Inside Trump’s proposal written in a hurry to “owning” Gaza

When President Trump announced his proposal to the United States with Gaza’s ownership on Tuesday, he was shocked by the senior members and government of the White House.

While his announcement seemed formally and studied-read the plan from a paper-his administration did not do until the basic planning to study the feasibility of the idea, according to four people with knowledge of discussions, who were not authorized to speak publicly.

Not only were the Americans who were scrambling; This announcement was a surprise to Israeli visitors to Mr. Trump. Shortly before the exit at their joint press conference on Tuesday, Mr. Trump surprised Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from Israel by telling him that he intends to announce the idea of ​​Gaza’s ownership, according to two people who were informed of their interactions.

Inside the United States government, there were no meetings with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or Pentagon, as it usually happens to any dangerous foreign policy proposal, not to mention one of this size. There were no working groups. The Ministry of Defense has not provided any estimates of the required forces numbers, cost estimates, or even the outline of how they work.

There was a little idea inside the president’s head.

Unlike the main foreign policy announcements with former presidents, including Mr. Trump, the idea of ​​the United States, which controls Gaza, was not part of a public discussion before Tuesday.

But alone, Mr. Trump was talking about the ownership of the United States for weeks. His thinking, according to administration officials, accelerated, after his envoy in the Middle East, Steve Whitchov, returned from Gaza last week and described the horrific circumstances there.

But no one – and not in the White House, and not the Israelis – are expected to put the idea on Tuesday until a short time before he did so. The idea faced immediate opposition from the Arab world, including from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a major American ally. In comments on correspondents on Wednesday, White House press secretary Caroline Levit tried to reduce some of the statements of Mr. Trump.

While Mr. Trump asked why the Palestinians wanted to return to Gaza after being transferred and suggested that the region become a haven for tourists, Ms. Levitte confirmed that Mr. Trump simply wants to take Jordan and Egypt in the Palestinians “temporarily”. She reduced the idea of ​​American financial investment, although Mr. Trump is assumed by the interest of “long -term ownership”.

She also said that the president did not commit to placing shoes on the ground, although Mr. Trump said: “We will do what is necessary. If necessary, we will do so.”

It is not clear whether Mr. Trump had previously discussed the issue in any detail with the Israelis. A spokeswoman for the Israeli embassy did not respond to a message seeking clarity.

He left his offer more questions than answers, such as: How will this do? How many American forces are required to clean the enthusiasm and the mountains of the rubble, and to defuse all the unprofitable munitions? What costs rebuilding a sized demolition site Las Vegas? How can the seizure of the Palestinian territories be justified under international law? What will happen to a million refugees?

In the hours that followed the advertisement, adult administration officials were significantly short in fundamental answers. Soon the reason for its existence became clear: there were no actual details.

On Wednesday, the National Security Adviser to Mr. Trump, Mike Waltz, appeared on “CBS” to sell the idea of ​​Gaza. But it was clear that this was a plan less than “the concepts of the plan”, as Mr. Trump described his ideas for the health care policy during the 2024 campaign. This plan has never been achieved.

Mr. Waltz said: “The fact that no one has a realistic solution, and he puts some bold and fresh ideas on the table, I do not think that it should be criticized in any way.” “I think it will bring the entire area to come with their own solutions if they do not like to solve Mr. Trump.”

Mr. Trump was publicly pressing Jordanians and Egyptians for weeks to take people from Gaza, but the leaders of both countries have refused so far. The removal of Palestinian priests in Gaza will violate international law, but Mr. Trump said in his press conference on Tuesday that he is expected to be eager to leave the land because it was inaccurate. They may eventually return.

He said that all of this while standing beside Mr. Netanyahu, whose military campaign has blurred many Gaza after Hamas’s terrorist attacks in Israel on October 7, 2023 – created the circumstances that Mr. Trump was referring to.

“The United States will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will work with it as well,” said Mr. Trump. “We will have it and be responsible for dismantling all the dangerous uninterrupted bombs and other weapons on the site. The level of the site and the disposal of destroyed buildings. The level of that.”

