{"id":417998,"date":"2025-02-05T13:36:32","date_gmt":"2025-02-05T12:36:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/02\/05\/gaza-piano-trump-riviera-medio-oriente\/"},"modified":"2025-02-05T15:26:00","modified_gmt":"2025-02-05T14:26:00","slug":"turning-gaza-into-the-riviera-of-the-middle-east-trumps-controversial-plan-unveiled-to-netanyahu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/02\/05\/turning-gaza-into-the-riviera-of-the-middle-east-trumps-controversial-plan-unveiled-to-netanyahu\/","title":{"rendered":"Turning Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East:” Trump’s controversial plan unveiled to Netanyahu"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – Donald Trump<\/strong> wants to get his hands on Gaza and turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”<\/strong> In a White House press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (on whom looms an arrest\u00a0warrant<\/a>\u00a0from the International Criminal Court), the US president laid out a plan that has all the contours of a true ethnic cleansing<\/strong>.\u00a0The Israeli political elite immediately hailed the plan, which the main allies of Washington and its primary rivals — Russia and China — rejected. No word from Brussels, however, so far.<\/p>\n

Negotiations between Israel and Hamas to iron out the details of the second phase of\u00a0the ceasefire<\/a>, which is supposed to lead to the release of all Israeli hostages and the complete withdrawal of the Tel Aviv army from the Strip, have very recently resumed. However, the US president is already mixing up the cards. And the idea – so far – only pleases Israel. Trump declared that the US will “take control” of the Gaza Strip<\/strong>: “We will own it and be responsible for dismantling all the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons there,” he told reporters.\u00a0Washington will “level” the destroyed buildings and “create economic development that will provide unlimited jobs and housing for the people of the area.”<\/p>\n

What population Trump is talking about is unknown, but certainly not the people of Gaza: Trump has said that the nearly 2 million Gaza Palestinians<\/strong> should move to neighboring countries with “humanitarian hearts” and “great wealth.” However, neither Jordan, Egypt, nor even the Gulf monarchies have ever opened to welcoming Gaza’s Palestinian population. In the shocking White House plan, from a “symbol of death and destruction,” the Gaza Strip would become a “Riviera of the Middle East,” where “people of the world” could go live.<\/p>\n

The New York tycoon did not rule out sending US troops<\/strong> to secure the Palestinian enclave. “As far as Gaza is concerned, we will do what is necessary. If\u00a0necessary, we will do it,” he replied to a reporter. Trump also announced that he will take a position on Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank next month, adding that he plans to visit the Gaza Strip, Israel, and Saudi Arabia. The support for the forced relocation of inhabitants from the Palestinian enclave and the eventual recognition of Israeli-occupied territories in the West Bank<\/strong> would constitute a drastic change in the approach that Washington – though a close ally of Israel – has held for decades —\u00a0support for the two-state solution, according to the borders drawn by\u00a0Resolution 242<\/a> of the UN Security Council, and with East Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Palestine. Trump made a vague statement: “It doesn\u2019t mean anything about a two-state or one state or any other state. It means that we want\u00a0to give people a chance at life. They have never had a chance at life because the Gaza Strip has been a hellhole for people living there.”<\/p>\n

From China to Egypt, the “global south” rejects Trump’s plan<\/h3>\n

As much as Trump claimed that “everyone I have talked to loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land,” reactions to the proposal from the man in charge of the world’s most powerful military seem to be of a different tenor. Starting with Hamas<\/strong>, which called it “ridiculous.”\u00a0Spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri declared that “our people in the Gaza Strip will not allow these plans to be approved,” reiterating that “what is required is to end the occupation and aggression against our people, not to expel them from their land.”<\/p>\n

The Saudi government, in a statement, threatened that there would be no normalization of relations with Israel without the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. Saudi Arabia<\/strong> rejected “any attempt to displace the Palestinians from their land.”\u00a0Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty<\/strong>, after discussions with Palestinian Authority Premier Mohamed Mostafa, stressed the need for “the Palestinians to remain in Gaza, given their firm attachment to their homeland and refusal to abandon it.”<\/p>\n

\u00a0For Turkey<\/strong>, the plan is “unacceptable.” Ankara’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan reminded Trump that “the war started for this very reason: taking\u00a0land from the Palestinians” and assured that “there is no opening for a discussion on this issue.” Also opposed to the forced relocation of Palestinians are China<\/strong>, which “has always maintained that Palestinian rule over Palestinians is the basic principle of post-conflict governance of Gaza,” and Russia<\/strong>, which believes that “the solution in the Middle East can only take place on the basis of the presence of two states.”<\/p>\n

No word from the\u00a0EU. France, Germany, and the UK: “Gaza belongs to the Palestinians.”<\/h3>\n

If nothing leaks out from European institutions, concerned reactions are beginning to emerge\u00a0from the capitals. UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy<\/strong> said from Kyiv that London remains convinced that Palestinians should “live and prosper in their homelands in Gaza and the West Bank,” while for Paris,<\/strong> the future of Gaza passes through “a future Palestinian state” and not from the control “of a third country.” The Quai d’Orsay, headquarters of the French Foreign Ministry, reiterated “its opposition to any forced relocation of the Palestinian population of Gaza, which would represent a serious violation of international law, an attack on the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinians, but also a strong obstacle to the two-state solution and a destabilizing factor for our neighboring partners who are Egypt and Jordan, as well as the region as a whole.”<\/p>\n

\u00a0Even Annalena Baerbock<\/strong>, the German foreign minister who a few months ago declared that the civilian population “loses its protected status” when used as a human shield, was firmly opposed: “It is clear that Gaza, like the West Bank and East Jerusalem, belongs to the Palestinians. They form the basis for a future Palestinian state,” she said. The Italian deputy prime minister, Antonio Tajani<\/strong>, stressed the opposition from Jordan and Egypt, which make Trump’s plan “a bit difficult.” Far harsher was the head of the Democratic Party’s delegation to the European Parliament,\u00a0Nicola Zingaretti<\/strong>, who called Trump’s “crazy proposal” “an insult to peace and the rights of the Palestinian people.”<\/p>\n

From the far right to the opposition, Israel\u00a0stands with Trump<\/h3>\n

From Netanyahu to members of the Zionist far-right to Israeli opposition leader Benny Gantz, Israel instead applauded Trump’s proposal\u00a0to transform the Gaza Strip. A plan that “could change history,” the Israeli premier said during a joint press conference in Washington, calling Trump “the greatest friend Israel has ever had in the White House”<\/strong><\/b> and praising him for “thinking outside the box with new ideas.” Netanyahu also thanked the US administration for ending\u00a0funding to the United Nations Relief Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA).<\/p>\n

Trump’s plan reinvigorates far-right leaders. Itamar Ben-Gvir<\/strong>, former Minister of National Security who resigned after the signing of the truce with Hamas, claimed authorship of the plan and said that this “is the only solution to the Gaza problem.” Bezalel Smotrich<\/strong>, Minister of Finance, promised that he would do everything to “bury the idea of a Palestinian state for good.” The plan also pleased the leader of the Israeli opposition National Unity Party, Benny Gantz<\/strong>, who praised the US president’s statements, calling them “creative, original, and interesting.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The US president said the US would “take control” of the Gaza Strip and Palestinians would relocate to neighboring countries. Israel applauds Trump’s plan, the rest of the world rejects it. No word from European Union leaders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7527,"featured_media":417952,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25707],"tags":[26411,28690,27337],"class_list":["post-417998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-politics","tag-gas-and-3","tag-middle-east-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7527"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417998"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":418009,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417998\/revisions\/418009"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}