Trump wants to turn Gaza into the Gold Coast. His motive is blindingly transparent

Washington: The idea the United States would take control of the Gaza Strip, level it and turn it into something approximating the Gold Coast beggars belief, and can barely be taken seriously – except, of course, that it comes from the most powerful person in the world.

And while it might seem shocking and unprecedented, there were signs this might be brewing. It was President Donald Trump’s own son-in-law Jared Kushner who, nearly a year ago, noted to a Harvard audience that Gaza’s waterfront property could be “very valuable”.

A smiling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thought Donald Trump’s Gaza plan was an idea “worthwhile really pursuing”.Credit: Bloomberg

Trump and Kushner are real estate guys. And when Trump as president-elect needed a Middle East envoy, he turned to another real estate guy – his billionaire friend, investor and developer Steve Witkoff.

Alongside the Biden administration, Witkoff was involved in brokering the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. He also travelled to Gaza last week, reportedly the first senior US official to do so in many years.

Witkoff sees Gaza in the same terms as Trump. He told Fox News it was “probably uninhabitable for at least the next 10 to 15 years”, and Palestinians would have better lives elsewhere.

US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, left, and National Security Advisor Michael Walz, walk back after speaking to the media outside the West Wing of the White House on Tuesday.Credit: AP

“A better life is not necessarily tied to the physical space that you’re in today,” Witkoff said in a remark that blithely overlooked thousands of years of Middle East history. “A better life is about better opportunity, better financial conditions, better aspirations for you and your family. That doesn’t occur because you get to pitch a tent in the Gaza Strip and you’re surrounded by 30,000 munitions that could go off at any moment.”

Trump, too, expressed disbelief any Palestinians wished to return to devastated Gaza. Why would they want to, he asked, when it was such a dangerous hellhole? “I’ve seen every picture from every angle better than if I were there, and nobody can live there.”

The two property tycoons are advancing the American Dream for Palestinians – nice big houses, well-paying jobs, upward financial mobility – not the Palestinian dream, which is to return home. They are also selling the renovator’s dream for Gaza: a knock-down-rebuild.

It’s blindingly transparent. Trump tells us Gaza is “a demolition site”. The US will “do a job with it”. It could be “the Riviera of the Middle East”. You can almost picture him negotiating with the agent for a better price.

An aerial photograph taken by a drone shows Palestinians walking through the destruction caused by the Israeli air and ground offensive in Jabaliya, Gaza Strip.Credit: AP

Except the price, according to the White House, will be zero. Karoline Leavitt, White House press secretary, told reporters US taxpayers would not fund the rebuilding of Gaza. That would be left to US allies in the region, she said – another massive assumption in this thought bubble. They might be allies, but as far as this development proposal goes, Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia are hard core NIMBYs.

And if the US isn’t bankrolling this pipedream, it’s difficult to see what exactly its role would be. Drawing up the plans? Reaping the spoils? Leavitt also seemed to suggest the US was not going to put boots on the ground but wanted to leave the option open for “leverage”.

And she walked back another key element of Trump’s musings, saying the goal was a temporary relocation of Palestinians out of Gaza, not permanent.

We are used to this by now, even if it’s still jarring. Trump will chuck a bomb on the table, only to quickly pull back and claim any modest concessions as a huge victory. He enjoys playing the chaos agent and disrupter. In this case, as he said, there is reason to look outside the box of failed ideas.

Jonathan Panikoff of the Atlantic Council think tank said it was nearly impossible to imagine the plan coming to fruition, but it would be wrong to dismiss it as frivolous. “From [Trump’s] perspective, the only way to reduce long-term US financial obligations in the Middle East ... is to gut Gaza and start over from the ground up,” he wrote.

Like most of Trump’s pronouncements, it’s easier said than done.

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