How Arab leaders should respond to Trump’s Gaza challenge 

Excerpt

President Trump has laid down a challenge to Arab leaders: Show me a better plan for Gaza if you don’t like mine.  

At an emergency summit in Cairo on March 4, the Arab League will attempt to hash out a counter to Trump’s proposal, which involves deporting Gaza’s population and turning the area into a new Riviera. It will come as no surprise if the League offers billions to rebuild Gaza, with the Gulf states footing the bill. But that would avoid the real problem, which is Hamas.  

If the League wants to show Trump that its serious, any proposal it offers must begin from the premise that Hamas has no place in Gaza’s future, either in government or as a military force. Many Arab leaders say as much in private but are afraid of the backlash that might follow a public statement. Yet if Hamas remains, the cycle of rebuilding and destruction will continue, because endless war is Hamas’s plan.  

Ahmad Sharawi is a research analyst at The Foundation for Defense of Democracies, focusing on Middle East affairs and the Levant.