Egyptian President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi and Jordan’s King Abdullah II had both firmly rejected President Donald Trump’s proposal, first made publicly on Jan. 25 and repeated on Jan. 27, that Gaza be “cleaned out,” and its millions of people sent to Jordan and Palestine (or maybe even Indonesia). When a reporter asked President Trump on Jan. 30 if there was anything he could do to “make them” take in the Palestinians en masse, perhaps using tariffs, President Trump threatened: “They will do it. They will do it. They’re gonna do it, okay? We do a lot for them, and they’re gonna do it.” He did not further specify.
Today, the lead story on the front page of the website of Egypt’s semi-official daily Al Ahram was “Massive Egyptian Protest at Rafah on Border with Gaza To Reject Any Displacement of Palestinians.” Al Ahram included videos in its report that “thousands of Egyptians, led by public figures and political delegations, are protesting … to reject all proposals to displace the Palestinian people from their land and any attempt to liquidate the Palestinian cause.” Immediately below that, Al Ahram pointedly re-posted its Jan. 29 article, now headlined “Republished: Palestinian Displacement Would Be an Injustice Egypt Cannot Participate In: President el-Sisi.” That article had reported that President el-Sisi had said that Egypt is committed to working with Trump towards peace in the region around the two-state solution, but removing the Palestinians from Gaza could “never be tolerated or allowed” for reasons of both historic justice and of Egyptian national security.
Adding to the regional tension over such plans, is the fact that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been invited to Washington, on Feb. 4, as the first head of government with whom Trump will meet in his second term as President. Netanyahu has made no secret of his ethnic-cleansing aim “to clean out” Gaza as a step towards establishing “Greater Israel.”