Arabs reject Trump’s plan; Gaza faces darkness at noon

U.S. President Donald Trump answers questions from journalists before a meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah (left) in the Oval Office of the White House on Tuesday. AFP

President Donald Trump first thought he could bully and get whatever he wanted from Arab nations dependent on US economic largesse. During a meeting with the press last week, Trump, when asked what he would do if Egypt and Jordan did not agree to his Gaza plan, his answer was, “They’d have to do it; they’d do it.” What he meant was that these Arab nations had no options but to do what the US tells them to do.

He may be the most powerful world leader, but there are limitations to what he can do.

The Trump plan—relocating Gaza’s more than 2 million Palestinian people in Egypt and Jordan, taking over it, and building a Riviera for ‘world’s citizens’ to live—is not only impractical; it is also a recipe for more disasters. The Arab leaders know it. For instance, what if Egypt takes a million Palestinians and accommodates them in Sinai, bordering Gaza? What guarantee does it have that there will not emerge a Palestinian resistance force to regain Gaza?

If that happens, and if an October 7, 2023-like incident happens, Sinai will be considered a security threat by Israel, and Sinai will be bombed to smithereens. A Trump-like Zionist-servile US president will then say send Palestinians to Libya for the US to take over Sinai, develop it, and bring it under Israel’s sovereignty. The land-grabbing process will go on and on.

Jordan also fears instability if a million or more Palestinians are housed in Jordan, 50 percent of whose population are Palestinians. Jordan witnessed a civil war in 1970-71 after Palestinian groups attempted to overthrow the monarch.

Trump’s plan is in conflict with the national interests of Egypt and Jordan. Yet, his hubris led him to believe that they would have no choice but to obey his command without protest, given their dependence on US aid.

Both Egypt and Jordan have politely and diplomatically conveyed to Trump that they are not prepared to be part of this plan. If they do so, their action will amount to a war crime, a denial of the Palestinian people’s right to their homeland in Palestine, and a blatant betrayal of the Arab-Islamic cause.

Impulsive, irrational, and arrogant, Trump is erratic in decision-making. With even his Republican Party stalwarts rejecting his appalling Gaza plan that cannot be implemented without running the risk of putting US boots on the ground in Gaza and triggering a region-wide conflict, Trump is now adopting a different ploy. But not before he pushed his luck with the visiting Jordanian monarch, Abdullah, to sell him the much derided Gaza plan.

At the joint press session on Tuesday, when a journalist asked Trump under what authority he would dislocate the Palestinians, he hubristically said, “Under US authority.” Not known for foreign policy erudition, Trump failed to get the question’s gist, which was whether his Gaza plan would have the authorisation of the United Nations or would be implemented in keeping with international law.

Seated next to him was King Abdullah, the first Arab leader to meet President Trump 2.0. With his eyes twitching regularly, the highly embarrassed king attentively listened to Trump’s outlandish colonialist plan to commit ethnic cleansing in Gaza before clearing the rubble and rebuilding the beachfront strip for billionaire robber barons to indulge in licentious luxury.

“We’re going to have it (Gaza), we’re going to keep it, and we’re going to make sure that there’s going to be peace and there’s not going to be any problem, and nobody’s going to question it, and we’re going to run it very properly,” Trump harangued.

The monarch chose to endure his host’s outrageous utterances rather than counter him. He chose to say, however, that Jordan and Egypt were working on an alternative plan.

In private, the king expressed his disagreement and total rejection of the plan, prompting White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt to announce the following day that Trump had tasked Arab nations to present him with a plan for the Gaza Strip.

“The king would much prefer that the Palestinians stay in place with the additional land to be used for new development, which would greatly create jobs at levels never seen before, but the president feels it would be much better and more majestic if these Palestinians could be moved to safer areas,” she told reporters. She added, “The president remains wholeheartedly committed to seeing peace in the Middle East, and our Arab partners in the region have been tasked with coming up with a peace plan to present to the president.”

Before the end of this month, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia will convene an emergency summit to discuss the Palestinian issue and the Trump plan. The consensus among the Arabs, including those nations that signed the so-called Abraham Accords, is that under no circumstances should the Palestinians be dislocated from the areas where they have been living for millennia.

Trump erroneously believes that the Palestinians love his plan for their permanent exile. He said, “I believe we will have a parcel of land in Jordan, a parcel of land in Egypt; we may have some place else, but I think when we finish our talks, we’ll have a place where they’ll live very happily… I think it’s going to be something that’s going to be magnificent for the Palestinians. They’re going to be in love with it. I did very well with real estate. I can tell you about real estate. They’re going to be in love with it.”

Reports from the Middle East indicate that the Egyptians will present a plan to rebuild Gaza with Arab and international cooperation without dislodging the Palestinians.

The Arab opposition to the Trump plan is also bolstered by a change in Saudi Arabia’s stance. The Saudis have, in recent weeks, ratcheted up their criticism of Israel, especially after Israel’s prime minister and wanted war-crime suspect Benjamin Netanyahu suggested that the Palestinians could build a state of their own in Saudi Arabia, which has “a lot of territory.

Reports said Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan had “postponed a scheduled trip to Washington in protest against Trump’s plan, while the Saudi media have been highlighting the policy that the kingdom will not pursue diplomatic relations with Israel until the Palestinians have their state.

With the Arabs taking a strong and united stand against the Trump plan, the eccentric US president has been smarting over the humiliation he suffered. Like a wounded animal, he is pouncing on the Palestinians, saying if all hostages are not released by noon tomorrow, all hell will break loose—meaning the genocide will resume. Trump is creating a ‘Darkness at Noon’ scenario for the battered and impoverished Palestinians.

The fragile ceasefire is now on the verge of collapse after Hamas delayed the release of hostages, citing Israel’s failure to honour the ceasefire conditions. With Netanyahu sending back his troops—the baby killers—to the Gaza border, and with Trump also joining the chorus, the ceasefire appears to be only an intermission in the ongoing Palestinian holocaust.

Thankfully, last-minute efforts by Qatar and Egypt to salvage the ceasefire made some progress yesterday, yet the situation remains fragile.