US President Donald Trump is pushing for a radical approach to the challenges in Gaza. Rather than tinker away at old solutions that haven’t worked, he is proposing that Gazans be resettled somewhere else and that Gaza be rebuilt in the long term.
This is different than reconstruction in the past, when Hamas ran Gaza and siphoned off the construction materials to build tunnels.
The Trump plan for Gaza is taking shape. It’s clear there will be pushback in the region, however, as Egypt and Jordan don’t want to take in hundreds of thousands of Gazans. Qatar and Turkey, two US allies, both have backed Hamas and won’t want to see it lose its Gaza real estate.
It’s not even clear if Israel will be completely on board with this plan, since its policy over the past decade and a half has come to accept Hamas rule in Gaza. Even during 15 months of war, the government never came up with a plan to remove Hamas from Gaza.
The real story behind Trump laying down a radical approach to Gaza can be found in the saying: “Beat the grass to startle the snakes.” This idiom is often said to date from a sixth-century Chinese essay called “Thirty-Six Stratagems.”
The concept is that in a conflict, you do something spectacular, such as beating the proverbial grass, and this leads the enemy to reveal its position. The point is that if you do something unexpected, then the enemy may reveal its position. This doesn’t have to be related to war; it could be related to policy and politics.
What could this be related to?
In essence, Trump is floating a proposal that will “beat the grass” in the Middle East.
The goal may not be purely what Trump says it is; he may assume that 1.7 million Gazans probably won’t want to leave Gaza. But if you beat the grass by proposing such a radical policy, it’s possible some countries in the region may realize the US is serious and decide to approach the Gaza challenge with more candor.
Many countries in the region have viewed Gaza as a hot potato, and they want nothing to do with it. This is one reason that Hamas has been allowed to rule Gaza since 2007.
In retrospect, it’s obvious that Hamas should never have been allowed to rule Gaza, but many countries didn’t care enough to stop it. The European Union walked away from a monitoring mission on the Egyptian border. Israel looked on and let it happen. The US didn’t mind. Egypt was fine with it.
Hamas took control and for almost 20 years has waged endless wars that have destroyed Gaza. In retrospect, the whole region should have stopped this hell from materializing.
Hamas brought hell to Gaza. It also received support from abroad – from Iran, Turkey, Qatar, and other countries. Hamas also infiltrated the West and was even able to get the US to accept that its leaders could reside in Qatar.
In addition, Hamas secured partnerships with UN organizations, media organizations, medical NGOs, and other entities in its takeover of Gaza. Hamas infiltrated every aspect of life in Gaza to exploit it for war.
Trump is beating the grass by proposing that all this will end now. If Gazans leave, then Hamas can’t use them as human shields. If Gazans leave, then Hamas can’t exploit, steal, and sell humanitarian aid.
This will put many UN jobs at risk, because the UN counts on suffering in Gaza to profit. It appears that some Hamas members moonlight as UN workers as well. This is all part of the system of corruption and graft that underpins how Gaza was misruled by Hamas.
The concept of “beating the grass” will now stir up the Hamas snakes and all the countries and NGOs and organizations that profit off the ruin of Gaza. They will come forward now, perhaps, to fix the problem.
It might be that Trump can secure a win here – not by getting everyone to leave Gaza, as under the “stirring” proposal, but by shocking everyone into finally stepping forward with a solution.
The October 7 massacre happened because everyone ignored Gaza and let Hamas get too strong. Israel underestimated Hamas. Regional countries didn’t appear to devote any human intelligence resources to preventing another Hamas war.
Hamas grew too big and dangerous, killing more Jews in one day than at any time since the Holocaust. This requires a radical change in Gaza.
Israel has only said it wants to reduce Hamas’s “capabilities” and “governance” and prevent “threats” in Gaza. This is more tinkering.
What’s required is a major change. Trump’s goal by floating his ideas may be to get countries to agree to be stakeholders in peace in Gaza – rather than just rebuild it again and let Hamas run it and destroy it again.
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