The News
US President Donald Trump’s suggestion that the US take a “long-term ownership position” over Gaza Tuesday sent shockwaves through the Arab world and beyond, with European politicians also widely condemning the proposal.
Trump made the remarks at a press conference alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the first foreign leader to visit Trump since his second term began.
When asked whether US troops would be deployed to take over Gaza, Trump said: “We’ll do what’s necessary… We’ll take it over and develop it,” referring to the territory as the “Riviera of the Middle East.”
The Israeli government responded positively to the proposal, which would also see the enclave’s entire population permanently displaced to neighboring Arab countries — an idea Trump first proposed last week. Arab governments, Palestinian groups, and human rights advocates have condemned the suggestion, with Egypt stressing the need for Gaza’s reconstruction to occur ”without moving the Palestinians.”
SIGNALS
Proposal met with global condemnation, skepticism
Donald Trump’s proposal triggered widespread global condemnation: Turkey’s foreign minister said the US was pushing a “law of the jungle,” while the German foreign minister said the plan was “unacceptable.” The proposal, if it were to come to pass, would be “flying in the face of international law.” The statements should be treated with skepticism, a former Middle East peace negotiator told The New York Times: “It’s safe to say it can’t happen,” but they are a “distraction” from what else Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed at the meeting, including the second stage of the Gaza ceasefire. Trump is effectively “leaving [Netanyahu] with a lot of latitude about how to proceed,” the outlet wrote.
Trump’s second term foreign policy is heating up
The Gaza remarks underscore Donald Trump’s early second-term agenda, which has “territorial expansion as a stated goal,” The Washington Post foreign affairs columnist Ishaan Tharoor wrote. While some of Trump’s proclamations — like renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America — have been criticized as a kind of “fake” imperialism designed to “stok[e] the fantasies of a certain kind of terminally online rightist,” Trump’s recent suggestion that the US could put boots on the ground in Gaza makes his other recent proposals around Greenland, the Panama Canal, and elsewhere “altogether more startling,” Tharoor wrote. Trump is “eager to swing a wrecking ball through existing paradigms,” he argued.
Israeli ties with Saudi Arabia may hang in the balance
Saudi Arabia — widely seen as Donald Trump’s closest Gulf ally — quickly denounced the proposal. The country’s foreign ministry said the kingdom will “not establish diplomatic relations with Israel” without the creation of a Palestinian state and that their position was “non-negotiable and not subject to compromises.” Before Trump’s remarks, Israel and Saudi had seemed on track for a normalization of relations, with a deal “within reach,” the Atlantic Council wrote. Trump had an opportunity with Netanyahu to move those negotiations along, the think tank wrote before the meeting, but his proposed annexation of Gaza likely threatens to derail years of diplomatic work.