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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   35724 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of February 3, 2025

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Trump, in Shock Announcement, Says U.S. Will Take Over Gaza After Permanently Displacing Palestinians

U.S. President Donald Trump made the shocking announcement on Tuesday during a joint press conference with visiting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he will pursue a plan where the U.S. assumes ownership of Gaza, shortly after calling for the permanent displacement of the Strip's residents.

"The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip and we'll do a good job with it too. We'll own it and be responsible for dismantling all the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out and create economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area," he said.

When asked if this meant that Trump would send U.S. troops to Gaza, he said "if it's necessary, we'll do that. We're gonna take over that piece and develop it, create thousands and thousands of jobs. It will be something the entire Middle East can be very proud of."

Now there are a few problems with this. One is that Egypt and Jordan, the obvious candidates, are absolutely against it. Second is that it will be horribly embarrassing when an American soldier gets blown up by unexploded American ordnance that was donated to Israel. It's also somewhat incoherent - he's going to make it into some kind of big multicultural party zone?

"I envision the world's people living there. You'll make it into an international, unbelievable place. The entire world will be there - Palestinians also - many people will live there.

The US does have lots of leverage over Egypt though, their economy has been on the cusp of collapse for a while now. So maybe Trump's increased willingness to deploy coercion will bear fruit here.

I don't think this is a realistic solution but somehow think it's still more realistic than just going back to the pre-10/7 status quo of waiting until a bunch of Islamists launch another attack on Israel. If you start with the presuppositions that Israel should exist as a Jewish state, that Israel is an important American ally, and that coexistence with a Palestinian state isn't possible, what are you left with? I'm not saying you should adopt those presuppositions, but they seem to be what Trump is working from.

There's nothing left. Within those parameters there's no solution (besides genocide) except maybe to have stayed in Gaza and controlled enough of the border with Egypt to tamp down on smuggling and perhaps break the whole thing into a bunch of units that'd be expensive to manage in blood and money. But Trump, the alleged ally of Israel, was one of the people to push for the ceasefire because the war had bad headlines and everyone was exhausted.

So going back to the status quo is all that remains.

There's nowhere to put the Palestinians. Forcing them on Egypt or Jordan risks the entire state collapsing or worse, becoming a Palestinian launching pad.

Bring them to the US a la Freddie DeBoer? Even if Trump wasn't who he was, it'd make the American-born Irish's flirtations and funding of the IRA look mild in comparison. Even Europe must have limits to its masochism. There's ample evidence they're bad (or delusional) neighbors.

The displacement - Phase 1 - can't happen, and America simply isn't going to dedicate the necessary troops to manage a non-ethnically cleansed Gaza for Israel. So I guess Israel is just going to have to live with it and the US will send them weapons and a carrier if things get really hairy.

Putting aside the morality of demographic warfare, the Arabs have very successfully put Israel in a box here.

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