Senior cabinet minister: Trump’s Gaza migration idea could save Netanyahu’s government
US president’s bombshell proposal to ‘clean out’ Gaza and encourage Arab states to take in its populace could keep Smotrich’s party in the coalition, perhaps prompt Ben Gvir’s return
Shalom Yerushalmi is the political analyst for Zman Israel, The Times of Israel’s Hebrew current affairs website

US President Donald Trump’s proposal that Jordan, Egypt and other Arab nations take in Palestinians from the Gaza Strip — potentially moving out enough of the population to “just clean out” the war-torn area — has raised hopes and expectations not only in Israel’s ideological right-wing circles but also among associates of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and senior Likud ministers.
According to one minister in the decision-making security cabinet, Trump’s statement, made to the press on Air Force One as the president returned from California to Washington on Saturday, was likely coordinated with Netanyahu and was intended in part to help Netanyahu keep his government from collapsing over the current hostage-ceasefire deal with Hamas.
According to the minister, who spoke to The Times of Israel on the condition of anonymity, the issue of encouraging voluntary Palestinian migration is now back on the agenda, just as the far-right Religious Zionism and Otzma Yehudit parties have long wanted and many in Netanyahu’s Likud had hoped as well immediately after the war broke out, following the Hamas invasion and slaughter in southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
The possibility that the American president could push for the relocation of “probably a million and half people” from the “demolition site” of today’s Gaza, as he put it, could bring an end to Religious Zionism leader Bezalel Smotrich’s threats to leave the government, thereby enabling the completion of the hostage-ceasefire deal and possibly even prompt the return of Itamar Ben Gvir and his Otzma Yehudit to the coalition, the minister said.
“Anyone who heard Trump understands that this was coordinated and transparent,” the minister told The Times of Israel. “The prime minister spoke about voluntary migration at the outset, together with Likud ministers, and we even started making efforts in that direction. These statements sparked global opposition, so we stopped, even though we know this is the only solution.
“The issue of voluntary migration will now become a focus for us. Trump himself is going to discuss it with Egypt’s president. Netanyahu is traveling to meet with Trump in Washington in two to three weeks, right in the middle of negotiations over the second and third phases of the hostage deal.

“If everyone agrees on migration, there will be no need to resume the war, and no one will have an issue with the second phase [of the current deal]. The Palestinians from Gaza will move to Jordan, Egypt or Indonesia. Trump will rebuild Gaza, and in three years, we’ll see what happens,” the minister said.
Finance Minister Smotrich voted against the hostage-ceasefire deal but did not take his party out of the coalition. He has said Netanyahu assured him the war against Hamas would resume after the first, 42-day phase of the deal is completed, and that Religious Zionism would bolt the government if that does not happen — a move that would leave Netanyahu’s coalition without a Knesset majority.
The discussion about Palestinian migration from Gaza was highly intense at the start of the war. In November 2023, Ram Ben Barak of Yesh Atid and Danny Danon of Likud published a joint op-ed in The Wall Street Journal advocating for voluntary migration. The Foreign Ministry set up teams under the directive of then-minister Eli Cohen and engaged in discussions with African nations on potentially acceptance of Gazan migrants.
At a major conference held in Jerusalem in January 2024, numerous ministers and Knesset members from Likud and far-right parties called for resumed Jewish settlement in Gaza and the encouragement of Palestinian migration.

In the Knesset, several conferences and discussions on the idea of Palestinian migration from Gaza have taken place throughout the past year.
An early champion of the move was then-intelligence minister Gila Gamliel, who is now a member of the security cabinet.
At a Knesset event in December 2023, Gamliel delivered a speech on “The strategic plan for voluntary evacuation of Gaza residents.” Gamliel continues to assert that migration is the only solution for Gaza.

Government officials and Likud figures have largely refrained from speaking publicly about migration in the past year, mainly due to Israel’s legal entanglements with the international courts in The Hague and particularly the issuing of arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant.
Activists who have determinedly pursued plans for the evacuation of Gazans and revival of Jewish settlement there have primarily been members of right-wing organizations like Nachala and New Gaza.

On Sunday, Netanyahu avoided any reference to Trump’s transfer idea, although he did release a video thanking Trump for renewing weapons shipments to Israel.
Smotrich, however, enthusiastically tweeted his praise for Trump, as did Ben Gvir.
“With God’s help, I will work with the prime minister and the cabinet to develop an operational plan to implement this as soon as possible,” Smotrich stated. “The idea of helping the people of Gaza find new places to live is a great idea,” he wrote. “After years of glorifying terror, they will be able to build new and better lives elsewhere.”
And Ben Gvir noted: “One of our demands from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to promote voluntary emigration. When the president of the world’s greatest superpower, Trump, personally brings up this idea, it is worth the Israeli government implementing it — promote emigration now!”
Trump said he had already spoken with Jordan’s King Abdullah about the idea and that he would also discuss it with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi. For now, reactions from Jordan and Egypt have been negative and furious.
Trump’s Special Envoy for Middle East Affairs Steve Witkoff is expected in Israel later this week. Netanyahu and his aides are hoping that as long as the issue of Gazan migration remains a subject for discussion, the prime minister will gain more precious time and, they believe, could provide Smotrich with a compelling reason to stay in the coalition until at least the end of the second phase of the deal, and even beyond.
Translated from the Hebrew original on The Times of Israel’s sister site Zman Yisrael.