DAVE SHARMA: Donald Trump’s audacious Middle East plan may finally shock world to action 

A cardinal rule for understanding Donald Trump’s approach to the presidency is one that his own staff reportedly cite — and that is to take what Trump says seriously, but not necessarily literally.

Following President Trump’s White House press conference with Israel’s visiting Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, much of the media have fallen into this trap.

They have focused on Trump’s development blueprints for Gaza — which should be digested with a dose of scepticism — but ignored the more significant messages Trump imparted about his approach to the Middle East’s most intractable conflict.

The overarching theme running through Trump’s remarks was that previous approaches to resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict had failed, and new thinking was needed.

On this, Trump is quite correct.

There have been five wars between Israel and Hamas since Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007.

The most recent and ongoing war — prompted by the Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel of October 7, 2023 — has been one of the most destructive and painful conflicts the Middle East has seen.

Preventing this cycle of violence from repeating requires the elimination of Hamas, a terrorist organisation that is ideologically committed to the destruction of Israel and treats the lives of its own people with contempt.

This was why Trump was insistent that Hamas needs to be eliminated as a governing and military entity for the people of Gaza to have a brighter future.

In recent days Trump has also, and in a none-too-subtle way, reminded the Arab world of their own obligations to resolve this conflict in their region.

It is, after all, the Arab-Israeli conflict. And the reason there is no Palestinian state is because the Arab world rejected the UN Partition Plan of 1947, and for subsequent decades refused to recognise or countenance the existence of the state of Israel.

In much the same way that Trump in his first term successfully put pressure on European leaders to increase their defence spending and take greater responsibility for resolving their own security issues, Trump is now doing the same with Arab leaders in the Middle East.

Proposals floated by Trump to resettle the Gazan civilian population in Jordan and Egypt, or for the US to take over the Gaza Strip, are very unlikely to ever be realised.

But the sheer boldness of Trump’s suggestions, and the alarm they are causing in Arab capitals, will have a salutary effect.

For too long, Israel’s Arab neighbours have sought to position the Palestinian question as one for Israel and the United States to address. Their statecraft has been designed to ensure the problem did not land in their laps.

This is why no Gazan civilians have been offered refuge in neighbouring Arab countries (including Egypt, which shares a border) since the war commenced.

Instead, we have the ludicrous position where Australia has resettled thousands more Gazans since October 2023 than all of the Arab world combined.

This is also why the thoroughly discredited UN Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, continues to function three-quarters of a century after the people displaced by the original 1948 conflict should have been resettled.

UNRWA’s continued existence allows the Arab world to evade responsibility for the welfare of the Palestinians.

President Trump has now effectively called time on this status quo approach, an approach which has perpetuated the Arab-Israeli conflict rather than resolve it.

And he has put the Arab world on notice that he expects them to step up and take responsibility for resolving this conflict.

This is no bad thing.

It is only the Arab world that can effectively squeeze Hamas’s diplomatic space, strangle it of financing and weapons, and de-legitimise it as a political actor.

It is only Arab leaders who can force reforms on the Palestinian Authority, so it becomes a body that is properly representative, legitimate, and a genuine partner for peace with Israel.

It is wealthy Arab states who have the interest in and resources to help rebuild Gaza after this conflict.

And it is only the Arab world, and in particular Saudi Arabia given its leadership role, that can bring the long-running Arab-Israeli conflict to an end.

Only the Saudis can provide the security guarantees that would allow a Palestinian sovereign entity to emerge without threatening the existence of Israel.

Only the Saudis can normalise Israel’s place in the Middle East, by establishing diplomatic relations.

His negotiating tactics might be unconventional for a US President, but ultimately Trump’s more far-fetched suggestions are about obtaining leverage.

Trump is making clear that a return to “business as usual” in the Middle East, with the US being guarantor of the region’s security and custodian of the region’s problems, is no longer an option.

This will focus minds in Arab capitals.

I do not expect to see a Trump Tower in Gaza City in my lifetime. This should not be taken literally. But Trump’s intent to challenge the prevailing orthodoxy, given its dismal record of failure? This should be taken seriously.