American President Donald Trump answered a host of questions about his plan to “take, own and build Gaza” on Tuesday. This was soon after his meeting with King Abdullah of Jordan, who is the second leader from the middle east to visit Washington. The first was Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel.
These meetings are crucial to Trump’s middle east peace-building plan, which is atop his list of priorities as President. The king of Jordan, who had initially rejected Trump’s plan of Gaza takeover, seemed to have come around with his decision to transport 2,000 sick children out of Gaza into Jordan for urgent medical treatment.
Together with Egypt and other Arab nations they did not name, the two leaders said they were hoping for a coordinated plan on Trump’s Gaza plan. Following are some important statements, and questions Trump answered.
“With the United States being in control of that piece of land, you will have stability in the middle east for the first time.
“The Palestinians or the people that now live in Gaza will be living beautifully in another location. They will be living safely. They are not going to be killed, murdered, having to move every ten years. I have been watching this for so many years. It’s nothing but trouble. Everyone’s being killed, being robbed. It’s like living in hell.
“They are going to have a great home, great families, who don’t have to get mugged and killed and beaten up and harassed by Hamas and nobody else.
“And I know we will be able to work something. What you (King Abdullah) decided about the 2,000 is fantastic. That’s beautiful. Music to my ears. I know we will be able to work something with, I believe, not 100 percent, but 99 percent we will work put something with Egypt.”
How will the U.S. own Gaza? What money will it use to buy Gaza?
“We aren’t going to buy anything. We are going to keep it and make sure there’s going to be peace, no problem, and nobody is going to question it. We are going to run it properly. Eventually, we will have economic development at a large scale, may be, the largest scale on that site. We will have lots of good things. We will make that site into what it should be.”
Where exactly does Trump want Palestinians to live?
“It is going be where we, hopefully, as a group, choose. I believe we will have a parcel of land in Egypt. We may have some place else, but I think, when we finish our talks, we will have a place where they are going to live very happily and safely. Don’t forget they only want to be on Gaza strip because they don’t know anything else. They’ve never heard of an alternative.”
Is Trump not concerned abut how two million people of Gaza are going to be evacuated?
“That’s a very small number of people relative to other things that have taken place there over the decades and centuries. That’s a very small number of people. They are living a terrible life. Look at the way they are living. Nobody living like that in the entire world. They are living under buildings that are mostly fallen down. There are no conditions anywhere in the world worse than the Gaza strip right now.”
Would he consider countries other than Jordan and Egypt to settle the people of Gaza?
“Yeah, sure. We have other countries that want to get involved. There is a great sense of wanting to help the Palestinians. There are a lot of good countries out there, people that rule those countries with big hearts. And this gentleman (King Abdullah) is at the top of the list.”
When questioned about his earlier proposal to “buy” Gaza and the latest statement in which he said the U.S. is not going to buy it, this was the president’s response:
“We are not going to have to buy. We are going to have Gaza. Nothing to buy. We will have Gaza. It is a war-torn area. We are going to take it. We are going to hold it. We are going to cherish it. We are going to get it going eventually where a lot of jobs are going to be created for people in the middle east. I think it could be a diamond. I think it could be an absolute tremendous asset for the middle east. And you are going to have peace. I have watched it so long, all of the death and destruction of Gaza. Civilization has been wiped out in Gaza.
“My relationship with the Arab population (of America) has been very good. My relationship with the middle east is very good, very good with all of the countries. And they all want to do something and they want to see peace in the Middle East.
“All the stories you hear about the middle east not wanting peace, that they want war. Let me tell you, those stories are false, they want to have peace. I know them all very well. They want to have peace. They want to have a good life like other people. And this will be.”
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