Trump’s Proposal on Gaza: ‘Nation-Building’ or a Workable Solution? Part 1

By Nolan Lewallen Published on February 12, 2025

During a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Feb. 4, President Donald Trump sent shockwaves around the world by floating the idea of the U.S. taking ownership of the Gaza Strip and overseeing its development. Trump said he wants to develop it into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”

Right on cue, The New York Times headlined its story, “With Gaza Plan, an Unbound Trump Pushes an Improbable Idea.” And MSNBC’s MaddowBlog weighed in with “Trump’s new plan to ‘take over’ Gaza condemned as ‘deranged.’”

What many people would call “unbound” is Hamas slaughtering 1,200 Israelis and taking 240 hostages to rape, torture, and hold in terror tunnels, as they did on Oct. 7, 2023. What many of us would call “deranged” is cutting off children’s heads in front of their parents and burning babies alive in ovens.

Have anyone at these media outlets put forth any other meaningful solutions? Of course not. They just parrot the very antisemitic United Nations’ “two-state solution,” which is impossible for many reasons. There’s been a two-state solution since 1947, in which Jordan was designated as the Arab state.

Ronald Reagan was an actor. Jimmy Carter was a peanut farmer. George W. Bush knew baseball. And Barack Obama was a “community organizer” (whatever that is). I think we’re blessed at this juncture in time to have a president in office who is a visionary and a builder/developer. King Herod “The Great” (who was king of Judea when Jesus was born) was an evil man — but he was a great builder and made significant contributions to Israel in Jerusalem, Masada, Jericho, and Caesarea.

The point is that, despite Herod’s flaws (like killing babies), God still used his building skills to give the Jews their Second Temple and other great projects in Israel. Perhaps Trump can do the same in the Gaza Strip. And with the help of Israel and other countries in the region, it could help solve an age-old problem. This is the same “Gaza” where the Philistines lived and imprisoned Samson (Judges 16:21) and the Gaza upon which Amos prophesied judgment (Amos 1:6-7). The evil in this region goes back a very long time. It’s time to end it.

Past Presidents’ “Solutions”

All the criticism of Trump’s proposal begs this question: What meaningful ideas have any past presidents had in the last three decades?

Clinton Many people remember the iconic photo of President Bill Clinton, Yitzhak Rabin, and Yasser Arafat taken on the White House lawn in 1993, which commemorated the signing of the Oslo Accords. Clinton probably thought a photo op on the White House lawn is all it would take to achieve peace in the Middle East. He looked the part—with his big smile and infamous haircut by his Beverly Hills hair stylist—but was in way over his head.

The Jerusalem Post wrote on the 30-year anniversary of that event, “Whereas the terror that Oslo enabled made it a tragic failure for Israel, for the PLO the terror is what made it a success, because that was one of the goals set by the Palestinian leadership.”

Arafat reportedly once said he didn’t want his daughter to grow up knowing that her father had agreed to a peace agreement with Israel. How do you negotiate with someone like that?

Bush In 2002, President George W. Bush promoted the “Roadmap to Peace.” Part of the deal was the “end of violence by Palestinians.” That’s like telling Italians they must stop drinking espresso! PLO leader Mahmoud Abbas has said, “We welcome every drop of blood spilled in Jerusalem.” Palestinians name their schools and streets after suicide bombers who die bombing Israelis, and spend tens of millions of dollars every month compensating their families.

Another tenet was that “Palestinians must hold democratic elections.” They did just that in 2006, and the results? Hamas — a terrorist group — was elected. We Americans tend to think our democratic system is the catch-all solution for every country, but it only works when you have 51 percent good people. When you have a majority of terrorists who are voting, terrorist rule is what you get.

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The dumbest tenet of all was to “finalize borders and decide on who gets Jerusalem.” The fact that a group of radical immigrants wanted it didn’t make it negotiable. (If that were the case, I would like to open negotiations with former President Bush for the eastern half of his 1,583-acre ranch near Crawford, Texas. But I’ll negotiate in good faith. I’ll just take the eastern 583 acres, and he can keep an even thousand.)

Yes, it was just that ridiculous. How would it go over if a group of immigrants claimed the east side of Washington, D.C., as their capital?

Obama In 2011, President Obama said that an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord “must begin with a return to the 1967 borders.” That comment was outrageous! The Israelis simply regained what was rightfully theirs in the first place in the Six-Day War. If I had been Prime Minister Netanyahu, I would have told Obama, “I’ll make you a deal. If you’ll go back to the pre-Louisiana Purchase borders, I’ll go back to the pre-Six-Day War borders.”

It’s easy to be generous with another country’s land.

Let’s never forget that Obama gave Iran — whose leaders continually chant, “Death to Israel” (and to America) — billions of dollars in untraceable foreign currency that was delivered in an unmarked airplane. By filling Iran’s coffers, he, along with Biden, is largely responsible for the October 7 attack on Israel.

Biden After Clinton, Bush, and Obama’s ideas on solving the Middle East crisis all failed, Biden seemed to say, “Hold my beer …” He quickly rescinded Trump’s sanctions on Iran. After the October 7 attacks, he turned his back on Israel as the nation was fighting wars with Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and the “head of the snake” itself, Iran. He froze a shipment of 3,500 bombs to Israel, made unreasonable demands regarding aid to the Gazan civilians (while Hamas terrorists were reportedly stealing about 80% of it), and issued Executive Order 11415, which made Israel liable for sanctions if the country were to “undermine the foreign policy objectives of the United States, including the viability of the two-state solution and ensuring Israelis and Palestinian can attain equal measures of security, prosperity, and freedom.”

In other words, Biden tried to force Netanyahu to adhere to his disastrous ideas — which would have been cataclysmic for Israel but good for Biden’s reelection efforts. Moreover, the Biden administration even harassed IDF veterans and reservists trying to enter the U.S. on work visas or green cards.

So, how is Trump’s vision for the Middle East different from all these past presidents’, and will it work? How did the area become so evil? And who actually owns the land? We’ll answer all this in Part 2.

Nolan Lewallen is a retired pilot of a major airline who lives near Stephenville, Texas. His two great passions are the Bible and politics. He is the author of The Integration of Church & State: How We Transform “In God We Trust” From Motto to Reality, and Yeshua Is Still the King of the Jews.