President Trump's plan for the rehabilitation of Gaza is not a maximalist bargaining position, but a serious proposal with significant ramifications for the future of the region.
Much of the discussion of Trump's vision for the future of Gaza has focused on trivialities such as luxury beachside resorts and golf courses. But with the Trump vision come important security implications that merit close scrutiny.
To be sure, Gaza's 141 square miles contains plenty of room for luxury beachside hotels, restaurants and golf courses, but they will need to be protected from regional enemies, of which there are many. Therefore, Gaza must also become a permanent, major American military base of operations.
Navy: currently, Haifa is the main port-of-call for American vessels. However, US aircraft carriers are too large to enter the Port of Haifa and anchor two miles offshore, transferring their 5,000 or so seamen to shore leave and back on small ferries.
An American naval base in the Eastern Med, sufficiently deep to allow US aircraft carriers to dock, provision and offer their crews shore leave, would be a boon to both US sailors and the Israeli economy.
Air Force: a permanent Air Force presence in Gaza would create forward base of operations to launch air-based attacks, and would also release at least one carrier group from the Middle East to deal with emerging threats from China in the Pacific.
Army: US troops would be positioned for rapid deployment should regional threats to US interests arise. It can be expected that coordination between the Israeli & US militaries would expand considerably.
A permanent American military presence in Gaza would also act as a buffer between Israel and an increasingly belligerent Egypt; one that is relying heavily on Chinese technology to update their military capabilities. This military build-up is troubling, as Egypt has no natural enemies, except potentially one.
A permanent American military presence in Gaza would also impress upon the local hegemons the American commitment to stability in the region, a commitment that was severely compromised by the shift in favor of Iran during the Obama/Biden regime.
And most importantly, such a base would checkmate the determined attempts of Russia and China to expand their influence in the region.
There is a huge chasm between the American perception of their missions in the Middle East and the reality on the ground. Americans, somewhat naively, believe they are evangelizing Democracy and Jeffersonian values across the world. Locals, however, see American forays in the region very differently.
From their perspective, the US has no staying power. Americans enter the arena with marching bands and pomp and circumstance – Shock & Awe! - but once the fighting starts in earnest, Americans become quickly obsessed with the quick exit – “bringing our boys home now. “
In 1983, the US Marine barracks in Beirut were bombed by actors for Iran, perhaps Hezb’Allah in its infancy. 241 US Marines were murdered. America’s reaction? They withdrew all US troops from the Multinational Force for Lebanon.
During the Second Iraq war, little American flags, one for every soldier killed, started popping up on American front lawns. The message was crystal clear. US forces, proud of defeating a tyrant and bringing democracy to Iraq, blue index fingers pointed sky high, were withdrawn from Iraq prematurely and Iraq subsequently became an Iranian proxy state.
And let’s not discuss Afghanistan.
America's enemies – ISIS, al-Qaeda, Jihad Islami, Hezb’Allah, the Houthis, the Taliban, Hamas, Iran – all mock the US, laugh at its softness, knowing the Americans don’t have the grit to finish the job. So their strategy is to lay low, surviving for the day in the not-too-distant future when the Americans will tire of their foreign expedition, turn tail and run home.
A permanent US base in Gaza, one designed to be garrisoned for the next hundred years, would make America’s enemies in the region think twice about American resolve.
Israel can act unilaterally to affect the relocation of the Gaza population and begin the reconstruction of Gaza 2.0. Israel need not wait for Egyptian or Jordanian support, which will never be forthcoming.
In 1949, Arab countries expelled their Jews with only the clothes on their backs after their humiliating defeat in Israel’s War of Independence. Israel built ma’abarot, transit camps, for these hundreds of thousands of impoverished Jews until adequate housing could be built to accommodate the sudden influx of new immigrants.
Similarly, the USA could build ma’abarot for the Gaza women and children in the Sinai, a region much larger than Gaza, until their legal status is clarified and they prepare for new lives elsewhere. All humanitarian aid would be diverted to the ma’abarot, leaving Israel a free hand to bring the war against Hamas to a victorious conclusion and pave the way for the Trump plan.
The Trump Plan is not only a moral, but a commercial and military, imperative. We can only hope that politicians will have the foresight, the integrity and the courage to make this plan a reality, one which is certain to usher in a century of stability and prosperity in the Middle East.
Rabbi Mizrachi is the Rav Mekomi of B’nai Israel Synagogue in Pensacola, Florida and the author of Holistic Judaism: A Radical Rethinking of Our Service to Gcd and our Fellow Man in the Messianic Age. Available on Amazon.com and Kindle. He can be reached at [email protected].