Trump Proposes Relocating Gazans to Jordan, Egypt

US President Donald Trump, Saturday, proposed relocating Palestinians from Gaza to neighboring countries like Egypt and Jordan. This is an unusual proposal that was opposed by the former administration of Joe Biden.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One towards Miami, the president said he raised the matter during a telephone call with King Abdullah II of Jordan, and he might talk with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi on Sunday.

“I said to him (Jordan’s king) that I’d love you to take on more because I’m looking at the whole Gaza Strip right now and it’s a mess, it’s a real mess,” said Trump. “I’d like him (Jordan’s king) to take people”.

“I’d like Egypt to take people. I’m talking to Gen. Al Sisi tomorrow sometime I believe. I’d like Egypt to take people. And I’d like Jordan to take people,” Trump continued.

“You’re talking about a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing. You know over the centuries it’s had many, many conflicts. And I don’t know, something has to happen,” he added.

Describing Gaza as “a demolition site,” the US president said: “Almost everything is demolished and people are dying there. So l’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing at a different location where they can maybe live in peace for a change.”

He added that the move “could be temporary or could be long-term.”

The Biden administration opposed relocating Gaza residents outside the enclave, advocating a return of Gazans to their homes in the aftermath of a potential peace and a two-state solution.

Israel’s genocidal war has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, and injured over 111,000 since Oct. 7, 2023.

Since Jan. 19, a ceasefire is in place to bring respite to civilians in the Palestinian enclave, but Trump said last week he is not confident that the truce will hold.

“It’s not our war. It’s their war. I think they are very weakened on the other side,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “I looked at a picture of Gaza. Gaza is like a massive demolition site. That place is. … It’s really got to be rebuilt in a different way,” he said.

“Gaza is interesting. It’s a phenomenal location on the sea, best weather, you know, everything’s good. It’s like some beautiful things could be done with it, but it’s very interesting, but some fantastic things could be done with Gaza,” Trump added according to Anadolu.

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Israel Kills More Than 15,000 Pupils in Gaza

The Ministry of Education in the Gaza Strip announced, Wednesday, the genocide committed by Israel over the course of more than 15 months resulted in the killing and disappearance of more than 15,000 Palestinian school-age children, and the targeting of 95 percent of school and educational buildings.

The ministry said in a statement: “Initial statistics indicate the martyrdom and disappearance of more than 15,000 school-age children, more than 800 education sector workers, and the injury of 50,000 male and female students.”

It added: “The horrific number of martyrs is equivalent to a mass extermination of human elements, students and workers in more than 30 schools, which reflects the extent of the crimes committed against children and educational staff.”

It explained that the genocide resulted in the killing of 1,200 male and female students enrolled in higher education institutions, more than 150 scientists, academics and workers in those institutions, and hundreds were injured and disabled.

The ministry confirmed that 95 percent of school and educational buildings were directly damaged, while 85 percent of them were completely or partially out of service due to their destruction.

It indicated that the Israeli army destroyed more than 140 administrative and academic facilities, including devices, equipment, laboratories, clinics and libraries.

The ministry estimated losses of the education sector at more than $3 billion.

It explained thousands of children were exposed to shocking experiences and unprecedented psychological pressures, which led to the emergence of psychological symptoms and trauma that require specialized interventions.

The ministry announced the completion of emergency response plans for the next stage, which includes completing the 2023/2024 school year and opening the 2024/2025 school year.

The ministry called on media outlets and human rights institutions to document the “Israeli crimes” against children and depriving them of their right to education, and to prosecute Tel Aviv before international bodies and courts.

It also appealed to supporting bodies and partner institutions to provide urgent and necessary support to relieve and rehabilitate the educational sector.

With American support, Israel committed genocide in the Gaza Strip between October 7, 2023 and January 19, 2025, leaving more than 158,000 Palestinians dead and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 14,000 missing.

Last Sunday, a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel came into effect, and its first phase will last for 42 days, during which negotiations will begin to start a second and then a third phase, mediated by Egypt, Qatar and the United States.

Israel has turned Gaza into the largest prison in the world, as it has besieged it for the last 18 years, and the genocide has forced about two million of its citizens, numbering about 2.3 million Palestinians, to flee in tragic conditions with a deliberate severe shortage of food, water and medicine.

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Ireland Stands up to Israel

Irish President Michael Higgins stated that the Israeli occupation has violated many provisions of international law and breached the sovereignty of three countries: Lebanon, Syria, emphasizing that Benjamin Netanyahu seeks to establish settlements in Egypt.

