Trump meets Netanyahu on Tuesday at the White House: A Game-Changing, Incendiary, Alternative Solution to the Israeli-Hamas War

President Trump has introduced a seemingly game-changing, if incendiary, proposal ahead of his meeting on Tuesday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, the first foreign leader he will meet since his inauguration. In less than two weeks, Mr. Trump has suggested relocating Palestinians from Gaza to Egypt and Jordan.

It is hard to exaggerate the traumatic resonance of displacement and population transfer in collective Palestinian memory. The Palestinian determination to remain in the newly devastated territory is explained by this history.

The future of Hamas rule in Gaza is one of the topics that Trump is now involved in.

“We’re going to own and be responsible for the removal of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on that site,” Trump said as Netanyahu looked on. Get rid of the buildings that have been destroyed. Level it out, create an economic development.”

Trump’s comments follow repeated statements that neighboring countries should agree to take in Gazans because of the destruction there caused by the Israel-Hamas war. Trump has specifically named Egypt and Jordan, which have rejected the plan. Trump insists they’ll eventually agree to it.

Trump did not share details how he anticipated the U.S. would take control of the strip, but during the press conference, also didn’t rule out sending U.S. troops to support the reconstruction.

Netanyahu was smiling when he spoke and praised Trump’s work for Israel. Netanyahu said that Trump has an idea worth paying attention to.

Netanyahu’s visit comes amid negotiations over Phase 2 of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. The first phase looked at the release of Israeli and Palestinian hostages.

The administration is focused on completion of Phase 1 and getting everyone home, according to Trump officials. They say Phase 2 would end the war with Hamas and return all remaining Israeli hostages from captivity in Gaza.

But Trump’s envoy said Phase 3 of the ceasefire deal — reconstruction of Gaza — would get complicated because it’s “physically impossible” to rebuild the area in five years. A 10- to 15-year timeline would be more likely, he said, because of the damage to Gaza during the war.

“You have to learn from history. You cannot allow history to keep repeating itself. We have an opportunity to do something that could be phenomenal,” Trump said.

On Tuesday, Trump signed two executive orders related to the Middle East. One puts maximum pressure on Iran. Trump said he was “torn” about signing it.

“I’m signing this and I’m unhappy to do it “We have to be firm, but I don’t have a lot of choices because we must be strong,” Trump said.

“To me, it’s very simple. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said. The US has the right to prevent other countries from purchasing Iranian oil, according to him.

The U.S. will take over Gaza and relocate its people: Trump’s message on the need for a “big picture” in the Middle East

The United Nations Relief Works Agency is the main group that gives aid to Palestinians and was cut off as a result of the other order.

TEL AVIV, Israel — President Trump floated two bombshell ideas Tuesday about Gaza that has Palestinians, Israelis, and the wider Middle East scrambling.

The US would take over the territory. “The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip,” Trump said in a White House press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “We’ll own it … We have the chance to do something great. It is the Riviera of the Middle East.

“On the day that I will see American soldiers coming in great numbers to Gaza, I will then make up my mind how serious it is,” former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert told NPR. “Every party involved except for Israel is completely against it.”

“It is utterly unrealistic, and it reflects a total lack of understanding of the historical process of where these Palestinians come from, what is their collective identity,” former Israeli foreign minister Shlomo Ben-Ami told NPR. “ It’s somebody that came from the outer space and tries to impose a solution which is, you know, detached from a context.”

Israeli observers have suggested Trump could be using a negotiating tactic known in Israel as “putting in a goat” — laying down a demand for the purpose of removing it later and appearing to have granted a concession.

Ben-Ami said that the man is an actor in a global theater and that he is using his tactics to get his rivals out of balance. “Maybe this is a sort of tactical move that tries to say a big thing in order to eventually get a more modest solution.”

Source: Trump says the U.S. will ‘take over’ Gaza and relocate its people. What does it mean?

The Israeli Embassy and Gaza City in the Light of Donald Trump’s “Irresponsible Statements” on Creating a Palestinian State

The idea of transferring Palestinians to other countries so Israel could take over their land has become a mainstream Israeli idea, with Trump’s recent comments about relocating Gaza pushing it further into the mainstream.

A poll published Monday found that most Israelis support the idea, with most of them calling it a practical plan that should be pursued. Most Arab citizens of Israel polled opposed the idea in the survey, conducted by the Jewish People Policy Institute think tank in Jerusalem.

In a statement released by the militant group early Wednesday, Hamas called on Trump to retract his “irresponsible statements,” saying that they would “pour oil on the fire.”

The proposal was rejected by the Palestinian leadership which hopes to take part in ruling postwar Gaza. “We will not allow the rights of our people, for which we have struggled for decades and made great sacrifices to achieve, to be infringed upon,” said Palestinian Authority President President Mahmoud Abbas.

While Saudi Arabia didn’t respond directly to Trump’s comments, hours after the press conference, the country’s Foreign Ministry released a statement, saying that its position on establishing a Palestinian state was “firm and unwavering,” and rejecting attempts to displace the Palestinian people from their land.”

In Gaza City, hundreds of thousands of people displaced during the war have returned to find the city largely destroyed – homes and businesses reduced to rubble, running water and electricity almost non-existent.

“Even if there was a place that was a million times better than Gaza, and even if I could be sure that life there would be luxurious, I would still be ready to live among the rubble and in tents here,” he says. I will stay in the army if they come with it.

Nehad Ghonaim, a surgeon at Kamal Adwan hospital, says he refused to leave the enclave’s north during Israel’s heavy bombardment, and would also refuse Trump’s proposal.

“This is my homeland and I have no intention to leave even if Trump provides me with the best of everything somewhere else,” Ghonaim says, noting that he would not abandon the graves of his family killed during the war. He said his children were also killed and remain buried under rubble.

Anas Baba in Gaza City, Gaza, Nuha Musleh in Ramallah, West Bank, Itay Stern in Tel Aviv, Israel, Yanal Jabarin in Jerusalem, Abu Bakr Bashir in London and Ahmed Abuhamda in Cairo contributed to this report.