WhatsappDonald Trump’s idea of taking over Gaza and moving over the residents of Gaza to Egypt, Jordan, and a host of other countries is a bold and seemingly impractical idea. Not really. It’s actually a very reasonable solution that will repatriate the bulk of the Arabs in Gaza with their roots – back in Egypt, Syria, Jordan, or other places in the Middle East where their families originated.
Listen to what Hamas leader Fathi Hammad said a number of years ago in an interview on Egyptian television.
The bulk of the Arabs that are now living in what is modern-day Israel and in Gaza did not originate from families that lived there for centuries. Indeed, some have. But the vast majority came from Egypt, Syria, and other areas across Arabia in search of upping their financial situation.
The refugee camps that festered for a couple of decades in Gaza under Egyptian occupation between 1949 and 1967 were a result of Egypt choosing to not allow them to go back to Egypt. The same goes for many Arabs in the Galilee. Many of them came from Syria, Iraq or elsewhere. But when the Jewish return began in earnest in the late 19th century, it attracted Arab laborers who heard that there were higher wages to earn.
What President Trump is basically trying to do is to turn the clock back and use the same logic that brought the Arabs to the Land of Israel in the first place. He is trying to use economic stewardship, economic pressure on neighboring Arab countries, and economic pressure on Israel as well in order to right what he rightly sees as an impossible lose-lose situation for all involved.
It may not be smooth, but just like the Panama Canal, and Greenland ideas, President Trump will probably get his way.
