This Is What Happens When Extremists Dictate Policy
Over the weekend, when Trump said Gaza should be “cleaned out,” he was talking the language of the most extreme fascists in Israeli society, the ones who see a Greater Israel stretching from the Euphrates River to the Nile River, even beyond just Avigdor Lieberman, Aryeh Eldad, Michael Ben-Ari, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich… lesser known sociopaths like Daniella Weiss (and allies like Otzma Yehudit and AIPAC). This insanity is whatTrump is stumbling into— dragging the U.S. along with him. Michael Gordon and Alexander Ward reported that his pronouncement stunned all sides.
The idea of Gazans vacating Gaza and moving to other countries— Jordan and Egypt first and foremost— has been seen as a non-starter… and I sincerely doubt that Trump had sparsely populated Alaska, Montana, Wyoming and the Dakotas in mind. He said the resettling of the Palestinians from Gaza “could be temporary or long term.”
“It’s literally a demolition site right now,” he said. “So, I’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations, and build housing in a different location, where they can maybe live in peace for a change.”
But on Sunday Trump officials suggested the U.S. and regional partners could provide guarantees the Palestinians would eventually be allowed to return, sketching out an assurance that appeared designed to make the idea more politically palatable to Arab states.
Officials have yet to spell out the precise parameters of the suggestion, including how the more than two million Palestinians in the enclave could be relocated and whether they might eventually fulfill their aspirations to fully govern their own territory.
“You’re talking about a million and half people, and we just clean out that whole thing,” Trump said. “You know over the centuries it’s had many, many conflicts. And I don’t know, something has to happen.”
The idea was summarily dismissed by Jordan, which Trump has urged to accept refugees from Gaza temporarily or for the long term. It was also rejected by the Palestinian Authority, which governs most Palestinians in the West Bank, and Hamas.
“We call on the U.S. administration to halt such proposals, which align with Israeli plans and clash with the rights and free will of our people,” the U.S.-designated terrorist organization said in a statement.
But it was hailed by far-right Israeli politician Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has called for “voluntary migration” of Palestinians from the enclave and backs Israeli settlement there.
…“It’s an interesting opening gambit, but it’s hard to imagine it having much traction as an idea,” said Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“It will certainly arouse deep alarm in Egypt and Jordan, among their Gulf Arab allies, and among European governments who have an interest in stability in Egypt and Jordan in addition to their sentiments about the rights of Palestinians.”
…Asked about Trump’s plan, administration officials said Sunday that they look at Gaza as a wasteland filled with rubble and unexploded ordnance, whose reconstruction would be greatly facilitated by the departure of its residents.
“You cannot demand that people remain in an uninhabitable place for political reasons,” said a senior Trump administration official, who added the Palestinians might be provided with an assurance they could eventually return after negotiations with regional partners.
…[S]ome of Trump’s staunchest political allies said the plan wasn’t feasible.
“The idea that all the Palestinians are going to leave and go somewhere else, I don’t see that to be overly practical,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said on CNN’s State of the Union.
Egypt and Jordan have long rebuffed the idea because of their security and the economic burden they foresee in taking in so many Gazan Palestinians. Another fear is that they would be accused of abetting Israel’s annexation of the enclave should Israel bar the Palestinians from returning.
“Encouraging the ‘voluntary migration’ of civilians from Gaza has long been the fever dream of the most messianic extremists in Israel,” said Frank Lowenstein, a former Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiator at the State Department.
Among them is Ben-Gvir, who resigned as Israel’s minister of national security over the cease-fire deal in Gaza. He praised Trump’s plan and urged Netanyahu to support it. “Encourage immigration now!” he wrote on Twitter.
The decision by Israel’s far right to embrace Trump’s suggestion has made winning Arab support for the initiative all the more difficult, former officials say.
“The idea of Egypt and Jordan accepting a significant number of Gazan Palestinians is a nonstarter,” said a former senior U.S. official. “These were red lines for both countries before the Gazan crisis and they remain even sharper red lines now.”
