In a bizarre statement the U.S. president said construction workers “would slowly and carefully” begin rebuilding Gaza without the need for U.S. troops. He said Israel will restart the fighting, reports Joe Lauria.
IDF troops in the Gaza Strip, Nov. 2, 2023. (IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0)
By Joe Lauria
Special to Consortium News
Despite a worldwide outcry from friends and foes that his plan amounts to a war crime, and despite efforts by his own officials (who did not know he would announce the plan) to reframe his intentions, U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday insisted he held the key to Middle East peace while everyone else is wrong.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump issued a 106-word, one paragraph statement at 6:32 am Eastern Standard Time Thursday that bears close scrutiny.
He wrote:
“The Gaza Strip would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of fighting. The Palestinians, people like Chuck Schumer, would have already been resettled in far safer and more beautiful communities, with new and modern homes, in the region. They would actually have a chance to be happy, safe, and free. 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. No soldiers by the U.S. would be needed! Stability for the region would reign!!!”
Trump Is For More War
Trump starts off by saying that his master plan will begin “at the conclusion of fighting.” As he later says in the statement that no U.S. troops will be deployed to Gaza, one can conclude that he presumes Israel will finish the fighting with victory over Hamas.
This means Trump does not support a permanent ceasefire and is greenlighting a resumption of the war by Israel. It would explain why he released more 2,000-pound bombs to the IDF.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made it clear at the White House press conference Tuesday with Trump at his side that Israel would resume the war with Hamas.
The problem is that after 15 months of pounding Gaza, Israel was unable to defeat Hamas. But Trump says that will have to happen to remove armed opposition to the ethnic cleansing he needs to implement his plan.
Can Israel ‘Turn Over’ Gaza?
In his post Trump says once the fighting is over in a presumed Israeli victory, the “Gaza Strip would be turned over to the United States by Israel.” Netanyahu called Trump’s plan “the first good idea that I’ve heard” about Gaza.
From an Israeli perspective, U.S. control of Gaza is better than being responsible for it themselves.
Trump is going to clear the rubble with mixed-in corpses, remove unexploded ordinances, and build a Mediterranean resort to rival Monte Carlo — and somebody else (the Gulf, which rejects the plan) is going to pay for it all. Israelis will easily go to and fro over the Israel-U.S. border with no hassle whatsoever and will be able to buy property there.
Why wouldn’t Israel “turn it over” to the United States? Gaza has been a political football for 4,000 years, passing from one empire to the next. What is one more transfer of rulers?
Gaza is an ancient land that was ruled over by the Pharaonic, Assyrian, Hellenic, Roman, Islamic, Ottoman, British, and if Trump gets his way, American empires. After the 1948 establishment of the State of Israel, created by ethnically cleansing Palestinians from historic Palestine, Egypt assumed administration of the Gaza Strip.
Egypt ruled over as many as 190,000 Palestinian refugees that had been driven there by Israel. Moshe Dayan warned in 1956 that one day (Oct. 7, 2023) these Gazan refugees would attack Israel since they had watched Israelis steal their and their forefathers’ land. (Today’s refugee population in Gaza is 1.6 million.)
In 1967, Israel seized Gaza (and the West Bank) and the Strip was occupied by the IDF and Israeli colonizers.
Though Ariel Sharon eventually dismantled these settlements in 2005 (over the furious objections of the settlers), the U.N. continued to define Gaza as “occupied territory” under Israel’s blockade and now under the current military occupation.
The Geneva Convention does not allow a military occupier to own the territory it is occupying and gives it no legal right to “turn it over” to anyone else.
In the case of Gaza and the West Bank Israel has been obligated by the U.N. Security Council to return these occupied territories, not give them to another country. Resolution 242 of 1967 calls for the “withdrawal of Israel armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict.”
Refugees in Gaza, 1956. (National Library of Israel/Wikimedia Commons)
Trump Wants Them Out First
Trump is saying in his social media post that before Israel “turns over” Gaza to the U.S., the two million or so Palestinians living there “would have already been resettled in far safer and more beautiful communities, with new and modern homes, in the region.”
Leaving aside the inexplicable reference to Chuck Schumer, Trump then concludes his statement with this:
“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. No soldiers by the U.S. would be needed!”
In Trump’s imagination, by this time Israel has defeated Hamas, about two million Palestinians have already been moved out to modern, new homes in some still to be determined location and the reconstruction of Gaza can begin.
