Mr. Trump has reiterated his intention to expel Palestinians from the Gaza Strip as part of his plan for the United States to “own” the territory, and on Monday he suggested he could consider slashing aid to Jordan and Egypt if their governments refused to take in an estimated 1.9 million Palestinians from Gaza.
February 11, 2025
"King Abdullah cannot go along with it. He cannot survive the idea that he’s colluding on the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. It’s existential for him and his government."
Said Paul Salem, vice president for international engagement at the Middle East Institute, quoted in "Jordan’s King Faces a Bind as He Meets With Trump/King Abdullah II, a close U.S. ally dependent on aid from Washington, is confronting the president’s demands that he take in Palestinians from Gaza, a step the king’s domestic politics will not allow" (NYT).
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75 comments:
Trump is changing the plot. The idea could be that anything is preferable to perpetual war.
ethnic cleansing? No one is suggesting the Gazan's be rounded up and killed. The contrary. Everyone is sick of them - and they need a place to land - because they destroy their own space with their never ending hatred and terrorism. Oct 7th was the last straw.
The Palestinians have had decades and decades of chances to form their own State. They refuse every-time - because their hatred of Israel and Jews is more important to them.
The Middle East Dispute Is About Religion, Not Land
Nobody wants to be neighbors with rage-filled eternal victims who vote for terrorists as leaders. Israel wants peace. Palestinians demand never-ending war. and torture tunnels.
Is it any wonder the American left adore the eternal victims?
The King of Jordan should be willing to take in numbers commensurate with the number his predecessor(s) expelled a few decades ago. Sounds like Justice to me.
"Nobody wants to be neighbors with rage-filled eternal victims who vote for terrorists as leaders."
That's right! That's why there's so much enmity around the world toward the Government of Israel.
The Jordanians have been there and done that. The king's concern is not for the Palis but for his own people.
Anywhere that Palis go, they attempt to take over, and in some cases they succeed, as in Lebanon. In that way, they are just good Muslims.
Trump can't make expelled Palistinians behave, and any hosts they may find will be sick of them in short order.
If the entire Greater Middle East isn't a smoking ruin in a year, I'll be surprised.
Cook has the loyal lefty line.
Tired.
I think that Trump first puts out an audacious impossible idea that makes people upset and confused. Squirrel!!!! Gets them to breathlessly begin twirling. Then... he proposes the idea that he really wants to advance. One that seems like he is backing down a bit and is reasonable. The people think that they have made a better deal and Trump makes the deal he wanted in the first place.
Art of the Deal...101
Also the art of dealing with balky teenagers 😉
We didn't know what was really going on in the Biden years because our leaders were lying to us. It's hard now to know what is going on because everything is the initial offer or proposal that we know won't be the final result. We aren't going to annex Canada or Greenland, or take back the Panama Canal, or take over Gaza, or deport the Gazans. So what's next?
Nobody wants Palestinians
I'm with Cookie on this one. Squirrel, nut. Israel is making it increasingly clear that it wants to have peace with its neighbors, just as soon as those neighbors have relocated on the other side of the Euphrates. But as a practical matter, Jordan tried taking in large numbers of Palestinian refugees, and they attempted to overthrow his government. And very nearly succeeded. As I recall, an assassin shot one of his ministers in the head, then knelt and lapped up his blood. The King of Jordan drove most of them out, into Lebanon, where they proceeded to do the same thing. Though I don't know whether there was any lapping of blood.
Unreconstructed Stalinst Cookie: "That's right! That's why there's so much enmity around the world toward the Government of Israel."
LOL
Which neighboring governments did the Arabs that fled Israel at the behest of the Arab League attempt to overhrow?
Jordan and Lebanon.
Which nations in the Middle East and beyond remember this fact?
All of them.
What happened to the Arabs (and muslims from Turkey, Syria, Egypt etc who were drawn to what would become Israel after the Ottoman occupation and British Mandate control from the late 1800's to the 1940's) that did not folliw the Arab League's directive to flee Israel in 1948?
