CAMERON MILNER: Donald Trump’s Gaza plan is the art of the deal in action on the world stage

Trump’s call for a radical new approach to Gaza was all about getting a deal done, not about building a new Trump Tower on the Gold Coast of the Middle East.

It was a classic Texas hold’em move to up the ante.

His point that Gaza is a demolition site unfit for human habitation after the devastation brought to it by Hamas is indisputable.

But the rush of the left wing media to call the President’s plan to raze what’s left of Gaza and resettle its Palestinian inhabitants elsewhere “ethnic cleansing” and “imperialism” was all too predictable and was exactly the attention Trump wanted to bring to the issue.

Trump clearly revels in the controversy and the chaos that follows his bold proclamations in the past has forced deals to be made.

Trump isn’t our idea of a politician in the traditional sense. He’s a businessman. It’s not about the art of diplomacy, it’s the art of the deal we are witnessing.

If not for this intervention, it’s likely we would have seen the place rebuilt by a terrorist organisation on the world’s dime.

Albanese and Wong talk about a two-state solution with a footnote to say “oh but without Hamas” but haven’t articulated any plan to achieve this outcome and deliver lasting peace.

The UN wants to be the ATM for Hamas to refund and rearm while the world pays for Gaza to be rebuilt.

Hamas fighters armed to the teeth parade the poor Israeli hostages as they are released back into safety, all while hundreds of murderers, rapists and terrorists are handed back to live again in Gaza.

We know UNRWA employed Hamas fighters and provided their basement rent free for a Hamas command centre. Hamas is a terrorist organisation, but it’s also a network of organised crime that will seek to profiteer from the misery of everyday Gazans.

One day the Hamas work crew will be building, the next they’ll be making another bomb.

Something has clearly got to change if we aren’t simply to repeat this cycle of violence and instability on Israel’s sovereign borders.

Trump’s call was about shaking it up and moving the uber-wealthy Arab world to counter-offer and take some responsibility for the mess.

Saudi Arabia is investing $7 trillion in itself to diversify its economy. Qatar is also ultra rich and has hosted the Hamas hierarchy in air-conditioned palaces, far from the slums of Gaza, for years.

Trump has just laid down a pair of kings to start the bidding. He hasn’t got four aces, but he’s leading the play and the conversation.

“If you don’t like my Riviera plan, show me what you got instead” is his challenge to the political class around the UN who quite frankly are as nonchalant about the Hamas violence as clientele of the Mos Eisley cantina.

The Left can get indignant, even offended by the democratically elected President Trump, but they need to get a wriggle on to keep up with a guy who isn’t about to die wondering what might have been at the end of the next four years.

Trump’s Greenland play is all about saying to Denmark: “just start using it”.

The Colombians and Panamanians will deliver what Trump wants, even if it’s nothing like his first bombastic opening play. Trump’s just getting it done and then moving on.

Mexico weren’t taking responsibility for illegal immigration and might never have paid for the wall in Trump’s first term but are now opening reception centres and staffing them for their returned citizens Trump’s administration is bussing south.

People might also be reminded that it was the US and its allies that sustained Berlin for 44 years after the end of World War II. Checkpoint Charlie was a US-staffed crossing.

General Douglas Macarthur, having led the Pacific theatre, then spent seven years rebuilding a modern, technologically advanced and democratic Japan.

Trump’s intervention has changed the conversation up. It demands a serious response once the Trump-hating blowhards have run out of breath.

While the political class spend their days at Davos, the old ways of doing global politics are being shaken up.

And in the words of another well known deal maker from the US: “It’s not personal, it’s strictly business”.

The world is going to have to deal with Trump. Deals are about offer and counter offer. It’s not politics as usual anymore. It’s all about the art of the deal.