Donald Trump and his family have clearly had their eyes on the real estate development possibilities in the Gaza strip for quite some time. Last March, son-in-law Jared Kushner, the president’s Middle East adviser (among a dozen different things) in his first term, told the Harvard School of Government that “Gaza’s waterfront property could be very valuable” and suggested that Israel should “move the people out and then clean it up.” On Inauguration Day, Trump himself said, “It’s a phenomenal location. On the sea, the best weather, some beautiful things could be done with it. Some fantastic things could be done with Gaza.” Add on a golf course and you’ve got Trump Gaza Golf Resort to go with the new Trump Tower in Jeddah Saudi Arabia and peace will be at hand in the Middle East at long last.
Fortunately for Trump, Israel has already done the demolition work for them so it’s just that sticky matter of getting rid of the people who live there. Kushner alluded to it in his talk but it wasn’t until after the campaign that Trump shared his thoughts on how to deal with that. On Jan. 21 on Air Force One, Trump told the assembled press corp that he’s spoken with the King of Jordan and asked him to “take” at least some of the Palestinians who live in Gaza and then “we just clean out that whole thing.” That language was just a tiny bit provocative seeing as ethnic cleansing is considered a crime against humanity.
It’s yet another absurd declaration by a man whose ability to escape any accountability for his crimes has led him to believe he’s got superpowers.
It was clear then that Trump had the brilliant idea all by himself that the Palestinians should just move someplace else which he seemed to think was the obvious “final solution” to the vexing problem that no one had ever thought of before. Yesterday, he announced his fully formed plan, first in one of his executive order signing sessions and later in a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Answering reporters’ questions in the signing sessions he went on at some length about how Gaza has been decimated and it’s unsanitary to live there so the Palestinians will be happy to move someplace else where they can have nice houses, to be built by the other rich Arab countries. He claimed that the only reason the Palestinians stayed in Gaza was because they had no other alternative, so if Egypt and Jordan offered them land in their countries, they’d be “thrilled” to go. When a reporter noted that Egypt and Jordan had both bluntly said no to this idea, he noted that Venezuela and Panama had originally said no to him but now they’re doing as they’re told, so we can expect every other country to do the same.
So that was pretty weird. But it was nothing compared to what he said at the press conference with Netanyahu a short while later. He repeated his belief that the Palestinians should be forcibly moved to somewhere but added a stunning embellishment that nobody saw coming. Standing next to the prime minister of Israel, who nodded along like a demented marionette, Trump said that the U.S. would take over the Gaza strip and assume a “long-term ownership position.”
He says that the U.S. will level it and then build new buildings that will supply jobs for the people of the area. Not Palestinians, however. They’ll be living in their beautiful piece of land (or pieces, as many as 10 or 12) in other countries.
According to Trump, this has been discussed at length and everyone loves the idea of the United States owning that land and developing it into something magnificent.
When asked what he envisions for the place, it sounds as though he really does see it as some kind of international resort where “world people” will come.
And for the piece de resistance after going on and on for years about America First and not wanting to get involved in “forever wars”, he just suggested sending U.S. troops into the most fraught forever war on the planet.
Trump insisted in his remarks earlier that Saudi Arabia and other Arab states are on board but that’s not true. According to CNN, “Saudi Arabia reaffirmed its “unwavering” support for a Palestinian state, and two Arab officials expressed puzzlement and concern, telling CNN it was “hard to grasp and digest.” After all, they have citizens too. As the Washington Post reported, “it would be politically destabilizing in Egypt and Jordan, where leaders fear that any influx of Palestinians would be met with sharp anger because of the appearance of collaborating with Israel.”
Netanyahu, for his part, said that Trump “sees a different future for that piece of land. It’s worth paying attention to this. We’re talking about it. It’s something that could change history.” Not exactly a full endorsement but you could certainly see why it would appeal to him. Get rid of the Palestinians (the West Bank is on the menu too) and have the U.S. military guard the area while Netanyahu rebuilds it into a new home for Israeli settlers. What’s not to like?
This all fits with Trump’s other delusions of grandeur around seizing Greenland, making Canada the 51st state and invading Mexico and/or Panama, which he’s been talking about non-stop since he was inaugurated. This latest, with its sanctimony about it being done for the good of the Palestinians and to bring peace to the region brought back some very unpleasant memories of the days when the Republicans sold the Iraq war as a crusade to create a Jeffersonian Democracy in the Middle East. This cheap real estate pitch (it will be the Riviera of the Middle East!) doesn’t have quite the same lofty ideals but it amounts to the same thing. We all know how Iraq turned out.
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Trump bleats about “peace” all the time because he’s determined to win himself the Nobel Peace Prize (maybe two so he can beat Obama.) But he’s anything but a pacifist. Observing his behavior for all these years leaves no doubt about the man’s propensity for domination and violence and the first couple of weeks of his presidency illustrates it more clearly than ever.
It’s hard to imagine that he will actually be able to do any of this. It’s yet another absurd declaration by a man whose ability to escape any accountability for his crimes has led him to believe he’s got superpowers. More likely it will simply result in the breakdown of the fragile ceasefire and more punishment for the Palestinians along with more uncertainty and distrust among America’s allies.
His vainglorious pronouncements of territorial expansion and manifest destiny are making the whole world fear not that he’s going to succeed in any of these crazy schemes but that he’s going to truly lose it and make a catastrophic decision. He’s still the guy with the nuclear codes.
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