Shlomo—I agree that what the Palestinians do is up to them. Yes, Gaza is a bleak place to live right now—that’s what happens when bombs rain down on a place for long stretches of time. What happens in war zones. That doesn’t mean the people who live(d) there don’t want to reconstruct it.
The Trump proposal was meaningless. It didn’t even pay lip service to democracy. It was Trump’s usual transactional model, sounding more like a real estate deal than anything else. It seemed designed more a shiny object to distract from what Musk and DOGE are doing to the US federal government.
I'm definitely not here to praise Trump. My only comment is that all other plans for the future in Gaza are variations of Hamas rearms and starts another war sometime in the future. We're told that any other solution must be some kind of a crime or is otherwise impossible. This is the first time any political leader has said anything different, and I'm all for different ideas.
Back in 2018, I participated in a journey called "The Longest Walk". This event occurs every ten years and was started in 1978 by Dennis Banks, an activist with AIM (American Indian Movement). We did not actually walk that much, but I traveled halfway across the U.S. with a group of Native Americans, going from reservation to reservation. Think of it as an extreme sort of cultural immersion. I learned some things. One of them was that the connection to the land is paramount. No matter how tiny the reservation, no matter how inhospitable it is, no matter how the U.S. government screwed these tribes, the indigenous people remain on the land (not all, but most of them). Why? Because the land is sacred to them, and they have an intense visceral relationship with it. I have Palestinian friends, and their perspective is very similar to that of the Native Americans. They won't leave. Even if it's a desolate wasteland, it is their home.
If that’s the way many of them feel, so be it. My only point is that decision needs to come from them, not far flung aid organizations or foreign politicians who want them to remain on the land for their own purposes regardless of what Gaza residents may see as their own best interest.
"The purpose of Palestinian activism is again exposed as unfortunately not a desire to help Palestinians but rather as an obsession with using them to attack Israel." But those in Israel calling for Palestinians to leave aren't driven by a desire to help Palestinians. They simply want them to leave so that they could take over the territory; for many, October 7 provides the excuse but not the reason - even if the Palestinians were to wrap themselves in Israeli flags and sing the Hatikvah, for example, many on the right would still seek to expel them.
Israelis are not required to have "a desire to help Palestinians". I would think that is pretty clear by now. Of course many Israelis want the Gazans gone; look what they did. Who in their right mind would want them as neighbors? Maybe there is a reason Jordan and Egypt and Lebanon and Kuwait want nothing to do with them.
Finally, even if Israelis were to drive Gazans to a hospital for cancer treatment, Gazans would still murder them. Just ask Oded Lifshitz.
Shlomo—I agree that what the Palestinians do is up to them. Yes, Gaza is a bleak place to live right now—that’s what happens when bombs rain down on a place for long stretches of time. What happens in war zones. That doesn’t mean the people who live(d) there don’t want to reconstruct it.
The Trump proposal was meaningless. It didn’t even pay lip service to democracy. It was Trump’s usual transactional model, sounding more like a real estate deal than anything else. It seemed designed more a shiny object to distract from what Musk and DOGE are doing to the US federal government.
I'm definitely not here to praise Trump. My only comment is that all other plans for the future in Gaza are variations of Hamas rearms and starts another war sometime in the future. We're told that any other solution must be some kind of a crime or is otherwise impossible. This is the first time any political leader has said anything different, and I'm all for different ideas.
Rearming Hamas is a nonstarter. That’s clear. I hear the need for different ideas. But different bad ideas?
Back in 2018, I participated in a journey called "The Longest Walk". This event occurs every ten years and was started in 1978 by Dennis Banks, an activist with AIM (American Indian Movement). We did not actually walk that much, but I traveled halfway across the U.S. with a group of Native Americans, going from reservation to reservation. Think of it as an extreme sort of cultural immersion. I learned some things. One of them was that the connection to the land is paramount. No matter how tiny the reservation, no matter how inhospitable it is, no matter how the U.S. government screwed these tribes, the indigenous people remain on the land (not all, but most of them). Why? Because the land is sacred to them, and they have an intense visceral relationship with it. I have Palestinian friends, and their perspective is very similar to that of the Native Americans. They won't leave. Even if it's a desolate wasteland, it is their home.
If that’s the way many of them feel, so be it. My only point is that decision needs to come from them, not far flung aid organizations or foreign politicians who want them to remain on the land for their own purposes regardless of what Gaza residents may see as their own best interest.
"The purpose of Palestinian activism is again exposed as unfortunately not a desire to help Palestinians but rather as an obsession with using them to attack Israel." But those in Israel calling for Palestinians to leave aren't driven by a desire to help Palestinians. They simply want them to leave so that they could take over the territory; for many, October 7 provides the excuse but not the reason - even if the Palestinians were to wrap themselves in Israeli flags and sing the Hatikvah, for example, many on the right would still seek to expel them.
Israelis are not required to have "a desire to help Palestinians". I would think that is pretty clear by now. Of course many Israelis want the Gazans gone; look what they did. Who in their right mind would want them as neighbors? Maybe there is a reason Jordan and Egypt and Lebanon and Kuwait want nothing to do with them.
Finally, even if Israelis were to drive Gazans to a hospital for cancer treatment, Gazans would still murder them. Just ask Oded Lifshitz.