Written By: Steven Sahiounie
Trump's plan for Gaza
When you ask an investor of luxury hotels and casinos to solve a land problem, you have to expect that the solution will be to build a resort.
It's no surprise that an experienced and successful hotel and casino owner like President Donald Trump would propose his plan to turn Gaza into a tourist destination.
Trump announced his plan for Gaza while standing with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, following their talks on a ceasefire in Gaza and Iran. Netanyahu couldn't stop glowing as he listened to the leader of the world's superpower and Israel's best friend, proposing a plan to permanently remove a major security threat to Israel.
Trump has outlined his plans to level Gaza and turn it into a "Middle East Riviera" after the US takes ownership of Gaza.
Trump told a news conference: "and we're going to do the job with that. We will own it."
Trump has said Palestinians in Gaza should be moved to other areas. "The Gaza thing didn't work out," he told reporters in the Oval Office. "They should get good fresh, beautiful land, and we will get some people to invest money to build it and make it beautiful and livable and enjoyable."
He said America could help Palestinians find "a number of pieces of land" somewhere other than Gaza and "build them some nice places."
Photo: Gaza Strip
When asked who he imagined living in Gaza, Trump said, " people from the world." We have an opportunity to do something that could be phenomenal,“ Trump said. I don't want to be cute, I don't want to be a wise guy, I want to be a Riviera of the Middle East. This could be something that could be so magnificent," adding: "We will make sure that it is done, on a world scale."
The plan seeks to remove the original inhabitants, the 2.3 million Palestinians who survived the war, which claimed the lives of some 47,000 members of their community. To forcibly deport them to Egypt and Jordan, or other Arab countries, and with the land bare for reconstruction, bring investors and their construction companies to the level of the Gaza Strip, along with architects and engineers to design new buildings, houses, hotels, restaurants and casinos.
But Trump's plan is not original. Shimon Peres proposed a similar concept after the 1993 Oslo Accords. years.
Shimon Peres
Shimon Peres was Israel's eighth prime minister since 1984. until 1986. and since 1995. until 1996. and as Israel's ninth president since 2007. until 2014. He was a member of twelve cabinets and represented five political parties in a 70-year political career. He died in 2016. years.
Peres is 13. September 1993. signed the Oslo Accords on behalf of the Israeli government at a White House ceremony with Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat.
The year 1994. in recognition of the Oslo Accords, Peres, Rabin and Arafat were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996. he founded the Center for peace.
"The day will come when Gaza will be Middle East Singapore," Shimon Peres said after the Oslo Accords, dreaming of a new Middle East.
Peres used the comparison of Gaza with Singapore to express his vision of transforming the Gaza Strip into a prosperous economy, recalling how Singapore has evolved from a small, poor country into a rich, high-tech hub and tourist destination.
Peres stressed the potential for Gaza to become a successful, peaceful place if it chooses peace and economic cooperation with Israel.
His vision was based on the idea that Gaza, with real investment and international assistance, could flourish through trade, tourism and technology, as Singapore did.
According to Perez's plan, Gazans would generate enough income to equal their standard of living with Israeli society in general. With the prosperity and future of their children, the residents of Gaza would reject resistance to the occupation and accept their status as inferior people, according to Zionist ideology, while the happy would go to the bank. Instead of looking for guns, they would drive the latest cars.
Gaza has great potential in agriculture and tourism. A long, sunny and sandy beach while nearby Europe is empty in the snow all winter is a winning combination.
Hotels full of tourists along the beach and border crossings with Israel are envisaged for the passage of agricultural products such as fresh strawberries, tomatoes and ground crops.
Achieving peace through economic development was a cornerstone of Perese's plan, but there was no political will to implement it in either Tel Aviv or Washington. Now Trump is in charge.
Ethnic cleansing
The problem with Trump's plan for Gaza is that he calls for ethnic cleansing. According to the UN Office for the Prevention of genocide and responsibility for protection, the commission of experts reported that the coercive practices used to remove the civilian population by forcible removal, displacement and deportation of the civilian population may " представљ constitute crimes against humanity and may be equated with specific war crimes. Moreover, such acts could also fall within the meaning of the Genocide Convention.
The ethnic cleansing of Palestine since 1946. to date
The commission described ethnic cleansing as "св a purposeful policy devised by one ethnic or religious group to remove violent and terrorist means from the civilian population of another ethnic or religious group from certain geographical areas".
The U.S. government has a long and dark history of conducting ethnic cleansing over the Native American population, where treaties were used to displace Indians from their tribal lands.
Will Egypt and Jordan be forced to participate in ethnic cleansing?
Trump is 25. in January, he said he would like to "just clean up" Gaza, urging Egypt and Jordan to admit more Palestinians.
While on Air Force One, Trump said that earlier in the day he had a conversation with Jordan's King Abdullah II and would later talk to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
"I would like Egypt to take people," Trump said. "You're talking about probably a million and a half people, and we just clean up the whole thing and say, 'You know, it's over,'" talking about the Gaza war.
Trump said he appreciates Jordan for successfully taking in Palestinian refugees and that he told King Abdullah II, "I'd like you to take on more, because I'm looking at the entire Gaza Strip right now, and it's a mess. It's a real mess.”
Israel's 15-month war against Gaza has displaced nearly all of its residents ,2.3 million,and Trump has said that residents of Gaza could be relocated "temporarily or in the long term".
"It's a place for demolition right now, almost everything is torn down and people are dying there," he said.
"So I'd rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build apartments in another location, where they might be able to live in peace for a change.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right Jewish extremist, welcomed Trump's idea of relocating Gaza residents to Egypt and Jordan.
"The idea of helping them find other places to start a better life is a great idea. After years of glorifying terrorism, they will be able to establish new and good lives elsewhere,“ Smotrich said.
Peres on the final settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Peres is 2009. "only the peaceful coexistence of the Palestinian and Jewish states offers a real and just solution in the Middle East.
Peres wrote that" a two-state solution is not only the best solution for this century-old conflict, but it is also within reach, "adding that Palestinians"should not be denied the opportunity to take their national destiny into their own hands."
Source: Yankee Riviera in the Middle East planned by Trump-Mideast Discourse
9. February 2025.
