On Tuesday’s broadcast of NewsNation’s “On Balance,” Deputy Special Presidential Envoy for Middle East Peace Morgan Ortagus stated that, due to the conditions in Gaza, putting Palestinians back there wouldn’t help deradicalize them, but Saudi Arabia has a very good deradicalization program.
Ortagus said, “As it relates to ownership and how this is all going to work out from a legal perspective, we’ll have a lot of clarity for you in the coming days.”
She further stated, “Steve Witkoff went to Gaza last week…and, as a real estate developer, as someone who knows a thing or two about having to do construction and buildings, he looked at it and reported back to the president that he thought it was basically uninhabitable. So, is it prudent, is it inhumane to make these people live in squalor, to make them live in conditions where you have unexploded ordinance that could harm children? This is not a situation that we would put our children in…nor do we want the Gazan people to have to put their own children in this situation.”
After the discussion turned to radicalized Gazans, Ortagus also said, “We’ll see where they end up going. I know President Trump and his team are going to reach out to countries around the world. I will say….actually, one of the best deradicalization programs has been in Saudi Arabia. This is something that they have worked on for a very long time. They’ve been able to take people who have been radicalized and put [them] through this program. So, there is a model. There are places around the Middle East where you could look.”
Ortagus continued, “[W]e’ve said since the beginning of — since October 7, Republicans, but now, of course, Bibi Netanyahu has said this as well for the past year and a half, that you not only have to demilitarize Gaza, you have to deradicalize Gaza. And I don’t think putting those people — and I don’t think the president…thinks that putting those people back in a situation where they are living in a demolition zone is going to be a way to deradicalize the place or to demilitarize the place.”
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