President Trump has had his share of harebrained schemes since returning to the White House - annexing Canada, taking possession of Greenland and reclaiming the Panama Canal.
But his proposal for the U.S. to take control of Gaza and turn it into the Riviera of the Middle East might be his most harebrained scheme of all. Or at least for this month.
Yes, I wish Israel didn’t have to worry about Hamas kidnapping, raping and murdering its citizenry. In fact, I wish there was a world without Hamas. But given that Trump urged Israel to accept a ceasefire with Hamas, it isn’t going anywhere. Thus Trump’s proposal is a non-starter.
For starters, there’s the obvious corruption and grift. The aim and objective is to line Trump’s pockets. Son-in-law Jared Kushner has long held similar designs on Gaza.
For his part, Trump has indicated he is prepared to put U.S. troops into Gaza to make his scheme come true. This from the guy who is supposedly America first and wants us to stay out of foreign wars. That is unless he can make some money.
The main reason it won’t work is because the Arab world is committed to a Palestinian state. This means these same Arab states don’t want Palestinians living on their soil. Now I can understand Egypt and Jordan not wanting receive Palestinians. If Hamas attacks Israel from either country then you can say goodbye to those peace treaties. In which case, Trump can forget about a peace agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
The Saudis can make life hard for Trump if they see fit to reduce oil production. Tariffs are unlikely to be effective against the House of Saud.
Perhaps Trump will put his Gaza scheme on the back burner just as he has with tariffs with Canada and Mexico and move onto yet another harebrained scheme. When it comes to stupid ideas, Trump has an inexhaustible supply.
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