Donald Trump’s suggestion that Gaza be ethnically cleansed of its Palestinian inhabitants has certainly seized the world’s attention. The proposal is bizarre; the United States taking actual ownership of the territory, effectively the first new American colony since Woodrow Wilson purchased part of the Virgin Islands from Denmark in 1917.
Assessments of the Trump plan hover between improbable and impossible. But the first thing to say about it is that it is deeply immoral. The forcible deportation of more than a million and a half Palestinians from their land and what’s left of their homes would represent the greatest act of ethnic cleansing since the Second World War. It is an inhuman idea, whether or not Mr Trump’s stated intention to provide for the constantly displaced populace of the Gaza Strip is well-meaning.
The president promises the Gazans: “They instead can occupy all of a beautiful area with homes and safety, and they can live out their lives in peace and harmony.” He did not add “…whether they want to or not”. Some, dispossessed of their original homes, relocated and displaced again during the most recent war, and now literally homeless, might well take the opportunity to start a new life under duress. Others cannot countenance the notion. Nor should they have to.
The best that may be hoped to flow from this latest exemplar of Mr Trump’s talent for shocking people is that it might jolt the various national and non-state actors in the region to try to find a more realistic and humane solution for regional stability. Mr Trump did have some success with his terrifying threats last month, shortly before his inauguration, that “all hell will break loose” if Hamas did not release some of the hostages they’ve held since 7 October 2023. While much credit must accrue to President Biden and his secretary of state in securing the eventual ceasefire, President-elect Trump also played his part, albeit outside the usual diplomatic protocols.
So the optimistic take on his admittedly outlandish scheme to turn Gaza into a sort of east Mediterranean Las Vegas is that it will somehow push the Israelis, the Iranians and the Palestinians, in particular, into contemplating more sustainable scenarios.
Though it may not seem obvious at first, the time to build a two-state solution is indeed now. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his face somehow fixed in an expression of calm as Mr Trump dilated on his dream, politely greeted it as “worth pursuing”. He knows better than anyone that the Gaza Riviera project would be bombed out of existence and a constant target for terrorists even before the first arrivals fly in to frolic by the pool. It is difficult to see what benefit Israel could derive from it.
It would certainly be the wrong kind of two-state solution and would destroy any chance of the Abraham accords with Arab neighbours surviving, let alone Saudi Arabia becoming a willing partner for peace with Israel. Neither Egypt nor Jordan are in any position to accept a million more Palestinian refugees. In such a context, it’s plain that a two-state solution is an essential condition for Israeli security – but Israeli resistance to the concept has to be overcome.
The devastation wreaked on Gaza during the war was inflicted by the Israel Defense Forces and is a product of the tragic history of the Holy Land. Yet it was triggered, cynically, by the notorious actions taken by Hamas terrorists, over the years as well as in 2023. Hamas has no more regard for the Palestinian people than they do for Israelis, civilians or otherwise, and it should form no part of the future of the Palestinian state.
Hamas won one election in 2006, after which the opinions of the people in the area were never sought again. A viable Palestinian state cannot be headed by a group that is dedicated to the destruction of the state of Israel. Recent events have made that all too clear. By the same token, Israel has no alternative, moral or practical, to co-existence with the Palestinian people, as the longer history of the region proves.
One way or another Gaza will be rebuilt, both physically and as a putative political entity, part of a Palestinian nation. A “two-state solution” means “a two-state solution”. Both entities have to be widely recognised as fully sovereign states with equal status in the international community and supported by a coalition of those prepared to fund reconstruction and development and to guarantee the borders of the two states and the safety of their respective citizens.
Neither another mass exodus of Palestinians nor an American colony masquerading as a beach resort complete with a Trump Plaza Gaza casino has any place in such a future.
