Building a Riviera on Palestinian Corpses?
Rhetorical Madness, or has Trump Abandoned Non-Interventionism?
On February 4, 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump, speaking alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a press conference, unveiled a shocking proposal. It could mark one of the most radical shifts in U.S. Middle East policy in decades. Yet, it also echoes some of the most cataclysmic aspects of U.S. history. The proposal suggests that the United States assume long-term ownership of the Gaza Strip, effectively taking control of the territory, relocating Palestinian residents to Egypt and Jordan, and transforming Gaza into what Trump described as “the Riviera of the Middle East.”
Is this yet another example of Trump’s rhetorical strategy—where he makes the most extreme statements to push the Overton window and make a compromise seem reasonable—or is it a fundamental departure from his most cherished foreign policy positions of anti-war and non-interventionism? With no viable resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and a long history of failed peace initiatives, was Trump attempting to introduce a radically new way of thinking—even if it is utterly absurd? Is it now a geostrategy by stupidity or of stupidity?