History Will Continue Its Dismal Course

Give Donald Trump credit. In a stunning eruption last week, he proposed to annex Gaza and expel whatever inhabitants refuse to leave, generating a nifty waterfront investment opportunity in the bargain.

- ROBERT GRENIER

It may seem counterintuitive, but he has done Palestinians a great favor. He has not 'killed' the two-state solution. That had long since died. Instead, he has added useful clarity to a pernicious situation.

The horrific Israeli onslaught of the past 15 months, following the terrorist outrage of 7 October 2023, is but the latest iteration of a recurrent pattern of Israeli repression, futile Palestinian resistance, and grossly disproportionate Israeli reprisal.

Whether or not Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu returns to the killing fields as promised, there will be no permanent end of hostilities so long as the underlying dynamic holds. As Trump has pointed out, when you do the same thing over and over, "you end up in the same place".

But that's as far as credit can go. Needless to say, Trump's proposal is absurd on its face. Most Gazans surely would refuse to leave. Trump concedes that US troops will not force them. Neither Egypt nor Jordan, alone or in concert, will accept two million Palestinians, for multiple obvious reasons. And the Saudi leadership has made clear that they will not stand exposed before the entire Islamic world to finance ethnic cleansing on Israel's behalf. In short, this half-baked idea is going nowhere.

Simultaneously, Trump was asked whether his proposed American seizure of Gaza would be combined with US support for Israel's annexation of the West Bank. He promised an answer in a month. Predicting Trump is a fool's errand, but he has telegraphed his response. His key Mideast advisers are loud proponents of Israeli annexation. Trump's prospective support may be the push which emboldens Netanyahu to do what he transparently desires, but to date has not dared.