Critics of Donald Trump’s plan risk hypocrisy since so few voices cried “ethnic cleansing” at the forced removal of Jews from Gaza in 2005.
Jason Shvili
(JNS)
President Donald Trump’s plan to “clean out” the Gaza Strip by relocating its people is being condemned and ridiculed by Palestinian leaders, other Arab leaders and so-called Middle East “experts”—the same people who’ve been pushing the bankrupt “two-state solution” for decades.
But truthfully, Trump is right. To ensure the security of Israel and allow the people of Gaza to build better lives for themselves, Gaza should be “cleaned out.”
Most of Gaza has been reduced to a hellhole—the tragic result of Hamas’s decision to hide among and beneath its population centers after committing the worst atrocities against the Jewish people since the Holocaust. Today, as Trump remarked, Gaza looks like “a demolition site,” it is virtually unliveable.
Moreover, any attempt to rebuild Gaza under present circumstances will be co-opted by Hamas—not to repair its ruins but to rebuild its military apparatus with the goal of destroying Israel.
Pundits who believe Palestinian chances for a two-state solution would be harmed by an exodus of Gazans have short memories. In fact, for 20 years, following Israel’s complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, the Palestinians had a de facto independent state and the chance to build a prosperous country. Instead, Hamas turned Gaza into a cruel dictatorship and a terrorist base from which to attack Israel.
Furthermore, resettling the destitute Gazan population to other nations is consistent with international norms. It’s certainly an improvement to the decades-old practice of trapping the Palestinians as perpetual refugees with no option for a better life other than some unfounded, mythical “right of return.”
While some critics of Trump’s plan accuse him of advocating ethnic cleansing, he’s made no mention of forcing Gaza residents to leave or exiling them permanently. More importantly, many Gazans have expressed their desire to leave the war-torn enclave. Should they be denied this privilege offered to so many other refugees?
Critics of Trump’s plan also risk hypocrisy, since so few voices cried “ethnic cleansing” at the forced removal of Jews from Gaza in 2005. Fewer still would likely apply the term were Jews to be uprooted from Judea and Samaria to enable a two-state solution. Many seem to forgive “ethnic cleansing” as long as Jews are the victims.
Gaza is now unliveable. According to the United Nations, 60% of all buildings in Gaza are damaged or destroyed, including 92% of homes. Social services, like schools and hospitals, are severely crippled. Food is scarce. Gaza’s water and sanitation systems are “almost entirely defunct,” according to the U.N. Environmental Program.
Furthermore, the United Nations’s trade and development arm, UNCTAD, estimates it could take up to 350 years to rebuild Gaza’s economy back to its 2022 level. Forcing Gazans to live under these conditions would be cruel. Trump’s plan to allow them to relocate is much more humane.
Hamas will no doubt hijack rebuilding efforts. Precedent shows that each time Gaza rebuilds following the wars initiated by Hamas before its massacre in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the Iranian-backed proxy only gets stronger militarily, largely because they steal much of the aid meant for impoverished Gazans.
If Gazans aren’t given the chance to leave, they will continue to suffer under Hamas’s tyrannical rule. Other than hardcore Hamas supporters—Iran, Qatar, Turkey and radical students on U.S. college campuses—few Americans support Hamas’s continued oppression of the Gazans. Indeed, Trump’s plan gives the Gazans a way to escape Hamas’s brutal dictatorship.
The Palestinians squandered their chance for statehood. Gaza’s 20 years of de facto independence was a litmus test for the two-state solution. Needless to say, it failed miserably. The Palestinians failed to build efficient state institutions or a prosperous economy. Worse still, Hamas used Gaza as a terrorist base from which to attack Israel, starting war after war and breaking one ceasefire after another, ultimately culminating in the Oct. 7 massacre.
There’s zero evidence that a Palestinian state ruled by Hamas—or even the moribund Palestinian Authority—would be anything other than a disaster for Israel, the Palestinian people or future peace prospects. Trump offers a better alternative for everyone—except Hamas since it deprives them of the opportunity to oppress the Gazans who are allowed to leave.
Allowing Gazans to leave would free them from refugee status. Whereas other refugees globally, including 800,000 Jews forced out of Arab countries, were allowed resettlement, Palestinians remain refugees with no option of resettling. Instead, they’re fed the myth of a “right of return” to their ancestors’ homeland once Israel is destroyed. Trump’s plan would allow Gazans to escape perpetual refugee status.
Gazans want to seek a better life elsewhere. Before the war, polls showed nearly a third of Gazans wanted to leave the territory. Israel estimates that 100,000 to 200,000 of them have already left since Oct. 7, 2023. Why not give all Gazans the chance to build better lives abroad, as Trump suggests? Why condemn them to more generations of poverty, dictatorship and the horrors of endless war?
Those who cry “ethnic cleansing” have a clear double standard. No one in the “international community” shouted “ethnic cleansing” when thousands of Jews were forcibly removed from Gaza during Israel’s 2005 withdrawal from the territory. To this day, advocates of the two-state solution want Israel to forcibly remove its Jewish citizens from Judea and Samaria. Why is it OK to forcibly uproot Jews from their homes, which is an act of ethnic cleansing, but it’s not OK to give Palestinians in Gaza a choice to seek a better future elsewhere?
Trump brings a fresh perspective to the Gaza conflict. By focusing on the well-being of the Gazans in their current, destitute predicament, Trump offers them a new vision: The chance to seek a better life elsewhere, as millions of other refugees have over the last century. This includes an escape from poverty, from a life sentence as refugees and from an endless war with Israel that the Palestinians will never win.
Although Trump’s outside-the-box suggestion to relocate Gaza’s people may not come to fruition, the president deserves credit for offering the Palestinians an alternative to the failed ideas that have impeded their prospects for a better future.
Originally published by Facts and Logic About the Middle East (FLAME).
Image: An Islamic Jihad terrorist stands inside the ruins of the Netzarim community synagogue after the disengagement from the Gaza Strip, Sept. 12, 2005. Photo by Ahmad Khateib/Flash90.
