Trump’s Gaza Dream
Terry H. Schwadron
Feb. 5. 2025
The only thing real about Donald Trump’s announcement last night that the U.S. stands ready to take over the devastated Gaza Strip, expel its 2 million Palestinians and turn it into a beachside resort is that Trump believes it to be real.
Even Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seemed bewildered, though he did his best to support an “out of box” idea for a move that sounded the very definition of imperialist real estate fantasy.
By contrast, it took mere minutes for Saudi Arabian officials to reject the idea — rebutting Trump assertion at his press conference — adding to Jordan and Egypt doubling down on saying no to taking in a couple million angry, war-weary Palestinians. Hamas officials were quickly quick to say no chance.
Hearing Trump describe a “Riviera in the Middle East” that he could build on someone else bombed-out homeland was surreal but consistent with other colonialist dreams of obtaining Greenland, the Panama Canal and Canada. You didn’t have to be a critic to note that Trump cited no legal authority to seize Gaza or to expel Palestinians en masse in apparent violation of international laws.
For Trump, it is impossible to believe that Palestinians would want a “hellhole” as homeland, skipping over the entire rationale for decades of conflict. They could live in one or two or eight or 12 other nicer places — presumably like the refugee camps and communities that have been home in the West Bank and Lebanon over these multiple decades.
Trump would not rule out sending U.S. troops to oversee it all, including the subduing of remaining Hamas troops, the civilian expulsion, forcing neighboring counties to take in refugees they don’t want, digging up munitions, and building a posh beach resort. It would be a long-term project, Trump acknowledged. But all paid for by those same neighboring countries.
Trump claimed he already is talking with regional leaders who are approving — though none stepped forward. The Nobel Committee might just want to hold off on its peace prize planning until there is any verifiable fact about this idea. The more Trump talked, the more fantastical it all sounded.
Color me highly skeptical, no just unbelieving, no just worried that we have a leader who cannot recognize realities. Taking over Gaza sounded as much a hint of a notion of an unthought-through idea as his health plan.
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