Interesting, that in U.S. media, the big freak-out over Trump this week was with USAID and all the civil servants, i.e., lefty patronage workers, being cashiered. While abroad, the Trump plan for Gaza has globalist types you see on the BBC numb with disbelief.

They whimpered out, Impossible! Against international law!

But this is Trump’s standard opening gambit on any big problem. He thinks out loud, sketching wildly imaginative and one-sided scenarios for himself and the USA. The rest of the world staggers about in disbelief for a while, then recognizes the status quo is cracking apart.

I expect eventually some part of what Mr. Trump wants will come about this year. This is already pretty close to the plan Netanyahu put out last year—it involved Israel controlling security for many years and a civil government of Arabs with no connection to Hamas.

Gaza residents would face the choice of finding long-term housing in other countries or living in tent cities in the south of the territory, while the wreckage was cleared and a more modest version of Gaza City built. That’s going to take at least 20 years.

Mind you, this is all part of international law. Under the UN Security Resolution 242 of 1967, no final borders were ever agreed to by the warring parties. Israel is fully within its rights to set up any reasonable form of occupation, which could include the long-term American security and economic participation Mr. Trump is suggesting.

In fact, Israel, as the occupying power, is duty bound to evacuate civilians out of war zones, and even out of their country, if needed, as long as there is a right to return at some later date, when it is safe. Given the way Hamas operates, that later date could be a long time in the future.

None of this is without precedent and the UN founders did much worse in the past. At the end of WWII, Churchill, Stalin, and FDR redrew the map of Europe, and expelled 14 million Germans from Eastern Europe. Many Germanic areas went back over 2,000 years. It is estimated up to 2 million civilians died in the process. And you could hardly blame them for Hitler; most of these people were in places not part of Germany before the start of WWII.

But anyway, as a recent president liked to explain.

Post-WWII, the Allies and Soviets occupied what was left of Germany, and even after the creation of West and East Germany, controlled greater Berlin under a military treaty. This lasted 45 years.

Prior to WWII, there were other examples of “international” cities—Tangier and Shanghai the most famous. Many schemes have also been put forward to make Jerusalem an international city, which is more or less the official UN position to this day.

If international city status is good enough for Jerusalem, why not Gaza then? Under UN 242, it certainly is legal.

Of course, this threatens too many bureaucrats. If we solve military conflicts by redrawing borders and resettling populations, it means the end of the foreign aid gravy train, starting with the 30,000 folks at the infamous UNRWA.

Only Mr. Trump and the Israelis could not care less. They are going to be busy setting up a moderate Arab replacement government for Gaza. Once safely installed, this government can negotiate a final, peaceful settlement for the status of the territory under UN 242.

The Ayatollah in Iran won’t like that much, but the last we heard from him, he was wearing a flak jacket, when not in hiding from Israeli or domestic assassins.

The Middle East is becoming a very different place, and it’s about time.

Frank Friday is an attorney in Louisville, KY.

Image generated by AI.