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The Trump Plan for Gaza Offers a Realistic Chance to Bring Peace

(Newsweek) Amb. David Friedman - The President's plan for Gaza signals a long overdue rejection of the "two-state solution." Back in 2005, when Israel removed its entire civilian population and military presence from Gaza, the Bush administration told the Palestinian Authority that this was its chance to prove to the world that it could create a working model of peaceful coexistence that could be extrapolated to Palestinian statehood. The experiment failed almost immediately, but its death knell occurred on Oct. 7. President Trump's plan would allow the civilian population of Gaza to leave the demolished enclave, something refugees have done from every war zone in history. Some had argued that removing the civilian population from Gaza is a war crime. This is false: Gaza is unlivable, and moving the civilian population out of Gaza represents the best of humanitarian intentions. Most civilians in Gaza were desperate to leave long before the latest war began, for the simple reason that living under Hamas rule was a nightmare even before Gaza was turned to rubble. It is nothing but a smear to suggest that allowing desperate civilians to voluntarily leave a war zone is a crime; it is Gazans' leaders who have committed war crimes. Many of the people of Gaza elected Hamas, and many supported and cheered Hamas when it kidnapped, murdered, raped, burned, and tortured Israeli civilians. From a moral perspective, they have forfeited the right to the land which they have destroyed. As an additional important benefit, when the Islamic world sees that Hamas has lost its hold on Gaza and that the nightmare of Hamas has been replaced with a new reality of peace and prosperity, the suicidal psychosis of radical Islam will suffer a crushing blow. The writer is a former U.S. ambassador to Israel.
2025-02-13 00:00:00
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