Welcome to this week’s installment of The Intelligence Brief… over the last 48 hours, world leaders have expressed concerns over a controversial new Gaza plan aired by U.S. President Donald Trump during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday. In our analysis, we’ll be looking at 1) why the President’s plan has sparked backlash, 2) what U.S. allies in the Middle East have said about the controversial plan, 3) how the White House seemed to walk back the notion of “boots on the ground” following the announcement, and 4) what the future implications and overall diplomatic fallout of the situation could end up being.
Quote of the Week
“Trump’s proposal for Gaza is met with disbelief, opposition and sarcasm, but as he often does, in his brutal and clumsy way, he raises a real question: What to do when two million civilians find themselves in a field of ruins, full of explosives and corpses?”
– Gérard Araud, former Ambassador of France to the United States
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Trump’s Gaza Plan Sparks Backlash Amid Middle East Tensions
This week, President Donald Trump took the world by surprise with an unnerving proposal to relocate Palestinians from Gaza and allocate the war-torn territory under U.S. administration.
The plan was aired during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who visited the White House this week. At that time, Trump suggested that Gaza’s population should be relocated to other countries that would be willing to accept them, effectively displacing Gaza’s estimated 2.3 million residents in a regional rebuilding effort.
Trump further described transforming Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East,” an idea that Netanyahu praised as “remarkable” and worthy of pursuing.
Not unexpectedly, the plan was widely criticized—particularly by U.S. allies in the Middle East—with many arguing that the proposal not only would violate international law, but that forced population transfers the likes of which the President proposed would be considered a war crime under the Geneva Conventions.
Fierce Opposition to Trump’s Gaza Plan
Chief among the Arab nations who pushed back on the plan were Jordan and Egypt, which have maintained longstanding peace treaties with Israel. Both vehemently opposed any large-scale displacement of Palestinians, with Jordan’s King Abdullah II warning of destabilization that would result in his country, with more than half of his country’s population comprised of individuals with Palestinian heritage.
Similarly, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi also rejected Trump’s idea, stating that “hundreds of thousands of Hamas supporters” would not be allowed to cross into Egypt. However, despite the Arab leaders’ firm opposition to Trump’s proposal, both countries remain reliant on U.S. financial aid, and some have said it is possible the U.S. is already attempting to leverage financial incentives over countries like Egypt.
“Egyptian reports suggest that the US offered financial incentives including debt relief to Egypt in exchange for accepting such a plan,” according to Gilad Wenig, a PhD candidate in sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles, although he notes that Egypt’s president reportedly rejected the alleged offer. Still, Wenig says the circulation of such claims by the Egyptian media probably reaffirms Egypt’s current position on potential resettlement and “rehabilitates Sisi’s image as a defender of Palestinian rights.”
The White House “Takes a Step Back” about “Boots on the Ground”
Amid the controversy that has erupted this week, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt fired back at questions about the plan during a media briefing, maintaining that “The President has not committed to putting boots on the ground in Gaza.”
“He has also said that the United States is not going to pay for the rebuilding of Gaza,” Leavitt added. “His administration is going to work with our partners in the region to reconstruct this region.”
“And let me just take a step back here,” Leavitt went on to add, characterizing the President’s statement on Gaza as “an out-of-the-box idea.”
“That’s who President Trump is. That’s why the American people elected him, and his goal is lasting peace in the Middle East for all people in the region.”
“That does not mean boots on the ground in Gaza,” Leavitt said. “It does not mean American taxpayers will be funding this effort. It means Donald Trump, who is the best dealmaker on the planet, is going to strike a deal with our partners in the region.”
Diplomatic Fallout and Future Implications
Of key consideration in the fracas that has erupted around Trump’s plan is that the surprise proposal has effectively now overshadowed ongoing ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas, as well as discussions on the post-war governance of Gaza.
The Biden administration previously explored the potential of assembling an international coalition of nations, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the UAE, to oversee Gaza’s reconstruction. The last administration’s proposal was based on assumptions that Hamas would be removed from power.
Now, Trump’s unexpected intervention—which also saw significant pushback from many American lawmakers and even some of the President’s allies—has complicated ongoing diplomatic efforts in the region. Some Arab leaders have expressed concerns that the U.S. may attempt to force them into accepting an unwanted solution to one of the region’s greatest challenges.
Additionally, skepticism hangs over the U.S.’s ability to sustain long-term state-building projects in the Middle East. The shadow of the U.S.’s catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan still lingers, causing many international observers to worry that Trump’s Gaza plan is unlikely to succeed, if it materializes at all.
Despite the concerns the President raised with his proposal this week, Karoline Leavitt, speaking from the White House on Wednesday, maintained assurances that there were no firm commitments to putting “boots on the ground. ” It was nonetheless clear, however, that the administration believes the U.S. would be involved in rebuilding efforts in the region in some capacity.
“We’ve had the same people pushing the same solution to this problem for decades,” Leavitt said.
“It’s been made very clear to the President that the United States needs to be involved in this rebuilding effort to ensure stability in the region for all people.”
That concludes this week’s installment of The Intelligence Brief. You can read past editions of our newsletter at our website, or if you found this installment online, don’t forget to subscribe and get future email editions from us here. Also, if you have a tip or other information you’d like to send along directly to me, you can email me at micah [@] thedebrief [dot] org, or reach me on X: @MicahHanks.
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