They have flourished and have grown in population to 2,000,000. Fully 20% of the total Israeli population.
The people think that they have made a better deal and Trump makes the deal he wanted in the first place.
Yeah, I suspect what Trump is hoping for is that neighboring Arab countries shoulder the financial burden of rebuilding Gaza and supporting Palestinians there, as well as possibly running administrative and police functions there.
We've got the old Tar Baby Analogy come to life, writ large. Trump has got them to admit no one wants the "refugees" because they ruin every place they've been "temporarily" housed. Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon. The UN partitioned the area in 1948! Israel accepted and "Palestine" did not. This same scenario has played out in history, other places many times, and the proper way to deal with borders you cannot abide is to declare war, which Palestine also did.
They lost.
They've kept fighting while begging the world to supply them with food water and armas.
It cannot last.
Trump's opening gambit is not the solution, but we are closer to have the players in the region step up to the table and declare their own interests.
Where does fat-ass/dim-brain Trump get the idea we can just "buy" Gaza...or Greenland, for that matter, or absorbing Canada as a new US state? Is he purposely spouting bullshit to obfuscate his actual plans, or is he truly so stupid and callous that he thinks other states are mere baubles to be purchased "for the right price." Trump reveals with his every statement and action how arid is his mind of any thought or impulse other than raw avarice.
The historian Andrew Roberts has a piece about how a defeated country and its political leadership should be removed after a war. He cited an incident from WW 2 where a large group of ethnic Germans were removed from Poland.
Narr said...
The Jordanians have been there and done that. The king's concern is not for the Palis but for his own people.
Jordanians definitely worry about taking in more Palestinians to their country given the attempted takeover in the past and the strain on resources they would be , however I think most Arabs in the region do care very much about Palestinians being forcibly relocated out of Gaza. I don't think that Arabs in the region care that much about any suffering of Palestinians in Gaza, but Palestinians being pushed out of Gaza is another matter.
"We've got the old Tar Baby Analogy come to life, writ large. Trump has got them to admit no one wants the "refugees" because they ruin every place they've been "temporarily" housed."
Maybe they should be allowed to live unmolested in their place in Gaza and in larger Israel.
Robert Cook:
Where did Jefferson ever get the idea he could buy all that land from France?
ethnic cleansing? No one is suggesting the Gazan's be rounded up and killed.
Not not ethnic cleansing. It's more like property rehabilitation, remediation of polluted grounds, restoration of coastline. If only our resident Leftists were as environmentally sensitive as President Trump.
Cook has the loyal lefty line.
Which is what the Far Right was accused of believing and saying just a few years ago. How weird.
Cook says re: Trump " Is he purposely spouting bullshit to obfuscate his actual plans, or is he truly so stupid and callous that he thinks other states are mere baubles to be purchased "for the right price."
Twirl baby twirl. Chase that squirrel.
Cook are you aware Greenland has scheduled a nationwide referendum on independence from Denmark so they will be free to make their own deal with the US?
Art of the deal.
No purchase required.
We get the bases and heavy metals after all. Win win win win. So cope and seethe some more. I know it sucked to lose the Cold War, but it's over Cook. Move on.
I think most Arabs in the region do care very much about Palestinians being forcibly relocated out of Gaza.
Lip service only. If they really cared they would take them in. They want it to remain Israel's problem. I'm starting to think there could be a Greenland or Sierra Leone component to the eventual solution.
"Where did Jefferson ever get the idea he could buy all that land from France?"
The land he bought was located in the continental US. The world--and the US--was in a period of great development and expansion. It was not untoward for him to think France might be amenable to selling it. And they were.
By contrast, Greenland is a body of land far away, near the North Pole, and Iceland has expressed they have no interest in selling Greenland to to the us. Moreover, it is a complete non sequitur to talk about buying Greenland. It has not been previously spoken of or discussed at all, and it has nothing to do with the needs of Americans, particularly the needs of many Americans who, misled, voted for Trump.
