Saw this op ed in the WSJ today ...
Trump’s Plan to Free Palestinians From Gaza
President Trump shocked the world with his proposal to resettle Gazans in nearby countries, but not because the idea is cruel. Few critics dispute his point that it would benefit thedisplaced to escape the “demolition site” of Gaza and live in peace rather than as cannon fodder. The real disturbance, after decades to the contrary, is to think seriously about what it would mean to put Palestinian lives first rather than sacrificing them to the lost cause of Palestine as their leaders always do.
On Oct. 19, 2023, Hamas leader Khaled Mashal suggested that to achieve the dream of Israel’s destruction, and with it an Arab Palestine from the river to the sea, millions of Palestinians might have to die. The prospect doesn’t trouble him ...
And this from The New York Times ...
Trump’s Gaza Plan Has Many Pitfalls, Hamas Among the Biggest
President Trump took the world aback with his declaration that the United States was going to “own” Gaza and move out the Palestinians there to build “the Riviera of the Middle East.” As unrealistic and bizarre as it may seem, Mr. Trump was pointing to a serious challenge: the future of Gaza as a secure, peaceful, even prosperous place ...
Trump's idea has met with almost complete dismissal, but a few points that occur to me ...
First, the idea that the Gaza Strip is the only place Palestinians should live or do want to live is just false. Palestinians live all over the Middle East, as well as in Europe and America. In the US there are about 160,000 Palestinians, around 100,000 Palestinians live in Europe, almost 600,000 Palestinians live in Saudi Arabia, there are approximately 3 million Palestinians in Jordan, and they also live in other countries of the region. I don't really understand the ancestral homeland thing. Here in the US, almost no one lives in their ancestral homeland - we're almost all originally from somewhere else and that's just fine.
Second, Trump did make some practical points in his press briefing. Gaza is demolished and there is doubtless a lot of unexploded ordinance there. It's not a safe place at this time, and if it is going to be rebuilt, it's hard to see how that can happen with over 2 million people inhabiting the area. And Trump did not say Palestinians would have to all leave forever - when asked by a reporter if Palestinians could be among the people who lived in the Gaza Strip after it was rebuilt, he said yes. That doesn't sound like "ethnic cleansing".
Third, in blaming Israel for everything, what is not mentioned much is the responsibility the Palestinians have for the present situation. It was Hamas that started this war, Hamas that refuses to surrender and give back the hostages, Hamas that keeps promising to do more attacks in the future. People try to distinguish civilian Gazans from Hamas, but some civilians in Gaza did participate in attacking Israel on October 7 and some did keep hostages as prisoners in their own homes. Hamas members are not imported from elsewhere, they are the fathers, the sons, the brothers, the husbands of civilian Gazans, and polls seem to show that most of those civilians think the October 7 attack was a good idea. When will the Gazans repudiate Hamas and its goals?
So, though Trump's idea for ending the eternal war between the Israelis and the Gazans may sound nutty, I don't think the two state solution sounds any more realistic. Maybe it's time to "think different".
