trumps previous term Trumps grasp of foreign policy was tenuous enough, and enough old GOP hands were around enough that the Israeli’s weren’t certain if they had a blank slate.Report
If what we’re seeing is Israel acting with restraint, then the rest of the Middle East is in big trouble.Report
Oh, yeah. I know it’s always weird to think about how people in other parts of the world have long memories, but, apparently, Jordan and Egypt both have long memories.
Maybe we could explain to Jordan that Hamas has nothing to do with the PLO.Report
Well, this isn’t even about Hamas, it’s about Palestinians in general.Report
Oooh! Yeah. That’s how we should sell it to Jordan. “This isn’t even about Hamas. It’s about Palestinians in general.”Report
Well they’d say “We agree, which is why we don’t want em.” Hamas had absolutely nothing to do with the Jordanian civil war. Hamas wasn’t founded until 1987 and the Jordanian civil war was in 1970.Report
Well the neocons mostly have been (rightfully) driven from the GOP due to Bush’s adventures in the middle east. I am utterly delighted at the irony that Trump, who made his bones eviscerating Bush and the neocons fish ups, is talking about prancing off down the exact same path.
Trump must REALLY believe that Bibi held off on resolving the Gazan conflict to help out Trumps election chances* if he’s grateful enough to even talk about doing something like this. Then again he did just talk to Bibi so that could simply be who is pulling his strings at the moment.
I do not, however, see how Trump could pull off going into Gaza without congressional buy in. It’d be expensive as fish.
*I’m agnostic on whether Bibi actually did but I do believe that Bibi is easily wily enough to suggest as much in private to Trump and that Trump is a big enough idiot to believe it.Report
In 2 years time, we will have stories on American soldiers being injured by IED from Hamas and the Quebecois.Report
The Quebecois might be part of the American Sympathizers against the real enemy: Toronto.Report
Technically I think their enemy is Ottawa.Report
Trump Caves: U.S. won’t pay to rebuild Gaza or send troops, White House says.Report
Surprise surprise.Report
Even Trump’s team seems to be dismayed by this announcement. His chief of staff went bug-eyed at the press conference. This is most likely Trump prattling but this is Trump so he might be dumb enough to attempt and it gives a lot of people who really hate Israel another reason to make wild accusations, so everybody is going made about it despite it making no sense.
First, where would Israel send the Palestinians? Second, even if they could ethnically cleanse Gaza, why would they hand it over to the United States? During the early days of the Israel-Hamas War, Pro-Palestinian Westerners were arguing that there are going to be at least a million dead Palestinians at the end of it unless Israel is stopped right now. That did not happen. It did not even come close to happening but the people who made these accusations aren’t retracting because being rhetorically correct is more important than being factually correct and they really just want to hate Israel.Report