Sorry, I meant Denmark when I was erroneously typing "Iceland."
Of course, Israel wants to equate the Palestinians with the Nazis. It's hardly an accurate analogy, but it's in their interest. It's sad that so many people unquestioningly believe it. Lord Roberts of Belgravia sinks lower every year in my estimation.
I'm surprised that nobody has suggested the most compassionate idea, which is to give the Palestinians a choice - say, between Iran and Afghanistan. Then re-settle them according to their choice and be done with it. They need to be the guest of a country with people at least as ruthless and vicious as they are, and these are a good fit. With the added attraction, that it will keep all parties occupied and out of mischief, at least for a while.
I don't understand why they don't just relocate the Palestinians to Iran. They seem to share a terrorist ideaology and should acclimate well in the new country.
Grumpy Old Democrat said...
"In my day we called it 'urban renewal,' and we liked it!"
Jordan has a king. Isn't that kind of weird in 2025? Also, Jordan has attacked Israel multiple times, starting in 1948, when King Abdullah tasked his supposedly crack Arab Legion to destroy Israel rather than accepting the U.N. partition plan. Jordan should bear some responsibility for cleaning up the mess it largely caused.
Oh it's a Tar Baby all right, Cook. Egypt seized the Gaza Strip from Israel during the '48 six-day war. Then in the '60s they pushed all the refugees into it and sealed it off (somewhat). This was not Israel's actions. It was Egypt's. But the "refugees" won't stop bombing and murdering their neighbors. You say it's Israel's fault, but Israel never starts the wars and they are then obligated to finish it.
Perhaps you don't recall there was a ceasefire and "peace deal" in place on October 7. Israel did not violate the order. Israel did not exert any control over Gaza since they gave it back to the Palestinians in 2005. You have chosen a side, a position, but you don't get to make up your own facts.
Nobody wants to live around murderous, retarded savages with paranoid rage. I suspect it won't be long before the USA president is looking for other countries to accept our Democrat Party members.
If they really cared they would take them in.
I don't think there is a large amount of care in the region for the momentary well-being of Palestinians. When I say that I believe the Arabs in the region do care about Palestinians being forcibly relocated out of Gaza I don't believe their care is because they think that will be hard on Palestinians or negatively affect their well-being. I think that care is because they want an Arab/Muslim identity to be attached to that land. If they take Palestinians in, it might be better for the material well-being of Palestinians, but again I don't think folks care about that very much, but it would remove that Arab/Muslim identity from that land, which I believe they do care very much about.
Why do White Leftists like Obama and Co - like to ship so much American Tax payer money to the Islamic Supremacist Theocracy of Iran?
Jew hate! Hamas money - laundered.
Moreover, it is a complete non sequitur to talk about buying Greenland. It has not been previously spoken of or discussed at all.
So often wrong. Never in doubt. LOL Here's an article that The Guardian published in 2019, where Trump says of his offer to buy Greenland, "“Essentially it’s a large real estate deal." Old fashioned cut&paste do-it-yerself link below.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/18/trump-considering-buying-greenland
Cook is stuck - & not asking the right questions.
Israel does not belong to the Palestinians. None of it.
I wrote over year ago that Israel should have, in response to 10/7, simply cut all land routes to Gaza, mine the borders 500 meters deep, cut the water and the power lines and let the Gazans and the rest of the world figure out what to do about it.
This war will continue forever- the two sides will never live together in peace.
Mike Wolf - 11:04.
that.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/06/04/israel-50-years-occupation-abuses">I guess you're unfamiliar with a half-century of Israeli oppression of the Palestinians.
This was not Israel's actions. It was Egypt's.
Not at all true. The Egyptians only occupied Gaza. The refugees came from other parts of Palestine that were occupied by Israel. Egypt might have prevented them from entering Egypt proper. Israel prevented them from reentering what became Israel.
