President Donald Trump suggested Saturday that he would like to “clean out” Gaza after the devastation of the war started by Hamas on October 7, 2023, sending residents to Egypt and Jordan for humanitarian reasons.
In a gaggle with reporters on Air Force One, Trump said: “I’d like Egypt to take people and I’d like Jordan to take people. You’re talking about, probably a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing and say, ‘You know it’s — over the centuries, it’s had many, many conflicts. And … something has to happen. It’s literally a demolition site … So I’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing in a different location, where they can maybe live in peace. … Could be temporary, could be long-term.”
Audio of Trump on Gaza: I’d like Egypt to take people and I’d like Jordan to take people. You're talking about a million and half people, and we just clean out that whole thing… pic.twitter.com/rPyQYgMhHJ
— Acyn (@Acyn) January 26, 2025
This author proposed a similar solution nearly a year ago, though without presuming Israel’s neighbors would accept Palestinians.
Everyone will hate this, but Israel could "move half the population of Gaza to the West Bank, then declare a Palestinian state in that territory, a kind of mountain kingdom," then annex Gaza and rebuild it & absorb the remaining people there as citizens. https://t.co/unIPTslbi6
— Joel Pollak (@joelpollak) March 29, 2024
No Arab or Muslim nation has been willing to accept Palestinian refugees, insisting instead that they stay and suffer.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
