Donald Trump’s audacious Gaza plan would be a game-changer for Israel and a terrible moral dilemma for West

US President Donald Trump’s plan to take control of the Gaza Strip and remove its Palestinian residents may be the most audacious proposal to end the world’s most-intractable conflict.

The takeover would be terrific for Israel, and horrible for Hamas. By eliminating the terrorist group from Israel’s border, it would improve the Jewish state’s security immeasurably.

The West Bank is under the tight control of the Israel Defence Force. With Gaza occupied by the US, Israelis would no longer have to fear another invasion like that endured on October 7, 2023, or even the daily rocket barrages that rain random violence on the small country.

“The US will take over the Gaza Strip,” Trump said. “I do see a long-term ownership position, and I see it bringing great stability to that part of the Middle East, and maybe the entire Middle East.”

But the presumably forcible relocation of two million people from the rubble-strewn strip poses a terrible moral dilemma for the West.

There is a long and ugly history of world powers removing ethnic groups from their homelands. Jews know as well as anyone that banishment from your homeland is an inherently violent act. Two hundred and thirty-six years after the British settlement of Australia, the Indigenous dispossession continues to split the nation.

Australian Palestinians are already referring to Trump’s proposal as ethnic cleansing. “Trump’s proposals are not just reckless – they are a calculated attack on Palestinians and on humanity itself,” said Nasser Mashni, the president of the Australian Palestinian Advocacy Network.

Jewish advocates varied between bewilderment and guarded optimism. Trump is not the first US president to think he can bring peace to Israel, but none have made a proposal more aggressive than any from the most nationalist members of any Israeli political party.

“One thing he is right on is the need for a fresh approach,” said Colin Rubenstein, the executive director of the Australia/Israel Jewish Affairs Council. “It’s not the end of the two-state possibility.”

The core strength of Trump’s plan is it addresses the main reason many Israelis, likely including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, do not want a Palestinian state.

From such a state, war against Israel would likely be waged. Few Jews believe a Palestinian nation would co-exist peaceably with its Jewish neighbour. This is not the Czech and Slovak republics.

The Palestinian population is so radicalised and full of hatred towards Israel that Hamas, or a successor dictatorship, would likely emerge in power. Jews fear it would use extreme violence to execute the ambition for a Palestinian homeland from the “river to sea”, the slogan so popular among campus protesters.

So where would the Gazans go? For all their rhetorical support for the Palestinian cause, Middle East leaders do not want them.

Jordan has not forgotten Palestinian fighters almost brought down the Kingdom in 1970. Egypt, which has a short border with Gaza and was briefly ruled by the Muslim Brotherhood, does not want the Islamist Hamas stirring up dissent in Cairo. The Saudis would prefer peace with Israel to hundreds of thousands of traumatised refugees. Lebanon is already broken by sectarianism.

Before the nazis tried to eliminate them, Europe’s Jews considered seeking refuge in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Before he came up with the final solution, Hitler suggested the Jews be deported to Madagascar, where he hoped the weather and wildlife would kill them off.

There have been no such fanciful suggestions for the residents of Gaza. All indications are they want to rebuild their broken land, and continue to fight Jews.

Which is why the world is struggling to take Trump’s proposal seriously.