When President Donald Trump first pitched his plan for post-war Gaza during a joint news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this month, it was difficult to parse whether it was just one of his many off-the-cuff remark or a real recommendation. Expelling more than 2 million Palestinians into Jordan and Egypt, transforming Gaza into a U.S. territory as if it was the Middle East’s version of Puerto Rico and turning the war-battered enclave into a top-notch travel destination sounded too ridiculous and deluded to take seriously. Even Netanyahu looked surprised when Trump blurted out the idea.
Trump, however, kept coming back to it again and again. Over the ensuing days, he repeatedly insisted the U.S. would in effect take complete ownership of Gaza (without putting U.S. troops on the ground or spending taxpayer money, of course), that the Arab world’s major powers liked the plan and went as far as to suggest that the Palestinians might not be allowed back in once the all the resorts, hotels and golf courses were constructed.
Trump has since distanced himself from the entire scheme, expressing surprise that Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and King Abdullah II of Jordan were so strongly opposed to it. In some ways, though, Trump’s Gaza plan (if you could call it that) was successful in at least one respect: it produced such shock, confusion and trepidation in the region that the Arab world’s major governments started getting their heads together to draft an alternative.
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