Trump Gaza plan a warning to terrorists, or delusional folly?

Donald Trump never fails to surprise. His Gaza plan overturns everything the international community has been pushing for 80 years, and so it should.

There is no two-state solution with genocidal maniacs like Hamas. I doubt Trump really intends to put US boots on the ground, though. I suspect this plan is at once an ambit claim to stakeholders and a message to Hamas: “You’re fired. Get lost.”

The message is possibly the more important of the two. It’s vital to show terrorists – not just Hamas, but anyone who is tempted to copycat them – that terrorism doesn’t work.

It won’t be rewarded. On the contrary, it will lead to their obliteration, and loss of everything they had, as well as everything they ever hoped to achieve. That’s where the international community keeps getting it wrong. Feed terrorism, and it grows. How is that hard to understand?

Judith Rona, Bondi, NSW

While the world is having a meltdown about Trump’s ambitious (not ratified) Gaza plan, one question should be asked: “How can Palestinian people thrive and prosper within the current environment of poverty and oppression under the care of Hamas leadership”?

The logical answer is they can’t and won’t.

Putting forward an ambitious plan that will allow rebuilding and a possible brighter future should be considered.

Lynda Morrison, Bicton, WA

Trump deludes himself if he believes transplanting Gaza’s population elsewhere will resolve the issue. Wherever located, that host nation has to infect itself with a parasitic group that has since the 1970s destroyed the host to pursue the Hamas creed.

Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states already know this. They all may wish for peace but fear the inevitable Lebanon outcome of accepting the Gazan population into their nations. Gaza’s population bewails its losses but will not eject Hamas.

Lawrence Shaw, Morningside, Qld

President Donald Trump is predictable. His visionary expertise is based on his inherent humanity.

As Greg Sheridan suggests (“Some method in the madness”, 6/2), “the United States could long-term own the … Gaza Strip”, and Trump’s statement is his first move to bring the relevant parties to the table to negotiate a suitable strategy.

Experienced in real estate development, regenerating interest in the desolate area is logically the first step.

He wants neighbouring Arab-based states to share in the establishment of a new order so that all co-operate, share and have interests in a permanent Middle East peace.

Trump wants the elimination of terrorism to be the common denominator of this new scenario. The Abraham Accords proved that with goodwill this can be achieved. Mutual respect, peace and prosperity will forge a regeneration of the entire region.

Aviva Rothschild, Caulfield North, Vic

Trump’s dramatic proposal to turn the Gaza Strip into a tourist mecca as a long-term solution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict beggars belief.

To be known as the Riviera of the Middle East, and to be guarded forever by US troops, sounds like a Monty Python sketch. Where will the two million Gaza residents be resettled? Most of the Islamic countries in the area don’t want them.

Michael J Gamble, Belmont, Vic

In his offer to rebuild Gaza, all President Trump intends is that its occupants move on.

Note that with very little real criticism from the rest of the world, including the United Nations, the Iranian leadership has always been wanting to control Israel, with the difference that Iran has also wanted to kill all of Israel’s occupants.

Peter M. Wargent, Mosman, NSW

Amid all the reflex, often superficial, unfounded speculation as to the end goal of President Trump’s comments on Gaza, Greg Sheridan has identified objective substance.

Trump wants peace for Israel, a better future for the Palestinians and more Arab involvement in the solutions to come.

Trump spoke of the plight of the Palestinian people and their need to find somewhere to live in peace, harmony and safety. There was a second stance by Trump – Iran was put on notice as to its nuclear weapons aspirations and the consequences of continuing terrorism. There is nothing in Trump’s political history to suggest he would engage the US, or any ally, in a military takeover of Gaza or anywhere else.

His form is in using the strength of a powerful nation and the attraction of being associated with it as, for example, with the Abraham accords. His current foray is more indicative of the latter than the former.

Philippa Power, Cowes, Vic