President Donald Trump stated his interest in seeing the United States take ownership of the Palestinian territory of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday. At a White House press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump argued that American ownership of Gaza would lead to the Palestinian territory being transformed from a Hamas-dominated dystopia to a place of prosperity and peace.
Asked whether he would order U.S. military forces to secure Gaza, Trump responded, "We'll do what's necessary." The president added that he wanted the U.S. to take a "long-term ownership" interest in Gaza that would see both Palestinians and the "people of the world" living there. Trump reemphasized his plan for most of the Palestinians now living in Gaza to be relocated to neighboring countries.
Trump's aspirations for a durable Israeli-Palestinian peace are moral. But his policy as presented is one of self-immolation. It is plainly at odds with U.S. security interests.
Contrary to the president's claims, the forcible relocation of Palestinians out of Gaza and/or the American abandonment of Palestinian interests in any sense of statehood is a nonstarter for U.S. regional allies. It would lead to a breach in U.S. relations with key security partner Jordan and greatly undermine U.S. relations with the Sunni Arab monarchies. Moreover, a move to assert U.S. ownership over Gaza would make the U.S. a direct party to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It would catalyze organized jihadist recruitment, mobilization, and action against U.S. interests. It would also greatly encourage increased jihadist terrorism against the U.S. by so-called lone wolf attackers and other "inspired" small group actors.
This is not a debatable point. Their many disagreements and hatreds with and toward one another notwithstanding, a unifying raison d'être of the leaders of Salafi-Jihadist, Shia-Khomeneist, and most other preeminent Islamic extremist terrorist movements is the subversion of secular democratic individualism with Islamic law. They despise America as the world's foremost democracy. Still, the primary ground-level cause for jihadist recruitment against America is rooted in two other factors: first, the perception of unjust American military occupations in places such as Iraq and Afghanistan, and second, the perception of unjust American military and political support for Israel.
To be sure, these perceptions are not cause for American foreign policy changes to placate jihadists. Israel has a right to exist, and America should support the defense of the Middle East's only true democracy. And as the Hamas atrocities of Oct. 7, 2023, so plainly illustrated, to yield to these terrorists is to invite atrocities against innocents. But alongside Trump's simultaneous suggestion on Tuesday that the U.S. will soon recognize Israeli sovereignty over the entirety of the West Bank, it is clear that the president is adopting a far more antagonistic stance against even the most moderate Palestinian and Arab allied political agendas.
In turn, Trump's suggestion of taking ownership of land that does not, in any historic or politically legitimate sense, belong to America is a grand gift for jihadist propaganda. If effected in any sense, it will inspire violence and antipathy by Muslims against America, and it will cost a large number of American military and civilian lives. Again, Trump is basically talking about replacing the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza with the U.S. Army and Marine Corps. This is not a recipe for prosperity and peace, it is a recipe for brutal, prolonged urban warfare — oh, and in an environment unlike that in cities in 2003-2011 Iraq, where there was at least some resident support for U.S. efforts to counter terrorists. Trump's Gaza deployment would make the ill-fated early 1980s U.S. military deployment to Lebanon look like a cakewalk in comparison.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The better course for Trump is to endorse Israeli efforts to exert pressure on Hamas, secure remaining Israeli hostages, and secure regional buy-in for a post-Hamas governing structure in Gaza — a structure that matches Israeli security needs to the longer-term interest of a Palestinian territory defined by growing prosperity and hope rather than one defined by corruption and fanatical despair.
But pitting the U.S. as an occupying force against Palestinian identity and global Muslim sentiment is not in America's favor, nor, in any sense, is it compatible with Trump's oft-stated interest in avoiding "stupid wars."