Several pro-Israel experts who focus on the Middle East believe President Donald Trump’s plan for the U.S. to take over the Gaza Strip will be challenging, yet beneficial.
During a Tuesday press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump announced his plans to relocate all Gazans out of the area and to rebuild the strip into a U.S.-owned-development zone, sparking varied reactions.
Jonathan Schanzer, the Senior Vice President for Research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said Americans would not be embraced in Gaza without the help of Arab countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
“A plan that would include the Saudis and Emiratis would be more welcome by the rest of the region, but there is no Arab participation,” he said. “So, Trump has now forced their hands. Now we wait to see the Arab reaction.”
He added that the main challenge would be removing Gazans from the war-torn strip, which Trump has described as a “demolition site.”
“This would be better handled by the Arab states, but they have failed to propose a feasible plan,” Schanzer said. “Trump has forced their hand.”
Ran Bar-Yoshafat, an attorney and public diplomacy expert who has served in the Israeli Defence Forces reserve in Gaza after October 7, is a fan of Trump’s idea.
“It’s the right thing to do,” Bar-Yoshafat said. “Trump is saying what everyone is thinking. Better for them, better for us.”
He added that Trump’s plan — which the president called making Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East” — would make life safer.
“Israel left Gaza but Gaza did not leave Israel,” Bar-Yoshafat said.
Luke Moon, the director of the Christian pro-Israel group, the Philos Project, said he’s worried Gazans will be violent wherever they live.
“Sorting out Gaza will be a test for the master dealmaker, Donald Trump,” Moon said. “On one hand, many want Gazans to remain in the strip as a perpetual thorn in Israel’s side. On the other hand, whenever I think about the Gazans scattered around the world, I’m reminded of the recent event in Malaysia where 40 Gazans were sent for medical treatment.”
Moon was referring to dozens of Palestinians who rioted after not being allowed to leave the guest house they were staying at in Malaysia while receiving medical treatment. Gazans were seen setting fires, climbing gates, and destroying furniture, Jewish News Syndicate reported.
“It’s an easy thing to say the U.S. will control, it’s a hard thing to do,” Moon added. “However, Trump is correct that things cannot return to how it was for the last 20 years or more. We can’t just reset the clock for the next war.”
Elie Pieprz, the Director of International Affairs for the Israeli Defense and Security Forum, said Trump’s move puts pressure on the Arab world to help solve the conflict.
“Trump didn’t say this yet, but it seems like he is heading towards the direction that the Arab world needs to clean up their own mess – just like the Latin American world needs to clean up their own mess (and Canada too),” Pieprz said. He added that Trump’s plan is calling the bluff of many Arab countries who have failed to intervene, claiming that they are unable to stamp out jihadism, extremism, and anti-Semitism for fear that their regime will collapse and a bigger threat will follow.
Another well-known expert, Eugene Kontorovich, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation and professor at GMU Scalia Law School, said Trump’s proposal marks an end to the two-state solution.
“What is truly shocking is that while the victims of Oct. 7th were still not buried, the Biden administration was talking about rewarding Hamas with a Palestinian state, setting the stage for even worse massacres of Jews,” Kontorovich said. “Now President Trump is saying that the attempted genocide by Gaza doesn’t get a reward.”
He added that Trump’s proposal is similar to China’s strategy of growing its global footprint around the world.
“He also spoke of ‘ownership,’ which refers just to property not sovereignty,” Kontorovich said. “From Panama to Greenland, Trump understands the importance of projecting U.S. power and locking out the Chinese. Trump’s proposal would cut China’s belt.”
Hamas, the terrorist organization that raped, murdered, and kidnapped more than a thousand people in Israel on October 7, called Trump’s plan a “crime against humanity.”
Netanyahu said Trump’s idea is worth deliberating.
“I think it’s something that could change history and I think it is worth pursuing this avenue,” Netanyahu said.
