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Trump has described Gaza as a “real mess” and a “demolition site.” He wants two-thirds of the population in Gaza — 1.5 million out of a total of 2.2 million people — to be removed and resettled in Jordan and Egypt.The proposal is startling, but deserves serious consideration. More on his proposal can be found here: “Trump: Jordan and Egypt should take more Palestinians from Gaza,” Jerusalem Post, January
US President Donald Trump said that Jordan and Egypt should take in more Palestinians from Gaza, when he spoke to reporters on Saturday.
Trump said he spoke about the matter with Jordan’s King Abdullah on the phone earlier in the day and told him that the Gaza Strip is currently a “real mess.”
He said that he told King Abdullah during the call, “I’d love for you [Jordan] to take on more because I’m looking at the whole Gaza strip right now, and it’s a mess, it’s a real mess. I’d like him to take people.”
King Abdullah relies heavily on American aid, which in recent years has made Jordan the third-highest recipient of such aid, after Israel and Egypt (and excluding the extraordinary sums given to Ukraine, which are likely to soon end). It would be difficult for him to refuse Trump’s request; he might have to agree to taking in about a quarter of that number, about 375,000, with Egypt, a much larger country, taking in the rest — 1,125,000.
With only 700,000 people remaining in Gaza after 1.5 million were transferred to Jordan and Egypt, the reduced numbers will make it much harder for Hamas, as a consequence of this transfer, to continue to be a threat to Israel. And with Gaza’s population so greatly reduced, the IDF’s task of locating and killing Hamas terrorists will be made much easier. Is it any wonder that Smotrich and Ben Gvir welcomed Trump’s proposal?
Trump has, in his first week in office, put a hold on all foreign aid, except for military aid to Israel and Egypt. He should make clear to General El-Sisi that he expects to continue to exempt Egypt from the general withholding of aid as long as Egypt shows a willingness to accept Gazans for resettlement. Jordan, like all recipients of American foreign aid, except Israel and Egypt, has just had its aid frozen; Trump could also make clear to King Abdullah that restoring aid to Jordan will depend on his willingness to take in a few hundred thousand Gazans.
The proposal could be presented to the world as what it, in fact, is meant to be: a humanitarian enterprise, helping Gazans out of their current misery, though it would bring geopolitical benefits to Israel as well.
The humanitarian aspect would be clear: Gazans who are now living in tents in what is a vast “demolition site” and hardly able to move through the piles of rubble that we see every night on the news, would be moved to the safety and much greater comfort of homes newly built for them in Egypt and Jordan, which would be paid for, in Trump’s calculations, not by the Americans, but by the fabulously rich Arab states of the Gulf — Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Would Jordan and Egypt be seen to reject helping their Palestinian brothers? And could the two richest of the Arab states, that each possess trillion-dollar sovereign wealth funds, refuse to pay for the building of those 1.5 million prefabricated homes that could be quickly erected? And to sweeten the pot, and overcome any reluctance to take part, Trump could perhaps increase his economic — but not military — aid to both Jordan and Egypt.
Here's how Trump put his proposal:
“You’re talking about a million and a half people, and we just cleaned out that whole thing,” Trump said. “I don’t know, something has to happen, but it’s literally a demolition site right now. 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.”
This is one of those Trump surprises that at first glance seem so crazy, but then, the more you think about them, the more sense they make.