POLL: Should Gaza Be Turned Into Dubai?
What do you think of Trump's Gaza suggestion?
We have differing opinions here at Aeon over Gaza and Israel.
I’m of the personal opinion that Muslim Palestinians have no greater claim to the area than Jews, seeing as Islam wouldn’t even exist of Israel hadn’t been around first. And there would be no Muslims in Palestine at all if it weren’t for the Muslim invading armies that swarmed the area starting around the 7th century.
What about the ancient Canaanites? Aren’t they the “real” Palestinians? They were polytheists and Mohammed would have had their heads chopped off.
Palestinian Muslims have any number of other Muslim countries to move to. Muslims want Palestine not because it’s a great place to live, but because Muslim is at heart a conquering religion, and Israel is that itchy spot they want to remove.
Does this mean the Israeli government is all sweetness and light? No. But don’t kid yourself for one second about Muslim world domination plans.
At any rate, Trump has this wacky plan to turn Gaza into a resort city. Why the hell not? Nothing else has fixed the place. Could homes be given to the existing inhabitants? Hell, could one massive skyscraper house most of them in luxury? It’s entirely possible.
I’m sick and tired of the fighting over this area. Maybe if Gaza is turned into another Dubai people will be too fat and happy to bother with it anymore. No, suggesting this is NOT ethnic cleansing. I’m saying, give these people money, homes, whatever. But turn that hellhole into something better so terrorists can’t breed in a sewage of poverty and resentment.
Here’s a poll…what do you think?
Billions of dollars in aid was poured into Gaza. Hamas stole most of it.
Hamas has from the start calibrated its attacks on Israel to maximize casualties among the Arabs in Gaza.
The investment Trump wishes to make has already been made. And here we are.
As for removing the Arabs from Gaza....where are they going to go? They have been expelled from Jordan and Lebanon, and Egypt is determined not to let any refugees from Gaza cross their border.
No one wants to take them in. The Arabs in the West Bank fought a civil war with. Hamas over control of the Palestinian National Authority in 2006, which makes moving them over to the West Bank problematic.
Ideologically, the al-Qaeda derived radicals now in charge of Syria are probably the closest to Hamas, but I suspect al-Jolani is not going to want to deal with another competing power group.
Trump's proposal sounds great in theory. I don't see it working in reality, and I would not want the US entangled in trying to make it work. That's a scenario that has "disaster" written all over it.
Saudi Arabia has suggested an alternate solution to end the perpetual conflict in the region: move the entire population of Israeli to Greenland, once Donald Trump buys it.
I would add that this approach has a much greater chance of bringing peace to the entire region than relocating the Palestinians would. It would also have the advantage of providing ready-made housing for all the Palestinians whose houses were destroyed by the Israelis.
Before any pro-Israeli types fly into outrage over the Saudi proposal, perhaps you could meditate for a moment on how it would feel to have the shoe on the other foot.