Israel does not belong to the Palestinians. None of it.
So, from the river to the sea, Israel will be free?
They supported, supported the ethnic cleansing of Jews and people trapped under the Democratic rule of Fatah, Hamas, et al. Here's to the Semitic Spring?
There is an Islamic state in Europe. Send them to Kosovo.
Why do White Leftists like Obama and Co - like to ship so much American Tax payer money to the Islamic Supremacist Theocracy of Iran?
Dreams of his father, the Kenyan elite vs deplorables.
ethnic cleansing? No one is suggesting the Gazan's be rounded up and killed.
Really?! Lots of commenters on this site have suggested that. In fact, I think it was you that suggested Israel turn Gaza into glass.
Regardless, ethnic cleansing does not necessarily involve mass murder, no matter how much you deny the accepted definition of ethnic cleansing.
“So, from the river to the sea, Israel will be free?”
Yes. Even if it takes going from the liver to the knee.
Israel prevented them from reentering what became Israel.
Lazarus, by then it WAS Israel by them accepting the UN partition. They have a right to control their borders. The fate of the Palestinians is not Israel's responsibility.
Regardless, ethnic cleansing does not necessarily involve mass murder, no matter how much you deny the accepted definition of ethnic cleansing.
So a population of 200,000 or so that grows to over 2,000,000 is "ethnic cleansing" by your definition? Wait until you hear how the Arab and other neighboring countries treated their Jewish populations!
DBQ is correct. Make an absurd statement. Get everyone in the area to start talking about the problem. Be the mediator. Propose a sane solution.
Re. Greenland. Of course we don't want to buy Greenland. What Trump accomplished was to get Greenland talking about their own independence from Denmark. Once Greenland is it's own independent state the US can propose to make Greenland a protectorate in exchange for military bases. Thereby cutting England out of the deal.
Might not be a problem any more after Saturday’s noon deadline for Hamas to release ALL of the hostages or “all hell will break loose.”
The Elite American left think Israel should exit the land and give it all to the people who behave like savages no matter what. Also the left - they adore Antifa thugs who commit arson.
Wait until you hear how the Arab and other neighboring countries treated their Jewish populations!
Didn't your mother tell you that two wrongs do not make a right?
What Trump accomplished was to get Greenland talking about their own independence from Denmark.
That discussion was going on long before Trump had his stupid idea.
I wonder if Trump even knows what happened in Jordan the last time they let in a bunch of Palestinians. Look up Black September
Robert Cook said: "Moreover, it is a complete non sequitur to talk about buying Greenland. It has not been previously spoken of or discussed at all"
"Since the 19th century, the United States has considered, and made, several attempts to purchase the island of Greenland from Denmark, as it did with the Danish West Indies in 1917. Internal discussions within the United States government about acquiring Greenland notably occurred in 1867, 1910, 1946, 1955, 2019 and 2025 and acquisition has been advocated by American secretaries of state William H. Seward and James F. Byrnes, privately by vice president Nelson Rockefeller, and publicly by president Donald Trump, among others. After World War II, the United States secretly offered to buy Greenland; public discussion of purchasing the island occurred during Trump's first term in 2019 and again after Trump's 2024 reelection as part of his Greater United States policy.
So it is "ethnic cleansing" (at least according to the writer) to take in Palestinians rather than have them try to survive in a war zone? How does he square Jordan taking in refugees as "ethnic cleansing" with the US taking in "refugees" from all over Central and South America, China, etc. as being necessary for humane purposes?
By contrast, Greenland is a body of land far away, near the North Pole
So just like Alaska?
tommyesq said...
“By contrast, Greenland is a body of land far away, near the North Pole…
So just like Alaska?”
Bonus fact: Both Alaska and Greenland are on the North American Plate.
"Both Alaska and Greenland are on the North American Plate."
And boy is Trump hungry.
That discussion was going on long before Trump had his stupid idea.
