Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was all smiles as he visited the White House and met with President Trump in the Oval Office Tuesday afternoon, especially given Trump said many things in terms of the future of Gaza that the Israeli leader would welcome.
Trump in an exchange with reporters while sitting next to 'Bibi' continued pressing the idea that Palestinians should be relocated out of Gaza. "There's hardly a building standing, and the ones that are are going to collapse. You can't live in Gaza right now. And I think we need another location," Trump said, echoing prior comments.
Trump stoked further controversy by claiming Palestinians would "love to leave" Gaza - comments which have already been condemned by many pundits as tantamount to an ethnic cleansing campaign. Arab leaders too have blasted any plan which would see a mass exodus or removal of Palestinians to neighboring countries.
" Who would want to go back?" Trump posited during the sit-down with Netanyahu. Indeed the place has been leveled, but as the ceasefire has held there's been evidence of a mass return of tens of thousands of Palestinians to their largely destroyed communities in the northern Gaza Strip.
"It would be my hope that we could do something really nice where they would not want to return," Trump reasoned, despite the current Israel-Hamas truce calling for future reconstruction of the Strip.
"It doesn't have to be one area, but you take certain areas and you build really good quality housing, like a beautiful town, like someplace where they can live and not die," Trump said.
"The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it, too," Mr. Trump said. "We'll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings — level it out. Create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area. Do a real job. Do something different."
"Just can't go back," he continued. "If you go back, it's gonna end up the same way it has for a hundred years." --CBS
The two leaders also discussed the status of the ceasefire in Gaza and the question of the eradication of Hamas. "I support getting all the hostages out and meeting all our war goals," Netanyahu said.
"That includes destroying Hamas’s military and governing capabilities and making sure that Gaza never poses a threat to Israel," he added, in broad agreement with Trump - though it's unclear what details the two see eye to eye on in terms of next practical steps. According to more:
Turning to Netanyahu who was sitting beside him, Trump said, "And he wants peace also."
"We’re dealing with a very complex group of people, situation and people, but we have the right man," Trump added.
"We have the right leader of Israel. He’s done a great job, and we’ve been friends for a long time."
As for some kind of refugee mass resettlement plan, the reality is that past historic waves of Palestinian refugees and armed groups flooding nearby Arab countries have literally erupted in wars and street battles, which especially Lebanon can attest to. Jordan has also seen its country destabilized at times - Black September being a prime case in point.
There's also the logistics - with Palestinians now rushing back to their largely destroyed communities in northern Gaza, they are defiantly telling the world they don't plan to leave their homeland. The Gaza ceasefire would likely collapse if Palestinians were suddenly pushed out in large waves into Egypt and Jordan.
Meanwhile a little damage control...
Jordan already hosts several million Palestinians, based on past historic large refugee waves, and the result of mass displacement due to various Arab-Israeli wars.
If Jordan goes along with Trump's plan, there would be the likelihood of some kind of armed Palestinian uprising within Jordan itself.
Such a plan would be nearly impossible to execute or at least be deeply complicated from the start. And ultimately it can be seen as the textbook definition of ethnic cleansing of a territory.