Trump’s Gaza takeover pitch is aimed at reeling in Riyadh, but will Saudis bite?
Arab diplomat says US shouldn’t bank on Saudi bailout after president went ‘too far’ with relocation idea: Riyadh won’t offer normalization in order to quash it, the way UAE did with annexation
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
After US President Donald Trump’s proposal to take over the Gaza Strip and empty it of its Palestinians sent Arab leaders into panic mode on Tuesday night, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz sought to calm some nerves the next morning.
The top White House aide suggested in a CBS News interview that Trump’s plan may have actually just been about spurring new ideas from Arab counterparts for how to rebuild Gaza.
“Nobody has a realistic solution, and he puts some very bold, fresh, new ideas out on the table… It’s going to bring the entire region to come up with their own solutions if they don’t like Mr. Trump’s solution,” Waltz said.
The national security adviser seemed to frame Trump’s proposal as a mere negotiating tactic, with the president putting a (very) far-reaching offer on the table while ostensibly being prepared to settle for less, as long as it’s an improvement on the current starting point.
This appeared to be the president’s blueprint for handling disputes with Canada, Mexico, Panama and Colombia during his first two weeks in office.
And this isn’t unique to Trump’s second term or to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict either.
In 2020, Trump unveiled — in another joint appearance with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — a peace plan that offered Israel more territory in the West Bank than any other previous proposal and envisioned the US recognizing Israeli annexation of all its settlements.
Netanyahu pledged to pass a cabinet decision actualizing that plan the next weekend and settler leaders celebrated — much like they did on Tuesday after Trump announced his Gaza takeover proposal.
Ultimately, though, the far-right elation was short-lived. The United Arab Emirates came to the US with a counter-proposal that Trump could not refuse: Normalizing relations with Israel in exchange for Jerusalem shelving its US-backed annexation effort.
The trade didn’t involve solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as his 2020 peace plan sought to do, but Trump didn’t appear to mind sidestepping the Palestinians to boost Israel’s ties with other Arab leaders in the region and opening the door for lucrative arms deals between Washington and its Arab allies.
Fast forward five years and Waltz is indicating that Trump is once again open to alternative proposals to the one he announced in his latest joint press conference with Netanyahu.
There was much speculation that the ongoing hostage deal would be at the top of the agenda for Netanyahu’s visit, given Trump’s desire to see it through amid the prime minister’s increasingly apparent intention to resume fighting against Hamas before all three phases of the agreement have been completed.
But after repeatedly voicing his lack of confidence that the ceasefire can hold, Trump shifted focus away from that conundrum by testing out his Gaza takeover idea.
A senior Israeli official told The Times of Israel Wednesday that Jerusalem believes Trump wasn’t trying to pressure or sway Hamas with the proposal.
The message — according to the Israeli official in Washington — was actually directed at Saudi Arabia.
Decision-makers in Riyadh were likely able to hear it live, as they were already up anyway at 4 a.m. in order to issue a statement adamantly denying a claim Trump made hours earlier in the Oval Office that Riyadh was not demanding the establishment of a Palestinian state in exchange for normalizing ties with Israel.
Trump is hoping that Riyadh will follow in Abu Dhabi’s footsteps and offer to normalize relations with Israel in exchange for him shelving his latest plan just as he did with the 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico, the Israeli official speculated.
Such a deal would be far more lucrative for Trump, who is already talking about asking Saudi Arabia to invest $1 trillion in the US economy.
But a senior Arab diplomat told The Times of Israel that Trump and Netanyahu should not expect Riyadh to bail them out.
“President Trump has taken things a step too far with this plan, and his effort to destabilize Egypt and Jordan cannot be accepted,” the diplomat said, referring to Trump’s repeated calls for Cairo and Amman to take in Palestinians while Gaza is being rebuilt, which both countries argue would threaten their national security and widen the borders of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, rather than shrinking them.
Asked about the Trump administration’s desire for Arab countries to come up with alternative ideas, rather than simply rejecting those coming out of Washington, the senior diplomat insisted that the Arab world is already doing so.
The diplomat pointed to plans for the post-war management of Gaza involving the Palestinian Authority and the support of nearly half a dozen Arab countries.
“These were all blocked by Netanyahu,” the diplomat said, lamenting the premier’s refusal to grant a Gaza foothold to the more moderate, West Bank-based PA who he still likens to Hamas.
“This effort was the best way to marginalize Hamas in Gaza, and Israel rejected it, which allowed Hamas to remain as strong of a force as it is today,” said the senior Arab diplomat.
The diplomat said Washington’s Arab allies are still prepared to work with the Trump administration to stabilize Gaza “but that means addressing — not exporting — the Palestinian plight.”
