Listen to more stories on the Noa app. President Donald Trump, who campaigned on a promise to put America first, just proposed the wildest and most improbable intervention by the United States in overseas affairs since the invasion and occupation of Iraq, more than 20 years ago. At a joint press conference with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump promised that the U.
He presented this idea, one never before suggested by a U. The idea was breathtaking in its audacity, and it would be fair to say that its implementation would run into myriad obstacles at home and abroad, except that the overwhelming likelihood is that the U. A direct American intervention in Gaza would radically expand the U. And it could further destabilize a region never known for its stability. Trump, as is his practice, offered few details as he outlined the expansive idea at a White House press conference, standing next to a smiling Netanyahu.
The presidentβwho has long been vociferously opposed to U. Asked if U. Both of those nations have firmly declined, their leaders quietly panicking, according to regional diplomats, at the thought of Trump forcing them to take radicalized Palestinians as refugees. The displacement would presumably be met with outrage across the region. Palestinians, like Israelis, want to stay on their land.
Neighboring Arab nationsβeven those with close U. A cease-fire took hold in Gaza just before Trump took office, bringing a tentative halt to a conflict that has reportedly killed more than 20, Palestinian civilians and as many as 20, Hamas militants, leveled much of the Strip, and created a devastating humanitarian crisis. Israel has pummeled Hamas, destroying its leadership, and also delivered devastating blows to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Trumpβwho also has been publicly and privately musing about winning a Nobel Peace Prizeβhas been known to first take an outlandish position and then move to a more moderate stance. Sometimes there is a method to his madness, and sometimes there is simply madness in his madness. World leaders, from Denmark to Panama to the Middle East, have spent the past two weeks trying to discern the difference. Classic Trump: Go to the extreme, making what once seemed outrageous suddenly look like the reasonable middle ground.
