Trump’s Proposal on Gaza: ‘Nation-Building’ or a Workable Solution? Part 2

In this file photo, children navigate through ruins in Gaza in 2004. The situation has not improved in the past 20 years, and in fact has gotten worse with a terrorist organization being elected to lead it.

By Nolan Lewallen Published on February 13, 2025

Yesterday, we discussed President Donald Trump’s proposal on Gaza and how his former life as a great builder could be instrumental in rebuilding that area. We also took a look at some past presidents’ failed attempts to solve the problems in the Middle East. Today, we’ll examine some biblical references to better understand how a loving God could possibly lead one group of people to wipe out another.

Unlike his predecessors, President Donald Trump has understood all along that radical groups like Hamas and Hezbollah cannot be appeased; they must be defeated. This is the “peace through strength” policy on which he ran and was elected. He knew exactly why Barack Obama’s “bowing tour” to terrorist nations that hate us did not work.

So, Trump will fully support Israel and let them finish the job (if they haven’t already) of taking out Hamas. Then, he wants to completely level the Gaza Strip, which has only about five times the land mass of Dallas/Ft. Worth International Airport, and rebuild it from the ground up.

Trump is a negotiator. He just might be able to get neighboring Arab countries (i.e. Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia) to admit refugees during the reconstruction period, since they all stand to benefit — economically and otherwise — from a stable Middle East. In fact, during a White House meeting with Trump on Tuesday, King Abdullah of Jordan offered to take in 2,000 sick Gazan children. Trump also cited the fact that Gaza has 25 miles of shoreline on the beautiful Mediterranean Sea and favorable weather that averages between 50°F and 86°F year-round.

That’s his plan is for Gaza, in a nutshell. While some are already decrying it as some kind of U.S. military invasion, he’s promised that it will involve no U.S. troops. This is essentially a real estate deal, albeit one that could ultimately bring as much peace to the Middle East as we’re ever likely to see this side of the Second Coming.

Jesus said the two greatest commandments are (1) “Love God with all your heart, soul, and mind” and (2) “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 37:39). That’s a fascinating concept if we consider applying the latter to our “neighbors” on a global scale. But as Christians, how do we square that when those neighbors want to do us harm?

Some think loving our neighbors as ourselves means always being a pushover to countries that oppose us and always shrinking back to keep from upsetting the apple cart. But is that really true?

The Jews’ Title Deed to the Land

The rampant antisemitism in the U.S. and around the world has continually influenced people to accuse Jews of “occupying” land that does not belong to them. Therefore, we must go back to the Bible — which is also the most accurate history book — to see who originally had a right to the land the modern states of Israel and Gaza currently occupy, and why.

God promised Abraham and his descendants a certain area of land in Canaan (Genesis 15:18-21), and reaffirmed that promise to Moses about 600 years later (Numbers 34:2-12). God reiterated the promise yet again some 800 years after Moses through the prophet Ezekiel, even while the Jews were in exile in Babylon (Ezekiel 47:17-20). The boundaries of the land were very specific, and the most detailed description of it can be found in the Numbers 34:2-12.

When you overlay that description with ancient landmarks on a modern map, opinions may vary somewhat between scholars and historians. But what’s clear is the fact that Israel’s current borders make up less than half of what God promised them. Israel’s original inheritance included all of present-day Israel, plus all of the Gaza Strip, the “West Bank” (Judea and Samaria), as well as parts of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq. Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, said on The Rosenberg Report that David Ben Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, took a Bible with him to the United Nations [in 1949] and told the assembly, “This is our deed.”

Repeat After Me: “There is No Palestinian Race!”

Now that we know who has a right to the land, let’s look at who does not.

The very name, Palestine, has been used as a propaganda tool for a very long time. In 135 CE, in an attempt to sever all ties of the Jews to their homeland, the Roman Emperor Hadrian not only changed Israel’s name to “Palestine,” but also changed the name of Jerusalem to “Aelia Capitalina.” The name “Palestine” is still being used as a propaganda tool today, and for the same purpose. It has even made its way into textbooks and some of the maps in our Bibles.

