{"id":15954,"date":"2025-02-05T11:14:04","date_gmt":"2025-02-05T11:14:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=15954"},"modified":"2025-02-05T11:14:04","modified_gmt":"2025-02-05T11:14:04","slug":"donald-trumps-dangerous-plan-to-take-over-gaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=15954","title":{"rendered":"Donald Trump\u2019s dangerous plan to take over Gaza"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> \n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__content-sign-up-topic-description\">Your guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the world<\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"article__content-sign-up-iframe close\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"signUpIframe\" data-prev-url=\"\/register\/in-article-sign-up?ft-content-uuid=7c2e82ec-1d8f-4d4e-a2cf-125fb5469e26&amp;newsletter-id=65b8fec772badb00166eafc6\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p>For weeks, Arab leaders have been waiting anxiously to gauge how US President Donald Trump would respond to the Middle East\u2019s biggest crisis in decades, wary of his unpredictability, his lack of understanding of a complex region and his unabashed pro-Israel bias.<\/p>\n<p>But none in their wildest dreams would have expected the extraordinary, surreal proposal that he unveiled to a stunned world when he took the podium at the White House alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>Not satisfied with advocating the forced permanent resettlement of more than 2mn Palestinians in Gaza, Trump dramatically upped the stakes by announcing that the US planned to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/21579349-163f-4337-8e47-1ca8e1bb9741\" data-trackable=\"link\">take over the besieged strip<\/a> \u2014 and that he would use American military might if necessary.<\/p>\n<p>The idea is so outlandish that there will be a temptation to dismiss it as yet more Trumpian folly. It would be in violation of international laws the US has long sought to champion and uphold. It would risk drawing American troops back into combat in the Middle East \u2014 something <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/donald-trump\" data-trackable=\"link\">Trump<\/a> had pledged to avoid. <\/p>\n<p>It would outrage Washington\u2019s Arab allies, its European partners and the global south. The US\u2019s battered credibility would take another dive. It would overturn the chances of Trump\u2019s dream of securing a grand bargain \u2014 and his desire to secure a Nobel Peace Prize \u2014 with a deal that would lead to Saudi Arabia and other Muslim states normalising relations with Israel. <\/p>\n<p>And it would create another catastrophe for the long-suffering Palestinians that have for generations called <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/gaza\" data-trackable=\"link\">Gaza<\/a> home. Where would they go? Nobody knows. No Arab country would dare accept them and be seen to be complicit with the forcible displacement of their Palestinian brethren.<\/p>\n<p>The bitter legacy of 1948, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced from their homes or fled in the fighting that accompanied Israel\u2019s founding, remains raw across the Muslim world. Palestinians refer to that period as the Nakba, or catastrophe, and many Gazans are descendants of those displaced.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"n-content-image n-content-image--full\" data-component=\"image-set\"><picture><source media=\"(min-width: 700px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/__origami\/service\/image\/v2\/images\/raw\/ftcms%3A6b17ea6c-80e9-4bcd-91da-f4012203b1a7?source=next-article&amp;fit=scale-down&amp;quality=highest&amp;width=700&amp;dpr=1 1x,https:\/\/www.ft.com\/__origami\/service\/image\/v2\/images\/raw\/ftcms%3A6b17ea6c-80e9-4bcd-91da-f4012203b1a7?source=next-article&amp;fit=scale-down&amp;quality=highest&amp;width=700&amp;dpr=2 2x,https:\/\/www.ft.com\/__origami\/service\/image\/v2\/images\/raw\/ftcms%3A6b17ea6c-80e9-4bcd-91da-f4012203b1a7?source=next-article&amp;fit=scale-down&amp;quality=highest&amp;width=700&amp;dpr=3 3x\" width=\"2290\" height=\"1526\"\/><source media=\"(max-width: 490px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/__origami\/service\/image\/v2\/images\/raw\/ftcms%3A075a8121-b26d-4597-a3a5-1f0e1521c481?source=next-article&amp;fit=scale-down&amp;quality=highest&amp;width=490&amp;dpr=1 1x,https:\/\/www.ft.com\/__origami\/service\/image\/v2\/images\/raw\/ftcms%3A075a8121-b26d-4597-a3a5-1f0e1521c481?source=next-article&amp;fit=scale-down&amp;quality=highest&amp;width=490&amp;dpr=2 2x,https:\/\/www.ft.com\/__origami\/service\/image\/v2\/images\/raw\/ftcms%3A075a8121-b26d-4597-a3a5-1f0e1521c481?source=next-article&amp;fit=scale-down&amp;quality=highest&amp;width=490&amp;dpr=3 3x\" width=\"1526\" height=\"1526\"\/><\/picture><figcaption class=\"n-content-picture__caption\"><span>A man rides a bicycle past the rubble of a house in Rafah destroyed during the Israeli offensive<\/span><span> <!