Americanization of Gaza

What’s behind Trump’s call to take over Gaza?

American President Donald Trump, famous for his maverick ideas, has dropped a bombshell, by proposing that America should take over Gaza, and move the Palestinian population elsewhere, for an interim period, in order to reconstruct the place. Predictably, the proposal has caused consternation and outright condemnation from Middle East countries and European nations. But on deeper consideration, the proposal makes great sense and appears to be a lasting solution for the vexed Gaza problem.

Gaza has a bloody history, dating back to Pharaoh Thutmose III (18th dynasty; 15th century BCE). It fell, successively, to the Israelite king David and to the Assyrians, Egyptians, Babylonians, and Persians. In 635 CE the Arabs took Gaza, and it became a Muslim city. Gaza has long been an important center of Islamic tradition. The city declined during the Crusades, but after Sultan Saladin defeated the Crusaders occupying the region at the Battle of Hattin (1187), Gaza reverted to Muslim control; it passed to the Ottoman Turks in the 16th century. In World War I, it was taken over by British forces until November 1917. After the war, Gaza became part of the mandated Palestine. When the Palestine partition plan was promulgated by the United Nations (1947), Gaza was assigned to what was to be an Arab state. That state, however, was not set up, and Gaza was occupied in 1948 by Egyptians. At the time of the signing of the Israeli-Egyptian armistice (February 1949), Egypt held Gaza and its environs, a situation that resulted in the creation of the Gaza Strip. Egypt did not annex the city and territory but administered it through a military governor. During the Sinai campaign of November 1956, Gaza and its environs were taken over by Israeli troops, but international pressure soon forced Israel to withdraw. Reoccupied by Israel in the Six–Day War (June 1967), the city remained under Israeli military administration until 1994, when a phased transfer of governmental authority to the Palestinians got underway. In 2005 Israel completed its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, handing over control of the region to the Palestinian Authority (PA).

In 2006 Hamas, a militant Palestinian nationalist movement, won parliamentary elections held that year for the PA. After its victory prompted international sanctions, violence escalated between Palestinian factions, especially in Gaza. Hamas gained control of the Gaza Strip, which Israel subsequently blockaded, but the militant group maintained its dominance of the territory into the 2020s. Since 2008 the Gaza Strip has been at the center of several violent conflicts between Israel and Hamas.

A major escalation took place in May 2021. Weeks of simmering tensions in Jerusalem boiled over when Israel’s Supreme Court was set to rule on the eviction of dozens of Palestinian residents in the Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah. Confrontations between Israeli police and Palestinian demonstrators prompted Hamas to launch rockets into Jerusalem and parts of southern Israel; Israel retaliated with air strikes in the Gaza Strip.

On October 7, 2023, Hamas launched a blitzkrieg, coordinated land, sea, and air assault that took Israel and the world intelligence agencies by total surprise. At least 1,200 Israelis were killed in the attacks, and over 240 were taken hostage. Israel’s response led to hundreds of deaths in the Gaza Strip on that same day. The October 7 assault on Israel from the Gaza Strip by Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) resulted in more than 1,200 deaths, making it the deadliest day for Israel since its independence. On the following day, Israel declared war for the first time since the Yom Kippur War in 1973. The Israeli retaliation has made Gaza into a heap of rubble.

It is under these circumstances, that US President Donald Trump has proposed that the United States “take over” and “own” the Gaza Strip, suggesting long-term control after the ongoing conflict. His statement came during a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on February 4, 2025, where Trump emphasized the need for a new approach to Gaza’s future.

This initiative proposes relocating Palestinian residents to neighbouring countries like Egypt and Jordan, with the objective of providing them with safer and more stable living conditions. Trump envisions the US leading Gaza’s reconstruction by clearing unexploded ordnance, removing debris, and developing infrastructure to create jobs and housing. He argues that this approach would prevent the region from reverting to conflict and instability. However, Egypt and Jordan have firmly rejected the proposal, and the Arab League has also denounced it.