Sure, sure it's just a coincidence that NOW they scheduled a referendum on it, after all that talking (that Cookie never heard). You don't even know what Trump's goal is. Keep digging Fredo!
While you're at it maybe you can explain exactly WHY it's a "stupid idea" to have more access to the rare earth metals and post troops there to protect the northern polar shipping lanes.
Didn't your mother tell you that two wrongs do not make a right?
Of course, along with "Ethnic cleansing is always bad." Guess you didn't learn that.
So tell me if I have this right: The Palestinians want to kill every Jew on earth, and expect that to be accepted by the rest of the world, but any and all defenses against that ongoing effort is morally wrong. What am I missing in this statement of their position? At this point, they need to be forced to surrender unconditionally and be moved to the far side of the earth and made to stay there.
"With all due respect, Mr President, throw another dart."
Are we at the part of the story where Jordan's King will never ever ever EVER accept a deal?
"So tell me if I have this right: The Palestinians want to kill every Jew on earth...."
No. You do not have it right.
Forced removal of all Palestinian people from Gaza with no right of return is defacto ethnically cleansing them from their homeland. Not terribly different from sending indigenous people from their bountiful Happy hunting grounds to desolate Indian reservations.
Maybe they should be allowed to live unmolested in their place in Gaza and in larger Israel.
And just who was 'molesting' those poor, poor Palestinians before October 7?
I'm perfectly fine with ethnic cleansing in this case. I'd prefer it to be via a modern trail of tears, but I'm not closed minded.
That discussion was going on long before Trump had his stupid idea.
Really? Did anything come of it? No? Just talk?
I wonder if Trump even knows what happened in Jordan the last time they let in a bunch of Palestinians. Look up Black September
Oh, Trump knows. Pretty soon everybody except our reality-resistant lefties will know.
Try to keep up.
Again. This is a negotiation tactic with Gaza. It is an effort to get them to start thinking differently about their position in the ME.
And no. There is no ethnic cleansing. Otherwise there would be no arabs that call themselves Palestinians in Israel. While, in fact , there are over 2 million of them.
But it is good to those commenters who are prone to hysterics,(Cook), reliably being hysterical.
Robert Cook said...
"We've got the old Tar Baby Analogy come to life, writ large. Trump has got them to admit no one wants the "refugees" because they ruin every place they've been "temporarily" housed."
Maybe they should be allowed to live unmolested in their place in Gaza and in larger Israel.
2/11/25, 11:07 AM
...
They tried. For decades. The problem is Hamas sends rockets to kill civilians. They can't tolerate that. Hezbollah sends rockets to target civilians. They can't tolerate that. It was almost 20 YEARS AGO Ariel Sharon abandoned Gaza and left it for the Gazans to rule. What happened? Rockets killing civilians. The Israelis just want to be left alone.
As they say - and it's true - if the Fakestinians gave up their guns there would be peace. If the Jews gave up their guns it would be mass slaughter.
And as far as genocide? Israel must be the worst at genocide ever. They have rules of engagement to put their soldiers at risk to minimize civilian Arab casualties. They announce rocket strikes in advance to get civilians (and terrorists) out of buildings.
Look at the Jewish population of Europe before and after WW2. THAT is what genocide looks like. There are more Fakestinians now than in 1948. In what possible way can any honest person define genocide as Israel's self-defense?
Robert Cook said...
"So tell me if I have this right: The Palestinians want to kill every Jew on earth...."
No. You do not have it right.
2/11/25, 3:03 PM
Have you ever looked at polls? The vast majority of fakestinians long for the death of all the Jews and the cleansing of Israel from Jews. This has been consistent for decades. It's funny, naive people say "they just want to be left in peace." Well... that's not what polls say. Polls say they do in fact want to kill all the Israeli Jews and take over. Your wishes that Fakestinians want to live in peace is fantasy. You are projecting. Every poll of them says otherwise. They are nearly universally murderous and worship death and destruction. Perhaps not all but the majority.
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