Mr. Netanyahu, who has been trying to remove Hamas from Gaza since the October 7 massacre, which includes more than 1,200 people, seemed pleased when Mr. Trump spoke.

Other US officials were happier about the proposal. Two people close to Mr. Trump insisted that it was his idea alone; One of them said they had never heard of it, mentioning the involvement of the American forces before Tuesday.

He told many senior officials, who spoke on the condition that his identity was not disclosed describing sensitive discussions, to the New York Times that they are still trying to discover the emergence of the idea, and considered it fictional even for Mr. Trump.

It is difficult to retract this concept with Mr. Trump’s criticism of the former presidents for building the state in the Middle East. His suggestion that America bears one of the worst disaster areas in the world, as stated in the closure of the initial federal government agency responsible for foreign development assistance, the American Agency for International Development

But Mr. Trump’s impulses were never hostile to the chosen as he wanted to is isolated in his party. When the Iraq war began, it initially chanted it before its condemnation. In 2011, when he considered running for the presidency, he said that the United States should “take oil” from Iraq, and he promoted the idea of ​​extracting the American army critical minerals from the external war areas.

In his second presidential term, he placed his imperial pulse offered. He said he wanted the United States to buy Greenland, and refused to exclude military power despite the presence of an American base there. He said he wanted to restore the Panama channel and that Canada should become the 51st State of America. He said he believed the United States should have the right to obtain the natural resources of Ukraine as a payment of all the military aid that America sent to help the Ukrainians defend themselves against the Russians.

Mr. Trump looks at foreign policy as a real estate deals maker. He never care about international law, and authoritarian leaders have never lectured on human rights as did the other American presidents.

Instead, for decades, the world was seen as a group of countries that tear America. It is preoccupied with the question of how to obtain influence on other countries, whether they are allies or opponents. It is looking for ways to use the American force to control other countries and extract everything in his power. Mr. Trump does not believe in the “victory” diplomacy; All deals, whether at work or foreign affairs, have a clear winner and a clear loser.

Like Mr. Trump, his envoy in the Middle East, Mr. Witkeov, is a developer and real estate investor who has done work in the region. Mr. Trump Jared Kushner, another real estate investor, fused in the Middle East portfolio in his first term, Ravage Last year, about the amazing development opportunities provided by the waterfront in Gaza.

Many advisers told Mr. Trump that they expect the idea of ​​Gaza’s ownership to die quietly, as it became clear to Mr. Trump that it is not possible. This appears to be already happening by Wednesday.

But Daniel B. Shapiro, who served as the American ambassador to Israel during the era of President Barack Obama, and recently in the Pentagon, said that the idea risked more extremism: “This is not a dangerous proposal. The price of the wall or the United States is paid for Iraq.

He said: “The danger is that the extremists within the Israeli government and terrorists from various lines will take it literally and seriously, and start to act on it.” “This may present the additional issue of the hostages, put a target on the back of American employees and are fighting the possibility of the normalization of Saudi Israel.”

When the Trump team hears such warnings from the former democratic administration officials, they contradict Jerusalem in 2017. They also point out that Mr. Trump has delivered normalization agreements between Israel and four countries with a majority of Muslim in his first term-effort, known as the Ibrahim Agreement. The Biden administration tried to no avail to expand.

The idea of ​​acquisition in Gaza, Mr. Trump, was pleased with the right to the right to Israel and some of them in America’s pro -Israel society. The Israeli government has always wanted to recover Gaza from the Palestinians to ensure that the land is not used to launch terrorist attacks against Israel.

David Friedman, who served as the ambassador of Mr. Trump in Israel in his first term, surprised the announcement, but described the idea of ​​the president as “wonderful and outside the creative fund and frankly the only solution that I heard in 50 years has an opportunity to change the dynamics in this turbulent part of the world. “

Mr. Friedman said in an interview.

He said it is unbearable for Hamas or the Palestinians who supported it to stay in Gaza. When asked who will live there instead, Mr. Friedman said that after 15 years of reconstruction, it will be a “market -dependent process.”

He said: “I know that I look like I am a real estate man,” but he could only imagine the possibilities he presented “25 miles from the interface on the beach facing the sunset.”