Jonathan S. Tobin
JNS, Feb. 6, 2025
“It’s a nonstarter because all of these groups are still holding on to the idea that it must be preserved as a bastion of anti-Zionist irredentism. In their minds, Gaza’s only purpose is to serve, along with Judea and Samaria, and some of Jerusalem, as parts of an independent Palestinian state that they still believe must be set up next to Israel.”
Everyone who claims to be an “expert” on the Middle East is sure about one thing: President Donald Trump’s proposal to move Palestinian Arabs out of Gaza either cannot or should not happen. Of course, the same experts said the same thing about the 2020 Abraham Accords that achieved normalization agreements between Israel and four Arab and Muslim-majority countries. They also predicted that Trump’s moving of the U.S. embassy to Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem would set off Armageddon (it did not).
So, when faced with a choice between an “impossible” Trump idea and conventional wisdom from the foreign-policy establishment, perhaps it might be smart for some of those “experts” to pump the brakes on their apocalyptic warnings.
Nevertheless, they might be right this time—and at first glance, it’s hard to see how Trump’s idea can be put into effect without massive use of U.S. military force and equally massive expenditure of federal funds. And we already know that the administration has no intention of sending troops to Gaza or investing much, if any, money in the idea. …SOURCE