Could Trump's 'Riviera of the Middle East' plan bring peace?

While US President Donald Trump's latest ideas for the US ownership and US-led reconstruction of the war-battered Gaza Strip were quickly rejected across the Middle East and beyond, it's safe to say that the catchy term "Riviera of the Middle East" will go down in history.

On Tuesday, Trump made several statements about the enclave's future during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington.

"We'll own it" he said, referring to Gaza. He then outlined his steps that aim to turn the conflict-ridden coastal region into the "the Riviera of the Middle East."

As a priority, Trump sees "dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on this site."

Then, the US would "level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings."

The idea is to "create an economic development that will supply an unlimited number of jobs and housing for the people of the area," Trump said.

"I envision the world's people living there," he said, adding that "people can live in harmony and in peace," adding that "Palestinians also, Palestinians will live there. Many people will live there."

For Trump, the "potential in the Gaza Strip is unbelievable," with the opportunity to do something that could be "phenomenal."

However, as the Gaza Strip is not an empty plot fit for investment but home to some 2 million Palestinians, Trump once more suggested — without specifying if this was a temporary or permanent idea — that Palestinians should be "relocated outside Gaza where they can live safely."

Above all, he appealed to Jordan and Egypt to "open their hearts and give us the land that they [the Palestinians] need."

However, Egypt and Jordan remain steadfast in their position that their countries will not take in Palestinians from Gaza.

Following Trump's announcements, both state leaders reiterated on Wednesday that, while their support for the Palestinians was unwavering, so is their rejection of taking in people from the enclave.


Arab countries united in their rejection of Trump's plan

"Giving up Egyptian land is considered taboo, especially in view of the resettlement project, which many Egyptians regard as anti-Palestinian," Stephan Roll from the German Institute for International and Security Affairs said in an interview in late January.

Roll said Egypt's rejectionist stance was based on solidarity and support for the Palestinian quest for statehood.

Meanwhile, Edmund Ratka, who heads the Konrad Adenauer Foundation's office in Amman, told DW on Wednesday that "Jordan is not only a very close ally of the United States, it is also dependent on American aid money."

In his view, Trump's latest statements have put the Jordanian king in an extreme dilemma ahead of their bilateral meeting in Washington next Wednesday.

"On the one hand, King Abdullah II has to keep relations with the USA going and, on the other hand, such a population transfer, such a forced resettlement of Palestinians to Jordan, would be something that the king would not actually be able to convey to his own people politically, or only with great effort," Ratka said.

However, for Ashraf Al-Ashry, the editor-in-chief of the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram, it's obvious that "no Arab leader will accept American or Israeli pressures to undermine or liquidate the Palestinian cause."

Instead, Egypt has its own plan to rebuild Gaza, albeit without displacing any Palestinians, he said.

"Jordan's King Abdullah II and Egypt's President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi will present their own plan to Donald Trump in the next weeks," Al-Ashry told DW.

According to him, reconstruction of Gaza is set to take place over three or four years in various stages.

"It will start with Rafah and the south, continue in the center and Gaza City and will conclude in the north," he said.

"Arab and Gulf countries will contribute a significant amount of money, alongside the European Union, the United Nations Development and Reconstruction Fund, other international organizations and the World Bank," Al-Ashry said.

In his view, a unified Arab rejection will render the American proposal useless as "it is impractical and unrealistic."



Questions remain unanswered

Peter Lintl, an Africa and Middle East expert at the Berlin-based think tank German Institute for International and Security Affairs, also sees Trump's plans as incomplete.

"While Trump highlighted in a seemingly friendly tone that the people in the region will do better and that mainly Jordan and Egypt should take in people, there are also other obvious questions that remain unanswered," he told DW.

"What will he do if the Palestinians don't want to leave the Gaza Strip? Who should propel such a migration and should it be done by force which would equal ethnic cleansing? And what role will the Americans or the Israelis play?" he asked.

In his view, Trump instead was announcing the way he would prefer things to develop.

"Moreover, the idea that this could pacify the conflict in Gaza is nonsense," Lintl said.

More than 47,500 people have died in Israel's 15-month offensive in Gaza, according to the latest figures from Gaza's Hamas-run Health Ministry, a conflict sparked by the Hamas terror attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023 in which some 1,200 Israelis were killed. The conflict has also destroyed much of the coastal enclave.

The Gaza ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants, but the UN and multiple humanitarian organizations consider the casualty numbers broadly reliable.

On Wednesday, the current ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is set to enter the negotiated second out of three phases.

The second phase focuses on the release of the remaining Israeli hostages as well as on the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.

For Lintl, Trump's recent announcements could even result in a delay of reconstruction efforts in Gaza as the warring parties could return to the weapons at any time.

Lintl said the current ceasefire could grow more fragile if the Palestinian side saw its bargaining power disappear.


DW