The master Manhattan developer is ready to share top billing for Trump City Gaza with “great development teams from all over the World.”
Even though Trump thinks Hamas has been defeated by now, workers would still have to “slowly and carefully” begin to erect “one of the greatest and most spectacular developments of its kind on Earth,” slowly and carefully looking over their shoulders as they rivet beams into place just in case there’s still some armed opposition lurking around the construction sites. But don’t worry, “No soldiers by the U.S. would be needed!”
One really doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Joe Lauria is editor-in-chief of Consortium News and a former U.N. correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and other newspapers, including The Montreal Gazette, the London Daily Mail and The Star of Johannesburg. He was an investigative reporter for the Sunday Times of London, a financial reporter for Bloomberg News and began his professional work as a 19-year old stringer for The New York Times. He is the author of two books, A Political Odyssey, with Sen. Mike Gravel, foreword by Daniel Ellsberg; and How I Lost By Hillary Clinton, foreword by Julian Assange. He can be reached at [email protected] and followed on X @unjoe.
Trump has mastered the art of upsetting everybody. That’s the first agenda: keep them busy reacting to his prognostications and declarations as fait accompli items. Off balance and defensive, those who don’t agree are in shock and awe (negatively) and he is hooking them all in with fear as the main emotion. In effect, he is then the puppet master, and those who don’t see thru this strategy are subject to PTSD symptoms. The prescription for handling this dude and his strategy, is to think and plan clearly how to destabilize him and his specious power grab. As long as he controls the narrative we are just the puppets. Plan, Plan, Plan and counter Plan logically, and carefully or we are going to lose any semblance of fairness, justice and ultimately our precious democracy. Remember Hitler’s strategy? Plug into people’s anger and fears and like the Wizard of Oz behind the green curtain, he will fix it all, and we will all skip down the yellow brick road, enjoying our new found captivity.
Right on Barbara. To further your point with a taste of the 60s…..dropout… entirely. (Skip the drugs though, because they tend to create fertile ground for other ideas to perpetuate into actions, that might not be our own!)
The highest competition is no competition!
Yes, he is. His son in law has been salivating over Gaza for a couple of years already.
Imo, #47, Donald J. Trump, is “living” the Executive’s ‘dream,’ in the ruins of an American culture with a sky that’s filled w/vultures circling overhead.” Trump & Company “living the dream,” Freedom from Accountability!” ..from past, present, future crimes against humanity. #47, “The master Manhattan developer is ready to share top billing for Trump City Gaza with “great development teams from all over the World.” In sum, “A wise man will be a master of his mind—a fool will be its slave.”
No doubt, #46, Joesph R. Biden, *“who calls himself a non-Jewish Zionist, unflinchingly [bankrolled & armed] Israel,” while Israel steamrolled & CRUSHED, Palestine; AND, fifteen (15) minutes to shufflin’ outta the WH, permanently, #46, Joe$ph R. Biden, “tweaks” the Presidential “Power! Influence!! Authority!!! “PARDONS” his family, his homies, from years & years of criminal activity, “No one f***s w/a Biden;” &, in one fell swoop, Bidens & Company “got” Freedom from Accountability. TWO (2) hours, later, #47, raises the ante, “pardons” 1,500, J6-2021 “gangstas, videographers, influencers, tourists, gatekeepers for Trump;” &, commutes 14 sentences.
All pardons aside, U$ Presidents, past & present, $uck!!! “When Benjamin Netanyahu holds up a map of the Middle East in which Palestine has been erased and Israel stretches from the river to the sea, he is applauded as a visionary who is working to realize the dream of a Jewish homeland. But when Palestinians and their supporters chant ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’, they are accused of explicitly calling for the genocide of Jews.”
The owl asks? “Who’s gonna handcuff, Trump & Company?” The bird tweets, “We, the people.” Right?!? *“When South Africans were chanting their popular rallying cry, Amandla! Power to the people, were they calling for the genocide of white people? They were not. They were calling for the dismantling of the Apartheid state. Just as the Palestinians are.”
….*”Not all the power and money, not all the weapons and propaganda on earth can any longer hide the wound that is Palestine. The wound through which the whole world, including Israel, bleeds.” Arundhati Roy 10.10.24
Thank you, Joe Lauria, for keeping us “in the loop.” Sincerely appreciated! “Keep It Lit!”
