President Donald Trump sent shockwaves through the news cycle Tuesday in a press conference with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he talked about turning Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East” through U.S. ownership and accountability.
With Netanyahu at his side, Trump expressed compassion for Palestinians “living under fallen concrete that’s very dangerous and precarious.” U.S.-led rebuilding, he suggested, will help them emerge from that rubble into “a beautiful area with homes and safety where they can live out their lives in peace and harmony.”
As described by the president, the U.S. would be responsible for locating and dismantling unexploded bombs and would remove other weapons, leveling, then creating economic development that would supply “unlimited” jobs. Neighboring countries of “great wealth” would pay for it all, he said.
“You just can’t go back. If you go back it’s going to end up the same way it has for 100 years,” Trump said. (See related story)
Who could ask for anything more?
Jobs, peace, security springing forth from desolation. It sounds wonderful, but some contend it could create an awkward situation between Israel and the U.S. – allies much closer now than they were two months ago when Joe Biden was president of the United States.
“Just trying to get the couple million Gazans, Palestinians to be uprooted from Gaza Strip and sent to Egypt and or to Jordan is going to be incredibly problematic," Bob Maginnis, the Senior Fellow for National Security with the Family Research Council, told AFN. "This would imply that the U.S. would have to go in and complete the job that the Israeli Defense Forces started with Hamas because there's still Hamas fighting.”
The plan is a long shot, Dr. Eric Bordenkircher, of the UCLA Center for Middle East Development, said on Washington Watch Wednesday. One of the first problems, he explained, would be what happens to Palestinian refugees during the reconstruction.
Most have been in refugee camps scattered across the region since Hamas, their elected governing authority in Gaza, attacked Israel, killing more than 1,200 civilians and taken hundreds more hostage. But the governments of Jordan, Egypt or Saudia Arabia would have to be persuaded. They’re not on board with the idea of temporary housing for the Palestinians right now.
“In their defense, Jordan has taken in a lot of refugees from Syria in recent years and from Iraq as well,” Bordenkircher told show host Tony Perkins.
A significant amount of the Jordanian population – perhaps as much as 50%, according to reports – is Palestinian or has Palestinian roots. “It’s understandable that they see this as a concern, a threat,” Bordenkircher added.
Gaza sits along Egypt’s northern border, but Egypt has maintained a wall and has distanced itself from Gaza as much as possible.
“The Egyptians have their own problems," stated the Middle East researcher. "They have issues with the Suez Canal, with the Houthis, and they're losing a lot of money because you don't have a lot of ships and maritime traffic going through there. So, the situation with the regime there was rather precarious, I would say, and this would just add to that.”
The Houthis, funded by Iran, have attacked ships as well as the Israeli mainland.
“There may be other countries. One country that has to be involved in order for this to get some kind of credibility has to be the Saudis,” Bordenkircher said.
Josh Hammer, a syndicated columnist and Newsweek contributor, said on American Family Radio Thursday that he’d seen reports that this idea might have originated from Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and an advisor during Trump’s first term.
Surprising to all, perhaps even Netanyahu
Still, most were caught off guard by Trump’s plan for Gaza.
“I have to say this was not on anyone’s Bingo card. I have to imagine that Bibi Netanyahu himself was trying to contain his emotions on the stage. I’m sure he had no idea this was coming just as no one else in that particular room did,” Hammer told show host Jenna Ellis.
“What he [Trump] says is correct insofar as you are dealing with 25 miles of beautiful Mediterranean Sea coastline,” Hammer added.
In fact, when Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, one line of thought was that the Arabs who lived there would be able to develop it in a similar fashion. The phrase “Singapore on the Mediterranean” was floated then.
Nobody nearby – not even their brothers and sisters in the faith – wants to float the Palestinians now, perhaps because of the type of Islam many of them practice. Their neighbors have concerns because the population of Gaza has been indoctrinated into radical Islam, says Gary Bauer of the Campaign for Working Families.
“Nobody in the region, none of the other Muslim countries in the Middle East, want to take the residents of Gaza. These are their brothers and sisters in Islam. They don’t want them because the population of Gaza is not prepared to be a self-governing population,” Bauer tells AFN.
Whether Trump’s "Riveria" comes to pass remains to be seen. If nothing different happens, the U.S. will face the Gaza question again in the future.
“I just know that Donald Trump does not want to spend billions of U.S. tax money to rebuild Gaza only for Gaza to attack Israel again and then Israel has to respond. Then we repeat the cycle all over again,” Bauer said.
Just a conversation starter
Some see the whole Riveria comment from Trump as nothing more than a conversation starter to find a fix for a generations-old question.
“Would a Riviera on the Mediterranean be something that might benefit a lot of people? Perhaps, but I don’t think that’s really what he’s after," Maginnis argues. "He wants to get people serious about finding some long-term solutions to the ongoing tension in that part of the world.”
Hammer agrees. Trump, he says, is trying to apply a different solution. “Trump is just trying to think outside the box. He’s trying to shatter outmoded ways of thinking.”
Bauer is onboard with that line of thought. "No one wants to create another failed radical Islamic state in the Middle East," he writes. "Trump is just trying to upset the status quo. He's trying to get foreign leaders and all of us to think outside the box."