Likewise, the word “Palestinians,” as applied to a group of people, is an invented term. It was never used until 1964 and was, no doubt, chosen to conform to the contrived name of the land. There is no Palestinian race! The residents of Palestine are immigrants from neighboring Arab countries. Famed PLO leader Yasser Arafat himself was born in Egypt, according to his biographer.

But Is Driving Out Hamas ‘Loving Our Neighbor’?

Some think loving our neighbors as ourselves means always being a pushover to countries that oppose us and always shrinking back to keep from upsetting the apple cart. But is that really true? After revealing to the Pharisee these two greatest commandments, Jesus went on to say in the next verse, “The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments” (verse 40).

One of those prophets was Samuel, who told Saul to “completely destroy the entire Amalekite nation” (1 Samuel 15:3). On the surface, that doesn’t sound very loving! And it certainly doesn’t sound like God wanted Saul to be a pushover either. But let’s take a closer look.

Saul’s Disobedience

Saul disobeyed God’s instructions and spared the Amalekite king, Agag – forcing Samuel to later kill the evil king himself. Jewish history has it that Agag was the last man standing of the Amalekites and fathered a child before being killed in order to keep the race going. (The movie One Night With the King, based on Tommy Tenney’s book Hadassah, portrayed this view.) Others conjecture that some of the Amalekites escaped from Saul. But either way, the tribe later reappears in Scripture in 1 Samuel 30 and 1 Chronicles 4. But the fact remains that Saul evidently had an opportunity to wipe them out, or God wouldn’t have told him to do so through Samuel.

First Samuel 30 tells us that David and his men returned home to Ziklag, only to find that the Amalekites had burned it down and carried off the women and children (verses 1-2). In verse 8, we read,

Then David asked the Lord, “Should I chase after this band of raiders? Will I catch them?” And the Lord told him, “Yes, go after them. You will surely recover everything that was taken from you!”

That doesn’t sound like David was supposed to be a pushover, either. David and his men did go after the raiders, and they did recover all (verses 18-20). They killed most of the Amalekites, except for 400 men who escaped on camels (verse 17).

Haman

If we fast forward to the book of Esther, we find that Haman — who was the Hitler of his day — contrived a plan to annihilate all Jews in Persia. (Many scholars believe he was a descendant of the Amalekite king Agag [see Esther 3:1].) Fortunately, Queen Esther intervened (as a perfect type of Christ) and thwarted his plan, and Haman and his sons were hanged on the gallows that had been built for the Jews.

So the Jews were finally rid of the Amalekites and their descendants, right? It doesn’t seem like it. The events told in Esther took place in present-day Iran, and the people’s hatred of the Jews has carried on even into modern times. They continually chant, “Death to Israel” (and “to America”); those cries sound like echoes from Haman.

Iran has continued to support Israel’s enemies, such as Hamas and Hezbollah, and was directly responsible for the October 7 attacks. My personal view is that some of these enemies of the Jews in Iran even today are descendants of Haman and the Amalekites who “slipped through the cracks.” That same evil spirit of antisemitism has passed down in the region generation after generation. No wonder God told Samuel to “completely destroy” them.

Please Support The Stream: Equipping Christians to Think Clearly About the Political, Economic, and Moral Issues of Our Day.

So, looking at the big picture, there are times when wiping out an enemy is justified and can actually be done in love — love for the greater good in many generations to come.

To sum it all up, Trump’s plan is at the very least an interesting proposal and definitely “outside the box.” As he said in the news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “We have to do something different.” The proverbial definition of insanity — doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results — has been used so much, I’m surprised that dictionaries haven’t officially changed it. I think there’s a lot of truth to it.

If the other Arab countries in the region don’t like Trump’s idea, let them come up with a better one.

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.