Trump's plan... under a humanitarian cover

Baha Rahal

The Trump plan, whose outlines are beginning to emerge despite not being officially announced, heralds a new era reminiscent of Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Trump intends to appoint a Bremer-style military commander for the Gaza Strip, named David Beasley. Beasley is an American general who will preside over the administration of the Gaza Strip for an indefinite period. Beasley will enjoy international and Arab support and the capabilities that will enable him to govern Gaza under promises of reconstruction, aid deliveries, and rebuilding what was destroyed by the war of genocide there.

The plan, which ostensibly promises to lift the siege, allow aid in, and halt the war of extermination, conceals a deeper reality, even more dangerous than expected, upon closer examination. Trump is the author of the idea of expelling Gaza's residents and of theories about seizing control of Gaza, including its underground and aboveground areas, and transforming it into an American investment zone and a tourist destination with multiple resorts and facilities, while displacing the indigenous population under humanitarian pretexts and false claims. This is the real danger being promoted as the sole Trumpian lifeline, extended to rescue the people of Gaza from the threat of death by starvation and bombing.

It's a plan promoted as the only possible solution, a lifeline, without which Netanyahu and his army would have continued their brutality against the people, continuing their killing and starvation. Given the famine, the failure of the Arab plan, and indeed the failure of any other plan to confront Trump's plan, the real danger lies in its content, not in slogans cloaked in a humanitarian guise. Trump is the one who said he intends to turn Gaza into a "Riviera," vowed that he would own it, and deemed it uninhabitable, urging the people of Gaza to leave and live in another country. As is well known, the deal-maker, Trump, aspires to more than that, so that his control of Gaza does not conflict with his regional project known as the Abraham Accords and the normalization plan.

In light of this complex landscape, it appears that the Trump plan is not just a fleeting initiative, but rather a long-term strategic project aimed at redrawing the map of Gaza politically, geographically, and economically. It is considered the most dangerous threat to the two-state solution and the establishment of a Palestinian state on the June 4, 1967 borders. It is the most dangerous plan, under the pretext of humanitarianism and an apparent disagreement with the occupation government. Given the state of Arab weakness, the widespread hunger in Gaza, and the Palestinian inability to move forward towards unity and partisan and factional partnership that would salvage the reality, the Trump plan portends an unknown fate and a bleak future.