Trumps bold plan for Gaza

Just when you think all attempts to address the Palestinian issue have been exhausted – Trump comes out of leftfield with something that hasn’t been tried before.

His proposal for a US takeover of Gaza and a US led rebuild of the strip is certainly the sort of gutsy idea that just might break the deadlock – and it hasn’t come a moment too soon. While the Israelis have spent almost 80 years building an advanced western society in the land that they own by historic birthright – the Gaza Palestinians have been whipping themselves up into a frenzy of hate – with each successive generation learning to hate Jews at their mothers knee or in the schools of the terrorist organisation, UNRWA.

It has to stop – and this might be just the circuit breaker to do it.

Details of the idea are still sketchy, but it appears that Trump is proposing to turn Gaza into a long term US protectorate – effectively a ‘US Gaza’ which would mean investment, stability and a westernised population.

Stripped of Trumps colourful rhetoric and expressed in ‘political speak’ the plan is actually relatively straightforward:

1) The US will occupy Gaza, long term

2) The US will negotiate with Middle East States to take Gaza Palestinians

3) The US will rebuild and develop Gaza as a US territory

Expressed that way, the plan sounds quite reasonable – but it doesn’t come without controversy or risk. Most of the nations of the Middle East don’t support it (notably Saudi Arabia) – and the US also has a track record of costly and protracted ‘nation building’ wars that turn out badly for them. Since WW2 there’s a repeated pattern of them going into a territory seeing themselves as the great saviour bringing democracy – only to limp out a few years later, reviled and rejected by those they intended to help.

To be fair, that’s less of an issue here as Trump is also proposing to relocate most or all of the Palestinians in Gaza to other parts of the Middle East. Yes, I know that some are calling this ‘immoral’ – but if these people really are ‘refugees’ as UNRWA and other agencies claim – surely relocating them has always been the whole point of helping them? If not – then the whole foundation of the UNs position has been built on a lie.

Of course, we’re not even sure if this is Trumps ‘real’ plan. We saw, with Canada, Mexico and Panama, that he uses extreme threats as a way to get parties to the negotiating table and fasttrack a settlement – and it’s entirely possible that he’s using this to force the hand of the neighbouring Arab states.

But is any of this sustainable? Will a future President respect what Trump puts in place – or throw the world back into chaos?

Only time will tell.

In any case, this won’t be the silver bullet that solves all of the issues around Israel in the Middle East. Only God can do that and He’s already outlined a very different and more ‘final’ approach, coming sometime soon. Only then will we see REAL peace in the Middle East…..

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