-- -->\u00a9 Hatem Khaled\/Reuters<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Nobody in the region \u2014 with the exception of Israel\u2019s far right \u2014 can countenance a repeat.<\/p>\n<p>Yet this is Trump, the real estate mogul and former reality game show host, who has already threatened to seize the Panama Canal and take over Greenland.<\/p>\n<p>He has long appeared to view the Middle East through his own prism of dealmaking and real estate projects, egged on by staunchly pro-Israel acolytes he has surrounded himself with in his new administration, and Netanyahu, who presides over the most far-right government in Israel\u2019s history.<\/p>\n<p>A year ago, Jared Kushner, Trump\u2019s son-in-law and former Middle East White House adviser, was talking about Gaza\u2019s \u201cwaterfront property\u201d saying it could be \u201cvery valuable\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday, it was the president saying that he imagined the impoverished, war-shattered, densely populated, narrow Mediterranean strip could be \u201cthe Riviera of the Middle East\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re going to develop it, we\u2019re going to create thousands of thousands of jobs and it\u2019ll be something that the entire Middle East can be very proud of.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Netanyahu could barely conceal a smirk as he stood beside Trump, praising the most pro-Israel president in the US\u2019s history for \u201cthinking outside the box\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it\u2019s something that could change history,\u201d Netanyahu said.<\/p>\n<p>Ever since Israel launched its thunderous offensive in Gaza in response to Hamas\u2019s October 7 2023 attack, Palestinians and their Arab neighbours have feared that Netanyahu\u2019s ultimate aim was to make the strip uninhabitable and drive the Gazans from their land.<\/p>\n<p>Far-right ministers in his government openly talk about the need to resettle the strip Israel withdrew from two decades ago. Now they appear to have the world\u2019s most powerful leader in their corner.<\/p>\n<p>Rattled Arab leaders will hope that Trump\u2019s proposal is all part of some opening gambit or negotiating chip in his plans to broker a wider deal that would lead to Saudi Arabia agreeing formal diplomatic ties with Israel.<\/p>\n<p>In his first term, Trump brokered the so-called Abraham Accords, transactional deals that led to the United Arab Emirates and three other Arab states normalising ties with Israel. And he has made clear he wants to expand on that foreign policy success.<\/p>\n<p>But Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has repeatedly said that can only happen if there is the establishment of a Palestinian state, that includes Gaza and the occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n<p>Many in the Arab world are hoping Prince Mohammed can lean on his relationship with Trump and the leverage Saudi Arabia could hold in delivering the \u201cgrand bargain\u201d to rein in his wildest policies.<\/p>\n<p>Riyadh was unusually quick and emphatic in its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/d2020d81-77a4-488b-9e9a-776379f27068\" data-trackable=\"link\">rejection of the forcible displacement of Palestinians<\/a> on Wednesday. The kingdom\u2019s leaders are wary of the rage simmering in the region as a whole generation of young Arabs \u2014 Prince Mohammed\u2019s main constituency \u2014 have watched aghast as Israel has pummelled Gaza over the past 14 months.<\/p>\n<p>The pressure will be on the Saudis and their Arab partners to convince Trump of the calamity his scheme risks unleashing.<\/p>\n<p>What Trump wilfully fails to understand is that for all the devastation, poverty and suffering, Gazans are proud to call the strip their home. It is integral to their identity \u2014 the land where their children have been born and raised, where they have buried their loved ones and stoically built and rebuilt lives through cycles of conflict. They want to get on with their lives in peace, not another Nakba.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/7c2e82ec-1d8f-4d4e-a2cf-125fb5469e26\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free Your guide to what the 2024 US election means for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":15955,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}