Donald Trump, who has publicly acknowledged that he does not read much or study history, once again exposed his ignorance and lack of experience in geopolitics when he recently stood before the press aboard Air Force One and was asked about plans for the aftermath of the Hamas-Israel war.
“You’re talking about a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing,” Trump said, adding that there have been centuries-long conflicts in the region.
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“I don’t know, something has to happen, but it’s literally a demolition site right now,” he continued. “Almost everything’s demolished, and people are dying there, so I’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing in a different location where I think they could maybe live in peace for a change.”
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Rather than forming a coalition of countries to rebuild the Gaza Strip for the Palestinian people, his scheme amounted to “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians from their homeland. This plan is very similar in many ways to his conceived “mass deportations” of Black and brown people from the United States to rid them from his patriarchal Christian white nationalist project.
Of course, Israel’s Prime Minister and his right-wing government welcomed Trump’s plan of moving Palestinians from Gaza in hopes of annexing the territory to populate with Jewish so-called “settlers.” Netanyahu and his government do not have any intention of entering into talks that ultimately may result in the creation of an independent Palestinian state.
What originally appeared as a spontaneous idea that Trump expressed at 30,000 feet in the atmosphere was ultimately presented as a formalized plan back on the ground.
Reading from his prepared notes in front of a throng of reporters, and with Prime Minister Netanyahu standing stage right, Trump announced in the spirit more as the Property-Developer-in-Chief than as the President of the United States: “The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip,” he said. “We’ll own it… We have an opportunity to do something that could be phenomenal… the Riviera of the Middle East.”
This echoes his real estate developer son-in-law, Jared Kushner’s, notion that he put forth last year at a Harvard University political forum that Gaza presented the chance of building “waterfront properties.”
Putting on a counterfeit air of compassion, Trump justified his plan to relocate Gaza’s entire population to countries within the region: “ We should go to other countries of interest with humanitarian hearts, and there are many of them that want to do this,” he argued, “and build various domains that will ultimately be occupied by the 1.8 million Palestinians living in Gaza, ending the death and destruction and, frankly, bad luck.”
He also stated that he might send in U.S. military troops to provide support.
So, does this mean that Trump intends to make Gaza the 53rd state of the U.S. after Greenland and Canada? Maybe following his take back of the Panama Canal, he will make that a state, too, so Gaza can be the 54th. In all likelihood, though, Trump wants Gaza for himself to annex into his Trump business empire.
Throughout this nonsense, Trump repeated the false claim that “everyone I’ve spoken with loves the plan.”
In fact, virtually all but Netanyahu and his ultra-right-wing government members have flatly rejected the scheme both when he proposed it earlier aboard Air Force One and immediately following his joint press conference.
Trump is free to inject bleach into his own veins as his imaginary cure for Covid, but we must not allow him to inject bleach into the veins of U.S. Middle East policy.
Possibly, Trump’s proposal was meant as an extreme bargaining chip from which he will pull back somewhat during his so-called “art of the deal,” but no matter his intention, he has already done damage.
Trump’s proposal is morally reprehensible and goes against international law.
Trump’s plot, implemented or even scaled back, could:
· Threaten the viability of the ceasefire and the release of the Israeli hostages
· Destroy the Abraham Accords, a treaty for mutual cooperation between Israel and its Arab neighbors
· Embolden the terrorist state of Iran and its proxies (Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis) to further threaten and attack Israel and Western countries in Europe and the United States
· Push the more moderate Arab states, such as Jordan, Egypt, U.A.E., Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and others into the arms of Iran
· Kill, for at least the next decade, the possibility of the creation of a safe and stable Palestinian homeland, which could help guarantee Israel’s security needs as well
· Further distance the remainder of the world from supporting Israel while ensuring even more mass protests around the world, larger than those we recently saw on college campuses and in cities against the mass casualties inflicted by the Israel Defense Forces on civilian populations in Gaza and the West Bank.
· For someone who campaigned on keeping the U.S. out of foreign wars by possibly sending troops to Gaza, Trump has placed on the table the likelihood of instigating another 20-year war in the Middle East.
Only someone like Donald Trump, with the implicit or explicit support of Benjamin Netanyahu, could hatch such a plot. Only someone who lacks the human quality of empathy would even propose such dangerous absurdities out loud. A proposal like this could only come from the world’s most insecure, narcissistic sociopath.
I genuinely wonder whether Trump has ever felt empathy, an emotion that virtually all human beings probably acquire before they are even born. This is the Palestinians’ homeland, a part of their national identity and community.
But hold on, I have a plan to counter Trump’s scheme for Gaza. My plan is to ignite – or maybe reignite – a sense of empathy within this stone of a man.
Consider this:
1. Appropriate all of Trump’s properties by the law of eminent domain including Mar-a-Lago, Miami Hotel & Resort in Doral, Trump Bay Street, Trump International Golf Links and Hotel Ireland, Trump International Golf Links Scotland, Trump International Hotel and Tower Chicago, Trump International Hotel and Tower Dubai, Trump International Hotel and Tower New York City, The Ritz-Carlton Baku Hotel, Trump International Hotel Las Vegas, Trump National Golf Club Westchester, Trump National Golf Club Los Angeles, Trump Parc, Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino, Trump Tower Punta del Este, Trump Towers Atlanta, Trump Towers Istanbul, Trump World Tower, Turnberry Golf Course, Twin Towers 2, and any I left out.
2. Donate all these properties to Habitat for Humanity to refurbish as homes and condos for unhoused people at no charge.
3. Give the wealthy evicted residents of Trump’s former properties their choice of resettlement in the countries of Russia, Hungary, Turkey, or Belarus.
4. Deploy the National Guard in states where the U.S. government appropriated Trump’s properties to assure peaceful compliance with the orders under eminent domain.
5. Do not allow Donald Trump any tax deductions on his confiscated properties or any rights of appeal.
6. Apply #s 1-5 to Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump regarding all their properties.
I’m certain that if my plan were to be implemented, Trump would still never develop empathy since he would instantly consider himself the perennial victim of unfair policies from the “Deep State.” But maybe, just maybe, some otherwise unswayable people might understand the sheer absurdity of Trump’s Gaza plot projected through my analogy.
But I don’t count on it.
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