“Riviera of the Middle East”
Tired of the unsettled weather in Miami? Cannes and Nice gotten too crowded for you? The beaches of the Costa del Sol not accessible enough? Well, you may be in luck. If you wait just a few short years, you can luxuriate on the beach and tee it up on the latest Trump golf course in the future paradise known as the Gaza Strip.
According to President Trump, his plan to settle the centuries old friction in the most contentious area of the Middle East centers around having the territory turned over to the United Stares. The plan is simple, according to Trump:
“The U.S., working with great development teams from all over the World, would slowly and carefully begin the construction of what would become one of the greatest and most spectacular developments of its kind on Earth,” he said.
Just like the developer he is, Trump views the grave international crisis in the area as solvable through just another real estate deal. As for his campaign promise that he would keep the U.S. out of unwinnable and “forever” foreign wars, he insists his plan would not need U.S. troops as Israel would simply turn over Gaza to us after the fighting with Hamas is finally over.
There are just a couple of problems with this notion. The territory has been virtually obliterated by the Israelis in their quest to eliminate Hamas after its horrendous and blatant attack of October 7, 2023 that resulted in 1,200 Israelis dead and hundreds of hostages taken. The Israeli response has left Gaza in a state of ruins resembling the results of the Allied saturation bombing of Dresden at the end of World War II, and 47,000 Palestinians killed. To rebuild would require something resembling the equivalent of the Marshall Plan to even make the area liveable.
Then there is the little problem of the 2.2 million Palestinians remaining in a place they happen to consider their homeland. Trump’s notion that they can simply be relocated to Jordan and Egypt brings to mind the words “ethnic cleansing,” only a crime against humanity.
Whether or not the plan to turn Gaza into the newest playground for the world’s rich is just another one of Trump’s farfetched negotiating ploys, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netenyahu is gleefully going along. It is painfully obvious that Netenyahu never had any intention of working towards the “two-state solution” reached in Oslo in 1998 and his ongoing support of settlements created by Israeli religious zealots in the West Bank and Gaza coupled with the current war against Hamas has made his opposition to such a result clear.
At the very least, Trump has betrayed the Arab-Americans in Dearborn, Michigan and other places whose support he gained in the last election by portraying the Biden Administration as too pro-Israel. But what else is new? Anyone who ever trusted Trump always ended up on the short end of the stick.
Regardless of how ridiculous Trump’s plan sounds, it is a non-starter for the Saudis, who he, in his fondest foreign policy wet-dream, hopes will reach a lasting peace with Israel and win him a Nobel Peace prize. The House of Saud is resolved to never agree to a solution for the area that excludes a separate Palestinian state.
My advice to those who buy into the latest Trump con-job is: don’t pack your bikinis and golf clubs just yet. You may just have to settle for a new Trump resort in Serbia for now. At least that’s an area that hasn’t been bombed lately.