* hxxps://countercurrents.org/2024/10/no-propaganda-on-earth-can-hide-the-wound-that-is-palestine-arundhati-roys-pen-pinter-prize-acceptance-speech/
Thank You Joe
Joe Lauria’s excellent deconstruction of Trump’s statement reminds me of the scene in the 1957 film “A Face in the Crowd,” where unbeknownst to “Lonesome Rhodes” (the wildly popular megalomaniac played by Andy Griffith), the Patricia Neal character (who knows only too well what Rhodes is really like) has quietly turned on the audio to a Rhodes broadcast (during what Rhodes incorrectly thinks is a commercial break in his popular program). So all the millions of Rhodes’ listeners, taken in by his “folksy” charm, get to hear what Rhodes really thinks of them — and it isn’t pretty. When he thinks he’s safe & that no one can hear him, Rhodes compares his fans to stupid seals pathetically clapping their flippers, no matter what ridiculous garbage he says to them.
Trump is like that when he talks, always saying the usually-unspoken (or unsayable) stuff out loud.
James Baldwin: “It is certain in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have”. And there you have it, folks. Is this what most Americans support?
What the hell are they talking about that they will “restart” the fighting???? It isn’t a ball game or something. Why do they need to re-start the fighting and how long is everybody going to continue pretending like they believe this Hamas BS???? There is no reason on God’s Earth they should “restart the fighting”. This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. How about we get a death count before they “restart the fighting”? If they are saying 1.7 mil and they said 2.2 mill that is a difference of 500,000 people. Why does no one even ask about the death count? My God these people have been put through unimaginable torture for over 15 months. With all due respect this is just shameful. How do they figure that Gaza belongs to Israel to turn over to the U.S.? I could not understand why why why we had to be ones to supply allllll these bombs. Well now it all makes perfect sense. This was the plan all along. These two rich countries do not need Gaza. Why don’t they do what is right and pay for the place to be re-built, and get the hell out of the way, & Free Palestine! Quit ganging up on these people! Enough is enough. It is all about the psychological component .
Maybe if the death count were to get around they would be prevented from ” restarting the fighting. Just because they cannot kill Hamas after over 15 months of bombardment, that should not mean they just get to try try again and all the children they kill and start it all up again? How can they so calmly even suggest such a thing, how? As if they are talking about having another glass of tea or something…My thanks to Consortium and Mr. Lauria for the article.
Considering who we are writing about here how would we know? Isn’t that right Antiwar7.
The republicans and democrats seem to be engaged in political malpractice at a level never before see.
After watching, Ray McGovern – Russia Gate: Can You Handle the Truth on the Utub, in my humble opinion, no true doubt exists about how the data was removed from Hillary Clinton’s server. The only doubt came from the governments investigation in the event.
If my job was on the line I might be very strongly inclined to go to work and not leave the location, but then again that’s me.
Why do people not listen? Or why don’t they hear?
Trump said this over a year ago. But, it wasn’t DT himself, but Jared. Back early in the genocide, Jared was pushing the idea for a Trump-Saudi ‘re-development’ of Gaza. Of course, like all Real Estate Developers, they just assume that the people who already live there will just vanish so they can obtain their profits. After all, that’s the American Dream, isn’t it? Making ‘residents’ vanish so you can build profits?
In a similar vein, allies and members of Netanyahu’s movement have been talking about the ‘transfer’ of Arabs off the West Bank and in some cases out of all of Israel. Now, everyone remember to look surprised.
This is America. And has been for decades. Anything decent about America ended with the ‘selection’ of Reagan and former CIA-director Bush by the CIA via October Surprise. The Democrats fell in line with Clinton and the DLC. The last serious political resistance to this was Ralph Nader. The modern progressives and ‘democratic socialists’ are fakes that got people who still had souls to vote for deadly right-wingers like Obama, Biden and Harris. Now, with the immediate switch to blaming Trump, the Democrats get to forget that the major mass slaughters of Palestinians in Gaza happened under Biden and Obama. The Democrats get to forget that the biggest mistake the Palestinians ever made was believing Bill Clinton.
Of course, I’m the class of American who has been told that he has to ‘vacate’ several times to make room for profitable real estate developments, with a Democrat mayor smiling as he cuts the ribbon. America’s cities are gleaming towers with security at the door barring my entry, so I can stand outside and simply say “I used to live here.” Welcome to America, where I’ve always had Democrat local government and Republican real estate developers.
