Timing is an odd thing, the ridiculous idea that could be laughed out of the house is ‘suddenly’ accepted when the timing is tweaked. That happens in all walks of life and usually thing comes with a hindrance or an opportunity. It is a balancing of events that enable timing to get away with all things normal or not. In todays world (especially politics) it is a blending of events almost like a chemist mixing volatile matters. It is no longer the 1200’s when a person mixed charcoal, sulfurous ash and gull droppings and with a hail Mary produced gunpowder. So when President Trump announced ‘his’ idea for turning Gaza into a Riviera and set boots on the ground event to move the Palestinians to other places (temporary or not) there was a hushed silence (my giggling was seen as offensive). Yet now mere hours ago Al Jazeera gives us ‘Palestinians reject Trump’s Gaza plan’ with the byline “Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have said they would “never leave, no matter what”, after US President Donald Trump proposed the US would “take over” Gaza and relocate Palestinians from there “permanently”.” And that is not all. The same Al Jazeera also gave us (at https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/2/5/non-negotiable-saudi-arabia-flatly-rejects-trumps-gaza-takeover-plan) ‘‘Non-negotiable’: Saudi Arabia flatly rejects Trump’s Gaza takeover plan’ with the setting that we are given with “Establishing a Palestinian state ‘is a firm, unwavering position’, Saudi’s Foreign Ministry says, rejecting Trump’s ethnic-cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza.” As well as “Saudi Arabia reacted swiftly and sternly to US President Donald Trump’s pledge to “take over” the Gaza Strip, reiterating no normalisation deal with Israel will occur until Palestinians receive their own independent state.” So all this sweetness, which requires a cherry on top and the Guardian (at https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/feb/05/trump-gaza-take-over-reaction-israel-netanyahu-middle-east-latest-live) ‘Trump officials try to walk back president’s Gaza comments – as it happened’ which gives us “Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, said the US president does not want to put any American troops into Gaza. Witkoff was on Capitol Hill on Wednesday to clarify Trump’s comments the day before, during which he did not rule out deploying US troops to the Palestinian territory.
“Witkoff said that the president doesn’t want to put any troops into Gaza, and that he doesn’t want to spend any US money on Gaza,” the Republican senator for Missouri, Josh Hawley, said, according to the Washington Post. But Witkoff did not suggest that Trump had abandoned his proposal that Gaza’s population of 2.2 million Palestinians be displaced from their land, the paper writes. It cited one senator as saying: [Witkoff] painted a scenario of a Gazan family moving back into tents, thinking ‘I’m going to get back into a dwelling in five years,’ and that is just not going to happen. It is a wasteland of rubble.”
Yet the cherry is not found I n what was said, it is seen in what was not said. There is an overbearing amount of “does not want to”, yet what he wants to do isn’t said either. I reckon that Steve Witkoff was handed a piece of garbage with the message to sort it out (what a life he must have) and that is what he was trying to do. In all this what I seem to miss is that President Trump went in to speak his mind (sort of) and didn’t bother to rely on the people around him to test the speech he had in mind. This gives him bad reviews from the people he desperately wants money from (mainly Saudi Arabia) whilst one person stated that it would be “a breach of international law” all whilst others try to hide behind “it was prudent to sometimes “sit back” and not comment on all of Trump’s claims” which is an almost weasel setting as we have been made to believe during decades of presidency that the word of the president goes, which makes timing an interesting factor. This isn’t President Kennedy stating that we will put a man on the moon in a decade, this is someone stating to get rid of the Palestinians in no uncertain way. I would add to that that if it gets rid of Hamas he gets my blessing. But the reality is that When Egypt gets Hamas in their area they get a new dimension of troubles. As long as Hamas is focused on Israel Egypt is fine with them, in Egypt not so much. The same could be said for Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon. Perhaps Iran would take them, but I am not holding my breath on that and for Iran it comes with other issues. As I see it no-one wants the Palestinians as they come with added baggage of terror and violence. Did no one figure this out as the Palestinians had nowhere to run to?
As for the setting of “he doesn’t want to spend any US money on Gaza” I come to the question “Why are you getting involved?” He didn’t want to boots on the ground, he doesn’t want to spend money, so what is there? Why get involved in the first place? As I see it the democratic party of President Bartlett would have done a much better job and they are merely actors. So what gives? As for Amnesty International (that now regarded useless bunch) gives us “Donald Trump’s description of Gaza as “demolition site” completely fails to include the Israeli government’s responsibility for causing the devastation to the Palestinian territory, Amnesty International said.” Gives rise to their uselessness as this started with Hamas starting an attack on the NOVA music festival on October 7th 2023, that was the exploding powder keg and Amnesty International better start doing a much better job at giving us facts that giving us “Israeli government’s responsibility for causing the devastation” which is as I see it a new level of political uselessness.
That is the missing setting. The responsibility of Hamas. As I see it, the only Political player who had anything to say on this was Melanie Joly (Canada) as she gave us “Canada’s longstanding position on Gaza has not changed. We are committed to achieving a two-state solution, where Israelis and Palestinians can live securely within internationally recognised borders. There is no role for Hamas in the governance of Gaza. We support Palestinians’ right to self-determination, including from being forcibly displaced from Gaza” this is the missing piece. No matter what is done about the Palestinians it needs to clearly state that Hamas is no longer welcome in Palestine or the rest of the world. This will start again and again as they either by themself or through ‘requests’ from Iran will hit Israel again and this will start all over again and at present the Israeli’s are united and the next time could end the existence of Palestine or its people and the Palestines better be clearly aware of this. They better realize that they have lot grip on their media friends and political friends, even support will wane after the next Hamas attack. The film shots of the entire Palestinian population ‘walking out’ the hostages whilst showing them all the hate they could.
With these images (CNN Drone) they are shown the people they are and people are realising that the world without Palestine could be a better place altogether. That is what Hamas ensured and enabled. That part is hugely missing in what I see it the Palestinian setting. The cause was Hamas, not Israel. Israel is merely fed up with the setting and we cannot blame them for that.
But that isn’t stated in any of this, so whatever people try to walk back is depending on the realization that the plan was flawed from the beginning, not merely the talk from President Trump, but the actively guilty parties in play.
Have a great day.
Lawrence van Rijn - Law Lord to be 