Higgins condemned Israel’s labeling of Dublin as “antisemitic” after it announced its support for the Palestinian people, stressing that it is dangerous to label a state as such merely for disagreeing with the Israeli Prime Minister.

The comment came after Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar branded Higgins an antisemite amid the ministry’s decision to close the Israeli embassy in Dublin.

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Can Trump Get a Gaza Deal From Netanyahu?  

The Israeli newspaper Maariv stated that the incoming US President Donald Trump is putting intense pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to bring the exchange deal of prisoners closer.

It added that the talks are proceeding not only  on one or two channels. But negotiations on Gaza are moving along three channels:  

Exchange deal

A military channel aimed at ending the war, a political channel aimed at maturing into an exchange deal, and a humanitarian channel for talks related to restoring the Gaza Strip and returning life to normal.

It stressed that the three channels are complementary to each other and are in the hands of the Egyptians.

It stressed that the main points of the agreement stipulate that the Israeli army must stop the war in stages and gradually withdraw from the Gaza Strip. The Rafah crossing will be opened to allow hundreds of aid trucks to enter every day, and Israel will release hundreds of security prisoners and receive prisoners. The implementation of the interim agreement will be supervised by America and other countries, as in Lebanon.

What plan?

According to the newspaper, in recent weeks, the Egyptians have been working away from the spotlight to bring Hamas and the Palestinian Authority closer together develop a plan to establish a new government entity in the Gaza Strip once a ceasefire is declared.

The proposal talks about a body to manage the civilian affairs of the Gaza Strip and will be staffed by 10 to 15 professionals who are not affiliated with any movement, and with an already official name: “The Social Committee to Support the Residents of Gaza”.

Its no coincidence the Egyptians have given it this title, nor the “unity government”, although it will operate under the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah. The Egyptians chose this name to be accepted by the Israeli government.

The newspaper stressed the agreement document the Egyptians extracted from Hamas and the Palestinian Authority is an achievement in itself and the Israeli government will have to decide soon whether handing over the Gaza Strip to this committee is acceptable to it or not according to Al Rai Al Youm.

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Netanyahu: Ideologue, Pragmatist or a Proxy?

Dr Khairi Janbek

PARIS – When talking about the Israeli prime minister Netanyahu, we must not miss the point that in effect he is a politician, thus, he is both an ideologue and a pragmatist. He is an ideologue when he feels he can go all the way with brinkmanship and get away with it, and he is a pragmatist, when realizes that he should stop and talk. However, by and large that usually depends on the position of the USA primarily, and on the regional situation in the second degree.

He was a pragmatist, when he originally gave his implicit support to Hamas as a guardian of peace in Gaza, and the guarantor of border security with Israel, and he was an ideologue when he demanded that the PNA accepts that Israel is a Jewish state, and accept moreover, that any form of a Palestinian state ought to be demilitarized and just a guardian of the border with Israel.

https://twitter.com/LegitTargets/status/1847287962024747060

He was an ideologue when avenging the 7 October events and a pragmatist in letting the hostage crisis drag on. He chose to head a government in which he can present himself as the only one whom the world can talk to when compared to his extremist colleagues, through his masque of pragmatism, rather than go into a government with partners whom will make him look as the only ideologue among pragmatists.

Again, this Netanyahu dualism, be that the ideologue who has the freedom to do as he sees fit, or the pragmatist who gets to know his boundaries one cannot say is clear, at least for the moment. For all intents and purposes, the red apple of the so-called Abrahamic Accord, Saudi Arabia, remains illusive, as the Saudis have indicted in no uncertain terms, that any prospects of normalization are conditional on at least, reviving the two-state solution. But at the same time, Netanyahu still has working relationships with the UAE and Bahrain in the Gulf as well as Qatar.

As for the older cold peace partners, Jordan and Egypt, Netanyahu is content that at least the situation is stable as it could be.

Now, will Netanyahu be able to pull a rabbit out of the hat when it comes to Trump, or does he really feel that he can take Trump for granted? The current thought in the Middle East fluctuates between those two guesses. But in reality with a paradigm shift, perhaps we can see things clearer. For a start, we are currently living in the age of separation of economics and business from the world of politics, also the separation of interests from principled positions. This age is not created by either Netanyahu or Trump but it certainly suits their relationship fine.

One thing for certain, Netanyahu can rely on Trump’s support as an intransigent ideologue, for Israel is undoubtedly the advanced military post of the USA, but also as a pragmatist, he has to understand to what extent he can be a tool of US foreign interests especially that Trump is very much fond of the concept of proxies and does not like infringements on his business deals.

Dr Khairi Janbek is a Jordanian historian based in Paris and the above opinion is written exclusively for crossfirearabia.com. 

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