Trump’s Talk of a Gaza Takeover Masks a More Immediate Disaster

The most important outcome of President Donald Trump’s White House press conference this week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not Trump’s lawless and immoral musing that the U.S. would “take over” Gaza to create a new “Riviera of the Middle East.” While Trump’s outrageous comments, as they so often do, ignited dutiful praise from his supporters and instant condemnation from his opponents, the intense focus on the U.S. occupying Gaza and forcibly displacing its entire Palestinian population—an obvious war crime—masks the more immediate disaster that emerged from the White House.

About three weeks from now, 42 days after the Gaza cease-fire that finally began on January 15, “phase two” of the agreement is supposed to take effect. Along with further exchanges of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, this second phase is meant to bring the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and a declaration of a permanent cease-fire. Both steps now seem far away. Netanyahu himself vowed to restart the war during his press conference with Trump, comments that were overshadowed by Trump’s talk of a Gaza takeover. “We can’t leave Hamas there because Hamas will continue the battle to destroy Israel,” Netanyahu declared in the White House’s East Room. “You can’t talk about peace . . . if this toxic murderous organization is left standing.”

Since January 15, there has been some speculation about what the post-conflict governance arrangements for Gaza might look like. What will be the role of Hamas, or of the Palestinian Authority? Will there be an interim multinational force to replace Hamas and the Israelis? If so, what will it consist of? How will the gargantuan task of making Gazan towns and cities livable again be carried out? Who will pay for reconstruction, and what are the practical logistical steps needed to accomplish it?

There are no firm plans for any of this—and now it all might be off the table.

It appears that Trump and Netanyahu did not discuss any of these pressing matters at their meeting. This suits Netanyahu well. Continuing the war indefinitely serves his political interests, holding together his coalition with extreme ethnonationalists, many of whom have declared their own aims to reoccupy Gaza and drive out Palestinians. Apart from Trump sycophants in Congress and the Republican Party, the people who are most pleased by Trump’s flight of fancy are the Israeli right and far right. They might not care about or believe in his “Riviera of the Middle East,” but they very much approve of one element of Trump’s plan: the forcible expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza.

Following Trump’s comments, the Israeli minister of defense, Israel Katz, gave instructions to Israeli forces that they should prepare exit options for Palestinians to leave Gaza. This is a marked contrast to the years of Israel blockading Gaza, its nearly 2.2 million people held by Israel in what has often been described as an open-air prison. However, it is consistent with multiple statements from Israeli government leaders that their preference would be for Palestinians to leave Gaza en masse. It is also consistent with the way Israel conducted its war in Gaza since the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

Israel’s stated self-defense or the “total defeat of Hamas” did not require the wholesale, systematic destruction of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure like hospitals, universities, housing, water and sanitation facilities, or the targeted killing of journalists and health-care professionals. For many months, Israel’s intention to inflict on Palestinians conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction—textbook genocide—has been apparent to those inclined to see it. These intentions were made clear at the outset of the military campaign, which is one of the reasons Netanyahu and Israel’s former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, were indicted by the International Criminal Court for the war crimes of starvation as a method of warfare and of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population.

The disaster this week at the White House is that Trump made no attempt to ensure that the cease-fire he took credit for would endure into its second phase. If the cease-fire collapses, in just a few weeks Israel will continue its military offensive in Gaza, but this time with the explicit intention of expelling the Palestinian population. This ethnic cleansing will take place with Trump’s blessing. Trump has also made clear, in his own statements and in the appointments he has made to key positions like the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, and the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Elise Stefanik, that the U.S. will look favorably on further Israeli annexation of territory in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. (Trump also said in his press conference that his administration was “discussing” the option of Israel annexing the West Bank, and would “probably be making an announcement on that specific topic over the next four weeks.”)

In this permissive environment, openly calling for ethnic cleansing, Israeli extremists will not hold back.

The temporary cease-fire now in force would not have come about without U.S. influence. Now the Trump administration has made clear that it is no longer interested in addressing the many unresolved questions on which the continuation of the cease-fire will depend. The Israeli assault on Gaza, therefore, will likely resume with the added element that the war crime of forcible transfer will be actively encouraged by Israel and the Trump administration.

Trump has a talent for profiting from intractable problems—not by offering solutions but by pandering to grievances and stoking divisions. Despite repeatedly responding to the Palestinian people’s demands for their right to self-determination with military force and repression, Israel finds that the Palestinians are still there and that their demands are finding ever broader international support. Trump now offers to green-light ethnic cleansing and further war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank. This is what many in Netanyahu’s coalition want, but it will not bring Israel the security and international legitimacy it craves, or bring stability to a region on the edge of broader conflict.

Trump’s bombshell statements should be an international wake-up call. The U.S. government is no longer interested in even paying lip service to upholding the rights of the Palestinians, or to many other principles of international law for that matter. This means that the Arab states, Europe or the rest of the world can no longer hide behind platitudes about the two-state solution while waiting for Washington to come forward with the next proposal for Middle East peace—initiatives going back to Oslo that have not brought peace and have left the core issues unresolved for decades. Palestinians forced to live in exile or under harsh Israeli occupation or victims of escalating Israeli violence have paid the price.

While the U.S. calls for the forcible displacement and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza, states around the world should stand up for international law and the rights of Palestinians. In accordance with the ruling last year by the International Court of Justice on the illegality of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory, states should not render any aid or assistance to Israel’s settlement enterprise. That means arms embargoes and the strict application of boycotts of companies, including financial institutions, that support Israeli settlements. Now that the Trump administration is imposing sanctions on the International Criminal Court, other countries, especially those in Europe that have strongly backed the ICC, must defend the court from these American attacks, to end Israel’s impunity and maintain the court’s legitimacy itself. In the short term, the fate of Palestinians in Gaza depends on it. The longer-term consequences of this assault on the rule of law would extend much further.

Source: Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN)