At first, the comments from US President Donald Trump sounded like a cross between random musings and disjointed ramblings. His desire to buy Greenland from the Danes, annex Canada as a great 51st state of America, reclaim the Panama Canal and rename the Gulf of Mexico, and his proclivity to deploy tariffs as an instrument of foreign policy weren’t just bizarre. They harked back to the heyday of imperialism in the 19th century, to a time when foreign territories could be conquered, bought or sold without any reference to the local inhabitants and mercantile economics ruled the roost.
The reactions from shocked friends and neighbours about the hostile acquisition bids came in fast and furious, while friendly souls in Washington DC tried to figure out which part of which comment could possibly be interpreted as Version 2.0 of Trump’s The Art of the Deal.
‘Bizarre’ has become the new byword in Washington. The President’s February 4 remarks on Gaza as he stood alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the White House were par for the course. In the formal setting of a White House joint press briefing and while reading from a written text, Trump declared, “The US will take over the Gaza Strip and we’ll do a job with it, too … we’ll own it and be responsible…. We’re going to take over that piece, and we’re going to develop it.”
For good measure, he added that he saw it as a “long-term ownership position” and that “this was not a decision made lightly”. As Netanyahu smirked with visible satisfaction, Trump went on to say that he expected Jordan and Egypt to take in some 2.3 million displaced Palestinians from Gaza and that he was confident of persuading King Abdullah II and President El-Sisi to do so, having previously hinted that US aid gave him the necessary leverage over them.
But this wasn’t the usual case of random Trump musings. The intent had been telegraphed in comments over the past week. And it was taken seriously enough for a group of Arab foreign ministers, including those of Jordan and Egypt, to issue a joint statement from Cairo on February 1 that any plan that encouraged the “transfer or uprooting of Palestinians from their land” would threaten stability in the region, spread conflict and undermine prospects for peace.
The Saudi foreign office responded with a late-night response to Trump’s comments, reaffirming Riyadh’s “complete rejection of any infringement on the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, whether through Israeli settlement policies, annexation of Palestinian lands or attempts to displace the Palestinian people from their land.”
Trump’s comments have pushed Egypt into a tight situation, even though President El-Sisi has been a strong and consistent partner of the US.
The statement added, “The duty of the international community today is to work to alleviate the severe human suffering that has been inflicted upon the Palestinian people, who will remain committed to their land and will not move from it.”
Trump’s comments have pushed Egypt into a tight situation, even though President El-Sisi has been a strong and consistent partner of the US. It was Egypt’s initiative under then President Anwar Sadat that brought about the Camp David Accords in 1978 to end the state of war and establish full diplomatic relations with Israel. But instead of reaping the peace dividend, Egypt has found itself in the unenviable position of being called in to clean up the mess after every Israel-Gaza conflict — in 2008, 2014, 2018 and since October 7, 2023. Over the past 15 months, Egyptian intelligence officials have worked closely and without fanfare with counterparts from Qatar, Israel and the US to work out the contours of the ongoing ceasefire and concurrent release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners. The threat that Egypt must take displaced Palestinians has caused a real worry that Trump’s needless provocations not only threaten Egypt’s nascent economic recovery but that inflamed passions may even affect the political stability of the largest country in the Middle East.
Jordan, another staunch ally of the US, finds itself in a similar quandary. As a result of the Naqba of 1948 and the 1967 war, the country has already received two large waves of Palestinian refugees, which, according to some estimates, amount to 50-60 per cent of its population of 11 million. The suave and erudite King Abdullah II will have a real challenge on his hands as he meets President Trump in the White House on February 11.
Beyond these immediate concerns in Egypt, Jordan and the larger Arab world are a flood of questions that defy a rational explanation. Images of tens of thousands of Palestinians streaming towards their destroyed houses in northern Gaza following the ceasefire suggest that they intend to rebuild their lives in a place called home. Trump has suggested that he could bring in US troops to implement his plans if he has to.
Images of tens of thousands of Palestinians streaming towards their destroyed houses in northern Gaza following the ceasefire suggest that they intend to rebuild their lives in a place called home.
Has the Trump administration considered the legality of a forced displacement of people? Is the displacement temporary or permanent? How would they force the Palestinians out against their wishes? Bomb them to extinction, a la Israel? Will the US also support Netanyahu’s ambition to annex the West Bank? And has Trump looked at the possibility of getting drawn into another forever war despite his own promise to extract the US from such conflicts? How does that play with the isolationist preference of his MAGA supporters?
Trump is keen to deport illegal migrants and close his country’s borders, but wants Egypt and Jordan to generously take in a couple of million. Who pays to resettle them? Who pays to create the Riviera of the Middle East that Trump has suddenly visualised in Gaza? Private capital and real-estate developers for a grand waterfront development, as Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner speculated? After all the pain and suffering endured by the Palestinians, is Gaza now reduced to a pure real-estate play?
At the Jaipur Literature Festival last week, the moral clarity of Gideon Levy and Nathan Thrall, the scholarship of Avi Shlaim, the empathy of Pankaj Mishra and the passionate articulation of Selma Dabbagh resonated with a well-read audience to produce just a tiny sliver of hope. With Trump’s pronouncements of February 4, a shroud has again been cast on Palestinian aspirations.
This commentary originally appeared in The Tribune.
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