We are all Palestinians, and have been for decades.
Accurate reply Woody Guff! We sure are ALL Palestinians. I live in Australia where most things happen a year or two behind the rest of the world! I despair at what has happened in Gaza and my government’s lack of forceful response, regardless of Australia’s minimal clout on the world’s stage.
a serious case of “look, mine’s bigger than yours!”. perhaps. the Palestinians have been part of those lands for a long time (while even a New Emperor’s erection won’t last for ever).
The terrible reality:
The Palestinians of Gaza are never going to be able to rebuild their homes.
The Jewish supremacists totally succeeded in destroying all of Gaza. Ninety-two percent of the homes have been wiped out. There is 50 million tons of rubble; just to clear it out — to say nothing about rebuilding homes — will take about 20 years!
Tragically the Palestinians are going to have no other choice but to leave Gaza permanently.
The Jewish supremacists carried out their plan all along: obliterate the area and eventually rebuild it and claim it.
Over the past 15 mos we’ve witnessed the biggest crime against humanity of our lifetimes (Gen Xer here).
Meanwhile billionaire Jewish supremacists did everything in their power to squelch free speech on college campuses and run Ivy league presidents out of a job!
Since most of the Gaza residents came from their homes inside “Israel”, now they need to be allowed to return there, along with West Bank people now being attacked and destroyed by IDF .All of Israel’s Jewish population can be evacuated. Zionists including the 800000 heavily armed settlers ruining the lives of west Bank Palestinians need to be removed and resettled. Where better than the dear USA which has defended them for so long and loves them ? No defense will be needed as they are practically the same as Americans and will cause no problems in the USA. As for how this can be done- just ask Donald J Trump and his BFF Bibi. They can easily solve any problem, as we have already noticed.
As far as this commenters understanding goes, a vast majority of the “heavily armed setters” in the West Bank are, in the first instant, American expatriates with dual U.S. Israeli citizenship or automatic permanent residency status.
,
These are the people who see themselves as the defenders of always paranoid apparitions, of dead Israelites; believing they are an unbroken line directly related to biological Semitic descendants; more so than merely related through religious beliefs, and therefore, by extension, are part and parcel of the diverse Hebrew tribes, among all the other tribes who lived and died in Canaan, more millennia ago than can be counted on an abacus; according to the mythologies of their Old Testament lore.
No need to “say it isn’t so”, for certainly there are the more delusional hordes among us, who will certainly come forth to expound on, and disabuse us of our opinions on the subject, without even a consideration for freedom of thought, let alone speech!
True. We have rendered it uninhabitable in every sense. I think the Saudis might spearhead rebuilding if their desired two-state solution came to fruition but that will never happen.
“Trump is going to clear the rubble with mixed-in corpses, remove unexploded ordinances, and build a Mediterranean resort to rival Monte Carlo — and somebody else (the Gulf, which rejects the plan) is going to pay for it all.”
Guess who that somebody else is. You got it. U.S. taxpayers. And don’t worry about Congressional approval because the Supreme Court has declared the President is above the law.
The saving grace in this nightmare is that Gaza won’t be cleared in 4 years, after which Trump and all his wet dreams will be gone.
Trump, out of control per usual was just spit-balling his real estate magnate perspective, and he made his views publicly transparent (faux pas in DC) watching for the reaction. He seems to want to “Americanize” Gaza, replacing the Palestinians’ expansive olive and citrus groves with housing projects, like for American Blacks in US cities.
Rubio, a true politician: “Asked in Guatemala about Trump’s intention to relocate the Palestinian population from the Gaza Strip, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday that Palestinians would be allowed to “move back in,” which was not what Trump had said the day before.”
Yeah, like the Zionists are going to allow the Palestinians’ “right to return” to their homeland.
I don’t think he’s serious.
And I don’t think he is sane.
He’s got the early signs of BDS (Biden Derangement Syndrome), talking nonsense, making wild illogical statements and claims, getting his facts all wrong, and making threats he can’t deliver. This is not just an over-active and over-blown ego, but he is divorced from reality, misinformed, and highly destructive.
As the commenter above (Barbara Elzohairy) correctly pointed out, he’s deliberately making a lot of noise to distract everyone and throw them off balance.
From what? Ethnic cleansing in Gaza? If there is anything he would want people distracted from it would be that, but he is announcing loud and clear at a press conference. What is Trump distracting people from?