US President Donald Trump spoke with Jordan’s King Abdullah on Saturday, which was an important first step in the administration beginning to get a grip on foreign policy in the region.
Trump has already spoken with the Saudi crown prince, his first conversation with a leader in the region. According to reports from CNN, the US president has floated an idea for housing some Gazans abroad while Gaza is rebuilt.
It’s important to note that Abdullah and Trump have known each other since Trump’s first term. The king was one of the first foreign leaders to go to Washington and speak to Trump, 10 days after he was inaugurated in 2017.
Now, the two leaders have spoken about what the future holds. It should be noted that the first time around the Jordanian king did not get what he wanted from Trump. Quite the opposite. One of his main concerns was the US moving the embassy to Jerusalem.
This time, the US president has a potentially bigger ask than last time, when it was the Jordanians doing the asking. “President Donald Trump indicated Saturday that he had spoken with the king of Jordan about potentially building housing and moving more than 1 million Palestinians from Gaza to neighboring countries, a remarkable proposal from a sitting US president,” CNN reported.
Palestine and Jordan
Jordan already has a large population of Palestinians, primarily people who fled the 1948 war, and also the 1967 war. The kingdom has faced tensions in the past over this issue. Many of the Palestinian groups that oppose Israel formed cells in refugee camps in Jordan in the 1960s.
This led to clashes with Israeli forces at places like Karameh. Later there was a short civil war in Jordan when Palestinian terrorists tried to harm the king. The groups were forced to leave but Jordan was never the same. It is always on edge.
Demography matters in Jordan. The kingdom is based on Bedouin tribes and also Arabs who live in northern Jordan, who combine to back the kingdom. However, the Palestinians and other refugees who have come, such as Iraqis and Syrians, have had an impact on the country.
The kingdom is vulnerable and relatively poor. Adding more Gazans to that mix is probably not something Jordan wants. But it may take in a token number to please the American president.
“I said to him that I’d love you to take on more, because I’m looking at the whole Gaza Strip right now and it’s a mess, it’s a real mess,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, the CNN report noted. The report also noted that “the kingdom is already home to more than 2.39 million registered Palestinian refugees, according to the UN.”
TRUMP HAS big ideas for Gaza apparently, and his next call will apparently be to Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. This is the second time in a week he has discussed the Strip as a “demolition site.” He spoke to reporters while signing executive orders after the inauguration about how Gaza could be rebuilt. He argued that its position on the Mediterranean gave it many opportunities.
He’s right, but the fact that Hamas controls it and the damage from the war make this difficult.“You’re talking about a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing,” Trump said. “I don’t know, something has to happen, but it’s literally a demolition site right now. Almost everything’s demolished and people are dying there, so I’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing in a different location where I think they could maybe live in peace for a change.”
The challenge for Trump in Gaza is that he’s not the first person to think that the enclave could be rebuilt and become a success. After the Israeli withdrawal in 2005, several well-meaning people funded the acquisition of the greenhouses in the former Israeli communities in Gaza.
This plan was pushed by US envoy James Wolfensohn. Around $14 million was raised from people who wanted to acquire the greenhouses and hand them over to Gazans. The money was raised, but many of the greenhouses were destroyed by the Gazans anyway.
The greenhouses aren’t the only example of good ideas that sank in Gaza’s sand. A lot of investment flowed into Gaza after the 2009 war. Reconstruction was supposed to help transform some areas in Gaza into modern houses and model communities. It worked for a time.
However, the Hamas attack on October 7 has led to ruin in many of those areas. Another example of fanciful ideas for Gaza was the idea to build an artificial island off the coast as if Gaza was similar to the UAE.
Moving Gazans out of Gaza has been proposed. In the past, some have discussed the idea of re-settling Gazans in Sinai. Egypt has always been sensitive to such proposals. Egypt will be sensitive today. They don’t want a million Gazans who they know Israel will likely prevent from returning.
Another hurdle for Trump’s proposal is likely Israel’s own leadership. If Trump takes a deep interest in Gaza and rebuilding it, he won’t want it destroyed due to another war. That would make it harder for Israel to operate in Gaza and it’s plausible Hamas would want to hide within any newly constructed areas. Israel’s government also opposes the Palestinian Authority running Gaza.
Therefore there doesn’t seem to be an alternative presented to Hamas rule. Trump’s ideas for rebuilding Gaza and turning it into a successful beachfront state, kind of like a large Miami, face many hurdles. Hamas may not even be the biggest hurdle.