Can the U.S. really take over Gaza? | About That

in the ruins of Gaza Donald Trump sees an opportunity to rebuild bigger and better the Riviera of the Middle East this could be so Magnificent the US will take over the Gaza Strip in a joint address with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu he outlined the beginnings of a plan I've studied this very closely over a lot of months and I've seen it from every different angle which would involve relocating all of the roughly 2 million Palestinians out of Gaza a symbol of death and Destruction for so many decades housing them in another country maybe several

countries it could be one 2 3 4 5 7 8 12 it could be numerous sites or it could be one large site and then while they're gone rebuilding and transforming the Gaza Strip into something completely different we're going to take over that piece and we're going to develop it create thousands and thousands of jobs now as Trump has often done with all of his expansionist plans we need Greenland for national security purposes Panama Canal is vital to our country I'd like to see Canada become our 51st state he provided no details about how any

of this would work how the US would swoop in to what is perhaps the world's most complex geopolitical conflict transforming it into an economic development that will Supply Unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area but if this plan is more than just Trump taking a maximalist position now in order to secure something smaller in the future if it is more than just a negotiating tactic more than just Bluster more than just a distraction then the entire us Administration will have to contend with a whole series of complications that make this

simple idea we will restore calm and stability to the region into an absolutely colossal taking and I'm going to explain why ladies and gentlemen all this in just two weeks can we imagine where we'll be in 4 years the foundation of Trump's position that the US should own Gaza is that Gaza in its current state is unlivable it's been very unlucky it's been an unlucky place for a long time it's right now a demolition site this is just a demolition site to some extent he's right after Hamas launched the deadliest attack on Israel in its

history on October 7th 2023 killing well over a thousand people and kidnapping hundreds more Israel responded with a more than year-long campaign killing tens of thousands of Palestinians and according to the United Nations damaging or destroying most of gaza's infrastructure and about 92% of homes this has forced nearly all of the area's 2 million Palestinians to flee often multiple times Gaza has indeed been made virtually unlivable humanitarian aid for most of the war was heavily controlled and restricted by Israel to well below what the UN said was necessary to meet the basic needs of Palestinians

groups that we've spoken to such as Oxfam and UNICEF say 100% of the children in Gaza now are not getting enough food to eat but Trump's claim that the only reason the Palestinians want to go back to Gaza is they have no alternative this is wrong we are living in our country in our state in our land and we will not live forever if there is this colonial mindset of occupying switching the occupation from Israeli occupation to American occupation is just ridiculous Palestinians claim Gaza as part of a future Homeland their existence there is something

Israelis and Palestinians have fought over in one way or another for more than a century Trump's belief that Palestinians would as a collective simply agree to leave to be clear you saying they'd be thrilled dangerous they'd be thrilled to leave Gaza oh I think they'd love to leave Gaza if they had an option this is of course a very shocking uh pronouncement because uh Palestinian history is punctuated by difficult periods of displacement dating back 75 years and uh this animates very deep fears that Palestinians won't be able to return to uh their their land it

is their home many of these people are already the descendants of of Palestinians displaced in the 1948 War surrounding the creation of Israel so this is hugely a motive for them there's also a logistical problem with assuming Palestinians would willfully leave their land where would they go I can tell you I spoke to other leaders of countries in the Middle East and they love the idea they say it would really bring stability I don't know who Trump spoke to so it's not clear to me which countries he believes would accept 2 million Palestinian refugees but

Arab Nations have long rejected this idea of forcibly displacing Palestinians from Gaza Saudi Arabia Jordan Egypt they've all issued statements rejecting Trump's plan certainly for the the two most important countries Jordan and Egypt neither is in the economic position to absorb them in terms of their political stability uh the an agreement to be in any way perceived as complicit in the forc dislocation of Palestinians could amount to you know suicide now Trump may have ways to get those countries on side I have a feeling that despite them saying no I have a feeling that the

king in Jordan and that the General in Egypt will open their hearts and will give us the kind of land that we need to get this done but again no details no explanation of how any of this would work or how Trump would navigate the legal problem with what he's proposing because the forcible relocation of Palestinians in this case would very likely be a violation of international law article 49 of the Geneva Convention Express ly forbids this though Trump may have already considered this too according to international law no they cannot do this but the

question then becomes is what nation or nations would actually interfere and step in you know get in the way prevent this from happening if it does receive the backing of the Saudis and the let's say the UAE uh possibly even ratar it's difficult to see where this opposition would come from in a way that would actually prevent the United States from from moving forward [Music] the US will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it too we'll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and

other weapons on the site level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings Trump was pretty clear that his plan for enduring peace in Gaza revolves around us ownership of Gaza but it was unclear how you actually go about doing that you were talking talking tonight about the United States taking over a sovereign territory what Authority would allow you to do that are you talking about a permanent occupation there I do see a long-term ownership position and I see a it bringing great stability to that part of the Middle East and maybe the entire

Middle East the problem is that there's no way or let me restate that there's no legal way of Simply taking over someone else's territory and I should point out even with Israel's prime minister as a partner I think it's something that could change history and it's worthwhile really pursuing this Avenue Gaza according to international law is not Israel's to give the international court of justice ruled last year that the Palestinian territories constitute one political unit and though Israel disputes this the icj says Israel's occupation since 1967 the longest military occupation in modern history is illegal

it's beyond the realm of the possible that Hamas would agree to a scenario in which all Palestinians are dislocated from Gaza and then another country takes responsibility for uh developing it countries often disagree about who owns what Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 is an example of an act most of the world does consider illegal but Russia sure doesn't and in the case of recognizing a sovereign state of Palestine most of the UN does but the US does not you could see Security Council meetings and resolutions passed to condemn this but again with the veto

power the US has there's not much that could happen then there's the question of how far the US might be willing to go to make this plan happen Mr President given what you've said about Gaza did the US send troops to help secure uh the security vacuum as far as Gaza is concerned uh we'll do what is necessary if it's necessary we'll do that Donald Trump would not rule out sending US soldiers to Gaza where they might face a whole range of risks they would have to uh use force in order to eject the Palestinians

it's over 2 million people and Hamas retains sufficient resources where they could resist so there are going to be American casualties um there are going to be Americans involved in messy situations in which Palestinian civilians are killed now less than a day after Trump's comments the White House Press Secretary would try to walk his statements back the president has not committed to putting boots on the ground in Gaza he has also said that the United States is not going to pay for the rebuilding of Gaza his administration is going to work with our partners in

the region uh to reconstruct this region but for Trump this is both a brand of promise that we've heard before we're going to build a wall Mexico is going to pay for the wall and also something that would cost billions of dollars no matter who pays well the you is estimating um that it would cost about $1.5 billion to just remove the rubble it would cost about 80 billion doar to reconstruct the homes and the infrastructure hospitals universities education over a 10-year period I don't foresee economic support coming from uh Arab states which means the

United States will be left with the bill and we haven't even gotten to the question of what Trump's ideal Gaza even looks like he says it would be open to the world I to Envision a world people living there the world's people I think you'll make that into an international unbelievable place and there'll be jobs for everyone not for a specific group of people but for everybody Palestinians Trump says would be welcome but he also seemed to suggest quite clearly this place would not be theirs if this place even ever comes to exist at all

like I said at the start it's often not clear which of Trump's proposals to take seriously because he often doesn't provide the kind of detail that would make them serious proposals but between reclaiming the Panama Canal annexing Greenland and Canada and now announcing a plan to claim us ownership over Gaza itself this is a president who is changing the international Rules of Engagement in real time and world leaders of all Stripes will be watching