Jordan’s King Abdullah II could barely conceal his bewilderment. Everything he heard in the White House on Tuesday was predictable and anticipated. And while he knows exactly who Donald Trump is, is familiar with his rhetorical modus operandi and knows he has no real concrete plan for Gaza, still the Hashemite kingdom’s ruler looked shell-shocked.
Abdullah bin Al-Hussein is a smart, sophisticated, articulate man. Since his ascent to the throne in 1999, succeeding his father King Hussein, he has been an anchor of stability, geopolitical balance and reason through multiple crises: the Iraq War in 2003; the second intifada from 2000-2005; the Syrian civil war that began in 2011; the latest Israel-Gaza war; last year’s Israel-Iran escalation.
He also thought Jordan was a staunch American ally. Think again, your majesty. Trump has no allies, and the United States under Trump is deliberately alienating those who were its allies.
The day before the king’s visit, Trump threatened Egypt and Jordan — both American allies until this year — with cutting U.S. aid if the two refuse to take in some 2 million Palestinians whom Trump wants to expel from Gaza to achieve his combined political/real estate deal of the century.
“We will take Gaza,” he said on Tuesday while sitting next to Abdullah, who was listening carefully but was surely thinking “What the hell is this guy talking about?” — in reference to Trump’s chaos-inducing idea that would almost inevitably destabilize Jordan, which is already home to over 3 million Palestinians.
“We’re going to have it, we’re going to keep it and we’re going to make sure that there’s going to be peace. … We’re going to cherish it,” the president added, failing to explain what exactly “cherish” — in the sense of holding something dear and showing affection for — means in the context of Gaza.
Trump had already come up with another of his sensible-sounding-but havoc-wreaking remarks on Monday: If all of the Israeli hostages aren’t released by noon on Saturday, he advised, Israel should break the cease-fire, resume the war and “let hell break out,” as if the last 16 months in Gaza were just a game of golf.
That was exactly what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wanted to hear, and he repeated it exponentially on Tuesday and Wednesday. First he mentioned “the three hostages” who were originally due to be freed on Saturday, then “all remaining nine hostages” from the first stage of the cease-fire deal, and then he parroted Trump about “all hostages.”
The cease-fire agreement’s most glaring weakness and vulnerability is its staged structure, with every stage further divided into phases. This meant that the week between each hostage release would be dangerous, the viability of the cease-fire and entire agreement challenged.
Then came Trump with his grandiose idea to build a Riviera in Gaza.
Putting the feasibility of this aside, it gave both Israel and Hamas the pretext they needed and wanted to halt the agreement’s implementation.
If Hamas knows the United States supports the total expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza, that clearly means there is no “stage two” including a full Israeli withdrawal. So what is the group’s incentive to continue with the first stage?
If Israel does not want to move into the second stage, which Netanyahu clearly does not for political reasons because it entails withdrawal, then what is he planning to do? He is already callously willing to sacrifice all remaining hostages and condemn them to a painful death. But then what? After 16 months of war, he suddenly has a magical plan to eliminate Hamas? If he thinks he does, then it most certainly involves occupying the entire Gaza Strip. Fine. Good luck with that, and may the force be with you.
And then what? He actually thinks that Trump’s divisions of demolitions experts, disposal managers, civilian engineers and architects are standing by to commence turning Gaza City into Mar-a-Gaza? First you need to “relocate” 2.3 million desolate, hopeless people. Surely the United States can take 500,000 in the Palm Beach, Florida, area? Another 500,000 in Dearborn, Michigan? Half a million in Jamaica, Queens? Some 250,000 in the Pacific Palisades, and the rest in Greenland or Canada?
But if that doesn’t work, does Israel remain in Gaza indefinitely? That’s not a plan. That’s hollow nothingness that stems solely from the political considerations of a failed prime minister who wants to stay in power at any cost, and who will say and do anything to achieve that. Israelis are collateral damage in his world.
The next phase of the hostage release, scheduled for Saturday, is the only important thing. But the game-changing ingredient was Trump’s idea of emptying Gaza of its people.
As the days passed, the more he fell in love with the real estate developer’s inner logic of the idea. Once rebuked by everyone involved except Netanyahu, the direct correlation that governs his actions kicked in: The more a Trump idea draws ridicule and derision, the deeper and broader he doubles down on it. The less details and specificity he offers, the bolder the one-line statements become.
This is compounded by the fact that while in his first term there were some people with gravitas and experience to challenge him, he has now surrounded himself with obedient serfs whose appointment and standing are based on extreme fealty.
In his first term, Thomas Friedman wrote in The New York Times on Tuesday, “Trump was surrounded by buffers: aides, cabinet secretaries and generals who deflected and restrained his worst impulses many times. Now Trump is surrounded only by amplifiers: aides, cabinet secretaries, senators and House members who live in fear of his wrath or of being set upon by online mobs unleashed by his enforcer, Elon Musk, should they step out of line.”
To be fair, Trump made the right diagnosis regarding Gaza — it is uninhabitable and cannot be reconstructed under the current political conditions. Then, though, he came up with an unworkable prognosis, one so outlandish that he fell in love with it.
It may be too late to warn Trump of Netanyahu’s mendacious, manipulative and deceitful style, all wrapped up in sugary sycophancy about Trump’s ingenious, outside-the-box thinking. He went to Washington to convince Trump that the cease-fire agreement, the one he signed and commended Trump for pushing, cannot be implemented and the war must resume.
Trump was conned, but Netanyahu made him feel good about it. If Trump had said the Earth is flat, Netanyahu would have commended him for his brave and audacious originality, fearlessly challenging old conventions. If Trump had said he met Elvis Presley in Palm Beach last week, Netanyahu would say he had just spoken with Elvis, who was full of praise for Trump and his co-president, Elon Musk.
The problem with Trump’s ideas — break the cease-fire, expel all Palestinians and build a gorgeous resort — is not their feasibility. It’s that Israel is stuck with the repercussions while Trump will soon move on to another issue.
First published in Haaretz, 12.02.2025
