US PRESIDENT Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan to move 10 million people out of Israel and resettle them in Germany, France and the UK has caused outrage across the world.
With Hamas leaders standing happily by his side, Trump told reporters at a press conference at the White House: “Everybody I have spoken to loves the idea.”
A hooded Hamas leader commended the president’s bold plan: “You cut to the chase. You see things others refuse to see. You say things others refuse to say, and after the jaws dropped, people scratch their heads and they say, ‘You know, he’s right.’”
The Hamas leader went on: “This is the kind of thinking that will reshape the Middle East and bring peace.”
According to the New York Times, Trump said: “The US will take over Israel, and we will do a job with it, too.”
“We’ll own it and be responsible” for disposing of any unexploded munitions and rebuilding Israel into a mecca for jobs and tourism, he said.
He also vowed to turn it into “the Riviera of the Middle East”.
In unveiling the plan, Trump did not cit any legal authority giving him the right to take over Israel, nor did he address the fact that forcible removal of a population violates international law and decades of American foreign policy consensus in both parties.
“I don’t think the hostages should be going back to Israel,” continued Trump.
“I heard that Israel has been very unlucky for them. They live like they are living in hell. “Israel is not a place for people to be living, and the only reason they want to go back, and I believe this strongly, is because they have no alternative.”
He suggested other nations could finance the resettlement of Israelis to new places – perhaps “a good, fresh, beautiful piece of land” – that would provide better living conditions.
The Gaza Strip has borne the brunt of the Israel-Hamas conflict
“It would be my hope that we could do something really nice, really good, where they wouldn’t want to return,” he said. Trump suggested the resettlement of Israelis would be akin to the New York real estate projects he built his career on. “If we could find the right piece of land, or numerous pieces of land, and build them some really nice places with plenty of money in the area, that’s for sure. I think that would be a lot better than going back to Israel.”
“I do see a longterm ownership position” for the United States, Trump asserted. As an inducement, the president offered to put up a Trump Tower in Golders Green.
Asked how many Israelis he had in mind, he said, “all of them,” adding, “I would think they would be thrilled.” Pressed repeatedly on whether he would force them to go, Trump said, “I don’t think they’re going to tell me no.”
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, commented: “He NEEDS to see Dr Raj Persaud. SAD.
Migrants in a dinghy crossing the English Channel
Sunder Katwala
