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President Donald Trump’s fanciful plan for Gaza will not happen; still, his wacky vision actually undermines legitimate efforts to improve relations in the Mideast, with Israel’s Arab partners like Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia looking for the exits.
Listening to everything that Trump spun Tuesday during three different public appearances, he doesn’t want a U.S. invasion, seizure, occupation and colonization of the Gaza Strip, forcing out close to two million Palestinians and imposing foreign rule over a resenting and resisting population.
Rather, Trump sees a much more benign real estate deal: “If we can get a beautiful area to resettle people permanently in nice homes and where they can be happy.” Only then would the U.S. come into the totally empty Strip and rebuild it as an international destination, maybe like the Vegas Strip or a Singapore on the Mediterranean. Gaza’s 25 miles of beachfront property would rival Miami or Monte Carlo.
Under his idea, everyone would be happy — and of the former Gazans voluntarily heading to Jordan, Egypt and elsewhere, “I would think that they would be thrilled to do it.” No one would be forcibly displaced. “I think if they had the opportunity, they’d love [it].”
That’s the real Trump, a New York real estate promoter. He doesn’t want troops, but split-level ranches for Palestinians in new subdivisions and high rents in a refurbished Gaza. Still, for all his pleasant dreams, it’s a dead letter.
Neither the Jordanians nor Egyptians want the Palestinians and we don’t anticipate anyone else putting out a welcome. And the people in Gaza don’t want to leave, despite the fact that “the Gaza Strip has been a hellhole for people living there. It’s been horrible,” says Trump.
