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Donald Trump\u2019s proposal for a US takeover of Gaza was met with anger and blunt rejection from regional allies, delight from Israel\u2019s far right and a warning against \u201cethnic cleansing\u201d from the head of the UN.<\/p>\n
The secretary general, Ant\u00f3nio Guterres, told a UN meeting on Wednesday that \u201cit is essential to avoid any form of ethnic cleansing\u201d after the US president said he wanted to \u201cown\u201d Gaza and resettle its Palestinian residents elsewhere.<\/p>\n
An unusually broad wave of international outrage and condemnation followed Trump\u2019s shock announcement after a meeting with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.<\/p>\n
Germany warned that the plan violated international law and Brazil\u2019s president described it as \u201cincomprehensible\u201d, with China stating it opposed \u201cforced transfer\u201d.<\/p>\n
Trump was untouched by hours of global criticism, telling reporters in the Oval Office that \u201ceverybody loves [the plan]\u201d at the swearing in of his new attorney general, Pam Bondi.<\/p>\n
One place the president\u2019s claim did hold true was among Israel\u2019s far-right circles, where his proposal was embraced as a path to fulfilling a long-held political goal of taking Gaza out of Palestinian control.<\/p>\n
And in an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, Netanyahu himself said he saw nothing wrong with Trump\u2019s proposal.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the first good idea that I\u2019ve heard,\u201d Netanyahu said. \u201cIt\u2019s a remarkable idea, and I think it should be really pursued, examined, pursued and done, because I think it will create a different future for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both regional critics and supporters recognized that Trump\u2019s vision for a \u201cRiviera for the Middle East\u201d was novel only in seeking to insert the US directly into the heart of one of the most volatile, long-running conflicts in the world.<\/p>\n
It is premised on emptying Gaza of its residents, effectively a call for ethnic cleansing, and follows decades of debates in the Israeli right over whether Palestinians can be forced from the territory or encouraged to leave with economic incentives.<\/p>\n
Trump wants neighboring countries that are heavily dependent on US aid and military support, including Egypt and Jordan, to offer new homes to large numbers of Gaza\u2019s 2.3 million residents.<\/p>\n
Addressing Trump\u2019s plan on Wednesday, the White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said it \u201cdoes not mean boots on the ground in Gaza\u201d following Trump\u2019s saying on Tuesday \u201cIf it\u2019s necessary, we\u2019ll do that\u201d when asked if it might involve military force.<\/p>\n
She also characterized the US president as being committed to \u201ctemporarily relocating\u201d Palestinians from Gaza.<\/p>\n
The secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said the Trump plan was not meant as a \u201chostile move\u201d.<\/p>\n
Saudi Arabia was among the first countries to reject Trump\u2019s project to reimagine Gaza as a real-estate prospect, and perhaps the most consequential.<\/p>\n
A deal establishing diplomatic relations with Israel is a potentially lucrative prize pursued enthusiastically by both Joe Biden and Trump during his first term, and backed by Netanyahu.<\/p>\n
Riyadh was quick to announce its \u201cunequivocal rejection\u201d of any attempt to displace Palestinians from their land. The crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, has ruled out normalising ties without the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, the foreign ministry said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Jordan\u2019s King Abdullah, who faces a difficult face-to-face meeting with Trump in Washington next week, also rejected \u201cany attempts to annex land and displace the Palestinians\u201d.<\/p>\n
It was not the first time he had made Jordan\u2019s position clear. The country already hosts more than 2.7 million Palestinian refugees and accepting people from Gaza under duress would have a destabilising effect.<\/p>\n
Egypt\u2019s foreign ministry said reconstruction needed to happen \u201cwithout Palestinians leaving the territory\u201d. It has previously warned any attempt to transfer people out of Gaza to the Sinai would threaten the peace deal.<\/p>\n
Late on Wednesday Egypt\u2019s president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, said any \u201cforced displacement\u201d of Gaza\u2019s population would be \u201cunacceptable\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be a serious violation of international law, an obstacle to the two-state solution and a major destabilising force for Egypt and Jordan,\u201d the two leaders said, according to a statement from the French presidency.<\/p>\n
The US president had anticipated and shrugged off these refusals in advance, perhaps confident that both countries are vulnerable because of their reliance on American money and weapons.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe king in Jordan and the general in Egypt will open their hearts and give us the kind of land we need to get this done,\u201d Trump said at the press conference, after laying out plans for the US takeover.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n