Meaning | Population transfers approved by America? It’s on the table.

President Trump has introduced an apparent game change, whose burning proposal prior to his meeting on Tuesday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, the first foreign leader he will meet since his inauguration. Three times In less than two weeks Mr. Trump suggested that Palestinians could be moved from Gaza to Egypt and Jordan.

It is difficult to exaggerate the traumatic resonance of displacement and population transfer in the collective Palestinian memory. This story helps to explain the Palestinian willingness to remain in the newly broken territory and the widespread screams of this moving proposal and its long -term radicalizing potential.

If the two leaders take this idea seriously at their meeting, and worse, if the idea comes to execution, it will almost certainly increase the hostility to Israel in the region and kick any prospects for US-sponsored Israeli-Saudi normalization-a target MR MR MR MR Seeking enthusiastically to pursue – deep into the long grass. The Saudi leadership recently joined many others in the appointment of Israel’s actions in Gaza a People’s murder and has become more powerful in conditioning the normalization of ties to the creation of a Palestinian state. Apart from being morally reprehensible, a large-scale population transfer of Palestinians would very likely close the door on a three-way US-Israel-Saudi agreement in the foreseeable future.

After putting the idea out there, Mr. Trump may think that the storm that followed gives him leverage. He can assume that Arab leaders – in classic transactional terms – could give him something in return if he falls. The idea has a potentially advantageous domestic political angle for Mr. Netanyahu. It has a strong appeal to the right-wing allies that his coalition government depends on, and for whom the Nakba Distribution and Flight of Palestinians around Israel’s creation in 1948 is to be an ideological goal. These potential benefits will neither last long nor get them very far.

Mr. Trump’s relocation idea joins a long list of Washington’s illusions of dismantling the conflict in the Middle East: that Israel is more likely to make peace if treated with indulgence in response to accusations of violation of international law; This resistance to Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories has a military solution; And that the normalization of Israel’s relationship with Arabic states that it is not in conflict can work as an end that runs around dealing with Palestinian removal and denial of self -determination and rights.

In the current environment, proposals for depopulation, whether intended as a practical proposal or not, can be taken easily. This is not just because of the story of partition and displacement. It is also because of what is happening now. Shortly after the Hamas attack on October 7, when Israel expanded its military operations in Gaza, reports appeared That the government had floated plans – later neglected by Mr. Netanyahu – to force Palestinians out of Gaza and into Egypt. Suggestions for “Volunteer” mass development of Palestinians has been sent too In Israeli political circles, including senior officials.

After Mr. Trump’s recent comments, Israeli’s extreme nationalist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, promised To submit an “operational plan” to the government to implement the move. He and other extremists have repeatedly promoted Israeli-Jewish settlement of Gaza.

These shear plans do not end with Gaza. The West Bank, where Israel escalates military operations, is considered by many right -wing extremists in Israel as the real price, and Jordan the preferred destination for Palestinians living there.

None of this also provides a future with certainty for Israelis. They risk creating an even more destabilized environment for the neighbors who are called on to absorb the moving Palestinians, and the shifts would serve as a rally shouting and recruitment for resistance movements throughout the region.

Of course, Mr. Trump known for his bluster, and it is far from clear whether he and Mr. Netanyahu will prioritize this at their meeting. But what if the goal is actually to see this through for implementation? A number of current Trump Administration’s nominees, including Elise Stefany, must be the ambassador of the United Nations and Mike Huckabee, to be an ambassador to Israel, open Lawyer A larger Israel that belongs only to the Jews. Can it even be done?

In many ways, Gaza is actually the demolition site that Mr. Trump has described. Israeli military campaign has wasted 90 percent of housing stock, most public infrastructure, schools, hospitals, mosques, churches and state buildings. If the cannons continue to be silent and Palestinians see no horizon of hope, or even if war resumes, can an atmosphere be created that is more conducive to mass output? Could the degree of financial assistance and military addiction that Jordan and Egypt have on the United States tilt the balance?

Probably not. Israel has failed to defeat neither Hamas nor crush the determination of the Palestinian people. It is difficult to find a sharper contrast than the words pronounced by the US president and the Palestinian population’s resilience as hundreds of thousands have driven back to Northern Gaza in recent days determined to rebuild their lives.

There is nothing suggesting that Arab States would either finance such a shear or play any role in it, including as receiving countries, despite Mr. Trump’s claim of Egypt and Jordan, “They will do it.” On the contrary the opposite – everyone has come out Staunchly in oppositionLast this weekend at a meeting in Cairo of the most important Arab Foreign Ministers who in a joint statement, Rejected “Any effort to encourage the transfer or depletion of Palestinians from their country, in any case or justifications.”

There is a deep contradiction in hearing a president who is proud of deportations and closing his own boundaries of migration that is so generous in volunteering as recipients of population transfers.

It is even more difficult to make the case that the removal of Palestinians should become a political priority for the US government. After all, what possible basic national security interest could it earn? Whatever else is to say about plans to acquire Greenland or the Panama Canal, America would at least be the final recipient. Helps with ethnically cleanse the gaza of the Palestinians? Not so much. It would only further cord that the status of America in the world.

Daniel Levy is the president of the US/Middle East project and served as an Israeli peace dealer at Oslo-B conversations under Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Taba negotiations under Prime Minister Ehud Barak.

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