Any temporary truce or peace accord will meet the same fate as previous accords. The cessation of hostilities would mean regrouping and rearming of terror organization Hamas. Another round of violent attacks will lash the region, and every new attack will get more devastating and deadlier than the previous one. The population of Gaza has fallen 6 percent since Hamas initiated the devastating assault on Israel. An estimated 100,000 Palestinians have left the enclave while more than 55,000 are presumed to have lost their lives, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS).

The International Court of Justice (ICJ), and the Roman Catholic head Pope Francis, tried in vain to intervene by suggesting certain unworkable and one-sided proposals. It is only Mr. Donald Trump, who has voiced a proposal that will bring peace to the region, as he has with great perspicacity, understood that no lasting peace accord is possible with terror organizations, that are immersed in antediluvian ideologies. The present zeal for a peace accord is only to get respite from the colossal defeat that Hamas has faced, and which wants to regain its credibility and relevance among the Gazan population.

Future conflicts between Hamas and Israel will be deadlier and violent, than the present ongoing conflict. As it is, Israel is in a Chakravyūha situation, surrounded by nations who have vowed to decimate it. Drone and rocket technology are changing the way how wars are being fought, and terrorist groups are getting these weapons that would give them amazing capabilities. Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei speaking of the terrible fate his regime has planned for the state of Israel, said in a social media post in 2015, that Israel would be destroyed by 2040. “God willing, there will be nothing of the Zionist regime in 25 years,” he wrote. To realize this genocidal goal, in cooperation with terror organizations, would mean an internecine war. Iran is on the threshold of acquiring nuclear capability, and its present arsenal of ballistic and cruise missiles, drones, and hypersonic projectiles, would mean a devastating Armageddon. In pursuance of this, Iran is turning the heat on its “ring of fire” encircling Israel. Already, Israel is being dragged into a regional war on several fronts, including Judea and Samaria apart from Gaza. Lebanon led by Hezbollah, Yemen, led by Houthi rebels, and Syria are all engaged in cooking the final recipe for the destruction of Israel. In anticipation of the coming Armageddon, Israel has mastered nuclear capability albeit clandestinely. Any future escalation of hostilities would invite the quick deployment of nuclear weapons and the consequent annihilation of many countries in the region.

Donald Trump has shown remarkable foresight in sensing that any peace accord will be just temporary, like in the past, and lead to renewed hostilities, violence, and mass destruction. He has come up with a unique proposal for developing Gaza as a “big real estate site”. Dwelling on the subject, he further stated “I think that it’s a big mistake to allow people — the Palestinians, or the people living in Gaza — to go back yet another time, and we don’t want Hamas going back. And think of it as a big real estate site, and the United States is going to own it and we’ll slowly — very slowly, we’re in no rush — develop it. We’re going to bring stability to the Middle East soon.” Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has described Trump’s plan as a “revolutionary, creative vision.”

Any everlasting peace would necessarily mean implementing a revolutionary concept, and a break from past patterns that have continuously failed. The only vexing issue in implementing this novel approach is, where to temporarily house the Palestinians, whose population is estimated to be around 2.1 million. Ironically, not a single Islamic nation in the Middle East is willing to even temporarily accommodate the Palestinians. One reason could be that they are afraid of militant Islam. Most of the countries in the Middle East are enjoying a good lifestyle and prosperity. Nobody wants it to be disturbed by accepting millions of refugees. Also, terror groups like Hamas would be hiding among the refugees. Nobody wants to deal with terror. When thousands of Palestinians were in Jordan following the 1967 war, they created a state within a state that was so disruptive that Jordan exiled them and they fled to Lebanon. There they destabilized Lebanese society. Countries learn from history. Wherever the people from Gaza have been given shelter they have caused trouble. Kuwait, Jordan, Egypt, and even Iran, have very unpleasant experiences of dealing with Palestinians.

Donald Trump’s recipe for everlasting peace, though Utopian-like, needs a detailed deliberation, in the interests of peace and harmony.

Note:
1. Text in Blue points to additional data on the topic.
2. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.

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