Trump’s final solution

THE EDITOR, Madam:

On the evening of February 4, 2025, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump stood side by side at the White House to announce the results of their much-anticipated meeting. It is now clear what Trump intends to do about the Palestinians, Gaza and the West Bank.

First, he envisages the relocation of the 1.7 million survivors of Israeli-US genocide to other Arab nations, notably Egypt and Lebanon. He avers that neither the West Bank nor Gaza is safe; it is loaded with unexploded munitions; most of the buildings have been bombed, so there is no place to live; many of the half-bombed buildings pose a hazard. The clearance of the rubble, rebuilding, would take 10 to 15 years.And even if the Palestinians returned from resettlement, a war would still break out in the future, re-devastating the area. Palestine lacks the basic amenities, infrastructure, for survival. No sense living there. Resettle.

Second, he envisages Gaza being taken over by the Americans. His nation would rebuild it into a beautiful and safe living, leisure and working space. The Strip borders the sea; it would be like a Riviera. It would create, peace, wealth and employment. Would the Palestinians be allowed to return and make this their future homeland? Fat chance. History proves that Palestinians must not live in this area. It would become a hellhole all over again! International groups or a cosmopolitan nation would return there, including Palestinians, to make their fortunes.

Third, both the resettlement of Palestinians and the reconstruction of the Strip would be funded by the wealthy Arab states. Settled in their new homelands in various Arab states, the Palestinians would lead lives of peace, prosperity, free from war, beautiful lives. How does he know these wealthy Arab states would fund his fantasies? Because he will ask them (threaten them) to.

Fourth, asked if he agrees with the Jewish/Israeli claim that Biblical Samaria, the current North West Bank, belonged to Israel, he says an announcement would be made on this within four weeks. The West Bank is 2,173 square miles; the Gaza Strip, 141 square miles. The former is peppered with Israeli settlements on land seized by Israeli settlers over the last 50 years. The Strip is Israel’s colonial project; heavily militarised, controlling and sanctioning goods and services entering and leaving, including daily inflows to Egypt in the south, and Israel itself. It is Israel’s apartheid project.

Is Trump dumb?

Doesn’t he know that following World War One, after the British obtained a mandate for Palestine from the League of Nations in 1922, Palestine encompassed not only Gaza, the West Bank, but modern Israel and modern Jordan (Transjordan)? That, in 1948, following a UN resolution to establish a Jewish State of Israel, mostly for European Jews and Holocaust survivors, the independence of Jordan, and the forced expulsion of Arab Palestinians by Jews, during the Nakba (for Arabs, catastrophe) in an Arab-Israeli war, the Palestinians were left with the West Bank and Gaza? That is, just over one-third of the size of current Israel (8,522 square miles)? Does Trump want to snatch this last inch of land from the Palestinians too?

Did Trump or his agents consult with the Palestinians? Ask them what they want? Consult with the proverbial ‘international community’? The UN? The Arab League?

WAYNE KUBLALSINGH