Trump extols war-torn Gaza’s good weather, ‘phenomenal location’ on the sea
US President Donald Trump has reportedly expressed scepticism about the Gaza ceasefire deal when asked if he was confident that all phases of the agreement would be implemented.
Trump also said that Gaza now looked like “a massive demolition site” and that it had to be rebuilt in a different way, the Reuters news agency reports, while speaking to reporters in the Oval Office.
“I looked at a picture of Gaza. Gaza is like a massive demolition site. That place is, it’s really gotta be rebuilt in a different way,” Trump said speaking to reporters at the Oval Office.
“You know Gaza’s interesting. It’s a phenomenal location. On the sea. The best weather. You know everything is good. It’s like, some beautiful things could be done with it,” he said.
Gaza’s Ministry of Health reports that Israeli attacks on Gaza have so far killed at least 47,035 Palestinians and wounded more than 111,000 others since October 7, 2023.
Dark clouds loom at a tent camp for forcibly displaced Palestinians on the beach in Gaza near the Nuseirat refugee camp, on December 20, 2024
Trump refers to war-ravaged Gaza ‘like an estate agent’
He was speaking about it like an estate agent; describing Gaza in terms seldom heard by anybody who knows anything about that particular region.
He has made much of the peace deal though. Insisting that he is responsible for it. He’s had his Middle East peace envoy speak at a number of events in recent days. So it’s something that his administration is claiming full credit for.
How [the Gaza ceasefire] goes?
Well, clearly Donald Trump insists that the Hamas side keep to their deal completely.
He had threatened for “all hell” to come down should Hamas not have released those being held captive by the time he took office. Well, this has happened, or is in the process of happening.
However, at the same time, there is something of a threat from the Trump administration in terms of ongoing events in that region.
An aerial view taken with a drone shows the destruction in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on Monday
Trump does not view Gaza through lens of Israel’s ‘political Zionist project’
I think there you see the difference between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, and Antony Blinken for that matter.
Joe Biden and Antony Blinken were self-proclaimed Zionists who deeply believed in the underlying project of what Benjamin Netanyahu has been doing since October 7, perhaps including ethnically cleansing Gaza.
Trump isn’t. He’s just looking at it through the eyes, the lens, of Donald Trump – what’s good for Donald Trump.
As far as the ceasefire is concerned, there has been a debate, since Trump pushed it through, as to whether he was committed to the second stage – given that he took $100 million dollars from Miriam Adelson, for example, and others in his cabinet want the genocide to continue potentially.
But, on the other hand, there’s reasons for hope. Because, for a start, one American captive won’t be released until phase two and the dead bodies won’t be released until phase three of the ceasefire deal.
And he is looking to that bigger picture. What’s good for Donald Trump. Not what’s good for some political Zionist project. But what’s good for Donald Trump.
And, on the other hand, he wants to be seen as a peacemaker. He said it in his speech. He wants that Nobel Peace Prize.
So if he wants lasting peace in the Middle East, then he can’t let Israel return to a US-supported genocide. Maybe other violence. But not all-out genocide.
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