The Wall Street Journal apparently decided to not use words like “genocide” or “ethnic cleansing,” which is exactly what Trump, Ben-Gvir and the settler movement are proposing. The Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits acts that can be associated with ethnic cleansing, such as forced displacement, murder, torture, and other inhumane acts against civilian populations based on their ethnic or racial identity. The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) explicitly includes acts like genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, which encompass elements of ethnic cleansing. Genocide, in particular, involves acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group, which aligns with the practice of ethnic cleansing. The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide directly criminalizes acts of genocide, which overlaps with ethnic cleansing in terms of intent and action.
Trump’s proposal is not just a reflection of his towering ignorance; it’s a stark reminder of how deeply intertwined U.S. policy has become with the most extreme elements of Israeli politics. The willingness to entertain ideas of ethnic cleansing— masked in sanitized language— places the U.S. in moral and legal jeopardy, aligning us with the worst abuses of authoritarian regimes rather than the principles of justice and human rights. What makes this even more chilling is how this rhetoric echoes a broader global trend of authoritarian leaders normalizing dehumanization as a political tool. From Hungary to India, we see similar patterns of othering minorities, exploiting fear, and dismantling democratic norms in service of ultranationalist agendas. Trump’s embrace of such tactics isn’t an anomaly— it’s part of a dangerous international current that erodes the moral foundations of liberal democracy. Are Americans still up to fighting back against this normalization of hate and violence? Activists, lawmakers, and citizens alike must reject these ideas outright, exposing them for what they are: attempts to justify ethnic cleansing under the guise of pragmatism. Progressives and the mainstream media should hold both Trump and his far-right allies accountable, ensuring these ideas are met with resistance, not acceptance. If we fail to act, history warns us of the consequences. From forced removals to genocides, the path that begins with "cleaning out" a population always ends in unimaginable suffering. The time to stop this descent is now, before the language of extremism transforms into action. The world is watching—how we respond will define not just our foreign policy, but our humanity.
This morning, Judd Legum referred to this as part of the foreign policy of an American kleptocracy. He suggested we follow the money to figure out the origins of Trump’s new policy towards Gaza. “Trump,” wrote Legum, “discussed his vision for Gaza on January 20, his first day in the office, suggesting Gaza could be an ideal site for real estate development. ‘You know, Gaza is interesting. It's a phenomenal location. On the sea, the best weather, you know, everything's good,’ Trump said while signing executive orders in the Oval Office. ‘It's like some beautiful things could be done with it, but it's very interesting. But some fantastic things could be done with Gaza.’ Trump said that Gaza has ‘really got to be rebuilt in a different way’ and that he ‘might’ be interested in helping. In an October 7, 2024 interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt, Trump expounded on his vision for Gaza as a luxury resort. ‘It could be better than Monaco. It has the best location in the Middle East, the best water, the best everything,’ Trump said. ‘They never took advantage of it, you know, as a developer. It could be the most beautiful place, the weather, the water, the whole thing, the climate.’”
Sounds a lot like Trump’s slimy little son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who, in a February 15, 2024, interview at Harvard's Middle East Initiative, described Gaza's “waterfront property” as “very valuable,” and urged Israel to “move people out” and then “clean it up.” The fear is that once the Gazan are moved out, they’ll never be allowed back. Kushner acknowledged that this was possible but also suggested that was an acceptable outcome. “Maybe, but I'm not sure there's much left of Gaza at this point,” said Kushner. “So if you think about even the construct like Gaza, Gaza was not really a historical precedent. It was the result of a war.”
If Palestinians are removed from Gaza and the land is absorbed by Israel, both Kushner and Trump could benefit financially from its redevelopment. Earlier this month, Kushner invested a portion of funds he collected from Saudia Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, to develop a new Trump Tower in Belgrade.
The new hotel and residential tower is a partnership between the Trump Organization and Affinity Partners. It is located on a site that was bombed extensively by NATO in 1999 and has since been vacant. The Serbian government owns the property.
…Ric Grennell helped negotiate the deal for Trump Tower Belgrade. In December, Trump named Grennell his “Presidential Envoy for Special Missions,” focusing on “some of the hottest spots around the World.”
Kushner would also be poised to benefit from the redevelopment of Gaza through his significant investment in an Israeli company, Phoenix Financial. Kushner just doubled Affinity Partners' stake in Phoenix Financial, one of the largest insurance and financial firms in Israel.
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