Freddie Wong (9:16)
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Few critics dispute his point that it would benefit the displaced to escape the demolition site of Gaza and live in peace rather than as cannon fodder. The real disturbance, after decades to the contrary, is to think seriously about what it would mean to put Palestinians lives first rather than sacrificing them to the lost cause of Palestine, as their leaders always do, kaufman said. The scandal isn't that displaced Palestinians now could be transferred voluntarily out of Gaza. It's that they have been forced to stay there as Hamas shields during the war and among the ruins in its aftermath. Even as Arab states claimed Israel was slaughtering Palestinians indiscriminately, they insisted Gaza's borders stay shut. When Palestinians tried to flee the war, as is their human right, Egypt forcibly closed the border with the support of the international community, kaufman wrote. When Trump says he would like to resettle people permanently in nice homes where they can be happy and not shot, not be killed, he is accused of inhumanity. The humane solution, by liberal lights, is to sacrifice another generation of Palestinians to permanent refugee status and a forever war on Israel. In MSNBC, Daniel R. DiPetris argued Trump's Gaza relocation comment is liable to kill his own diplomatic agenda. Can Donald Trump, the self professed peacemaker who has eyed the coveted Nobel Peace Prize for many years, go where no US President has gone before by striking a transformational comprehensive peace deal in the Middle East? Petras asked. Trump's critics would answer with a big eye roll. And yet his pressuring of Netanyahu to sign on to the first stage of a three phase ceasefire deal with Hamas. Three more hostages were freed over the weekend in return for more than 100 Palestinian prisoners. The fourth round of prisoner exchanges since the deal took effect in mid January at least gives some credibility behind the ambition. But Trump can kiss all of this goodbye if he intends to move forward with his ongoing calls to expel the Palestinian population from Gaza. At the top of the wish list is an Israel Saudi normalization accord, something like his predecessor Joe Biden couldn't finalize before his term ended, dipetra said. Yet none of this will happen if Palestinians are forced to leave their own lands. It would snuff out an expansion of the Abraham Accords before the Trump administration even got the ball rolling. In National Review, Philip Klein explored Trump's Gaza bombshell. President Trump has developed a reputation for zigging when everybody else says it's time to zag. But when it comes to the plan he just outlined for Gaza, it's more like one side is zigging, another is zagging, and he just busted into the White House East Room and shouted hippopotamus. It's hard to think of any other way to convey the sense in which Trump has upended decades of discussion about the Arab Israeli conflict, klein wrote. The most fundamental flaw of the proposal is the assumption that the Palestinian population primarily is interested in living in a peaceful and prosperous place somewhere else. In reality, Palestinians are largely supportive of Hamas terrorism. They see Gaza as their homeland and they don't think Israel should exist, they will not want to leave. As far as the second part of Trump's Gaza plan, there'd be no real authority for the US to swoop in and claim ownership in Gaza. And for a president who campaigned on putting an end to endless wars and disentangling from foreign interventions, it would be bizarre to send troops to help create some sort of American economic outpost in one of the most dangerous hotspots in the world, klein said. It's quite possible, as has happened in the past, that Trump is saying something outrageous to shake things up and freak everybody out, and then he'll ultimately be open to pursuing more conventional ends. That said, we should be clear that Trump's plan for Gaza as he outlined it tonight is not going to happen. Alright, that is it for what the right is saying. Which brings us to what the left is saying. The left mostly opposes Trump's idea, saying it is unwise and implausible. Some say Trump has identified a real problem to address, but his solution would not be effective. Others say that forcing Palestinians to move would be ethnic cleansing. In the Washington Post, David Ignatius said Trump's proposed takeover of Gaza was incendiary. President Donald Trump, who said he wanted to end Middle east wars, is stumbling toward a dangerous new entanglement with his talk of expelling Palestinians from Gaza and seizing the territory for the United States, ignatius wrote. Concerns about the jaw dropping proposal were so swift and sharp on Wednesday that that White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt rushed to clarify that Trump didn't plan to pay for the project or send US Troops. If that's true, and no other country in the region appears ready to offer financial or military support, then the proposal is the foreign policy equivalent of an empty suit. The leaders of Egypt and Jordan, the two nations Trump mentioned as relocation sites when he first floated the idea 10 days ago, have been summoned to meet Trump in Washington next week. They're afraid of him, as most of the world seems to be after two weeks of threats in action. But they're even more worried about the danger of internal unrest that could follow an expulsion of Palestinians into their territory, Ignatius said. Trump's capricious proposal is the latest example of an administration that, in its pell mell desire for disruption, seems oblivious to the implications for national security. In the Atlantic, Yair Rosenberg wrote, nobody wants Gaza Lagos Trump's Gaza Lago plan has just one minor defect. It's a non starter, with pretty much all of the parties required to make it work. Fresh off failed forays into Iraq and Afghanistan, many Americans will balk at inserting themselves into one of the Middle East's most intractable conflicts, Rosenberg said. Trump named Jordan and Egypt as two Arab countries that could take in displaced Gazans during the territory's reconstruction. But both regimes would rather swallow broken glass than grant citizenship or even a foothold of large numbers to Palestinians whose cause they celebrate but whose people they routinely denigrate. Trump's scheme also conflicts with an essential component of Israeli ethos. The country prides itself on defending itself by itself as home to the formerly persecuted people no longer reliant on foreign powers for its security, rosenberg wrote. But as flawed as Trump's proposed solution is, it does identify a real problem. With significant revisions, this proposal could contain a semblance of something workable. Temporarily housing Gazans in dignified conditions elsewhere while the devastated territory is rebuilt under the watchful eyes of America and its allies would provide the Gazan people with much deserved relief while depriving Hamas of its source of power and income. In forward Dan Perry asked, is Trump's proposal for the US to take over Gaza really as ludicrous as it sounds? Trump's ideas, however fantastical, would reshuffle the deck completely. How exactly he might intend for the US to take over management of the territory and rebuild it magnificently is unclear. Even more unclear who exactly would benefit from this dubiously thought out plan, perry wrote. Clearly not Hamas, which might be one reason Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was in Washington D.C. today to meet with Trump, would get on board, and clearly not those Palestinian civilians who prefer to stay in their home. Trump is not entirely wrong in saying that Gaza is unlivable. Even before the current war, conditions in the strip were dire. Under Hamas rule, the population has been impoverished. Now, after over a year of Israeli bombardment, the destruction in the tiny strip of land is staggering, perry wrote. But forcing Palestinians out of Gaza would be an act of ethnic cleansing and a war crime under international law. The truth is that permanently displacing a significant number of Palestinians from Gaza or any part of Palestinian territory would almost certainly create more problems than it solves. Alright, let's head over to Ari for his take.