Dem 47
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GOP 53
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Monaco, Here We Come!

Or is it Miami Beach East? Donald Trump once said: "[Gaza] could be better than Monaco. It has the best location in the Middle East, the best water, the best everything." This was a follow up on Jared Kushner's remark that Gaza is waterfront property and "very valuable." He urged Israel to remove the civilians and clean it up. Of course, this violates international law, but who cares about trifling things like that?

Both of these comments come from people who see Gaza as a piece of land that could be filled with chic expensive condos and hotels, like Monaco or, more modestly, Miami Beach. It could be a massive windfall to developers like... oh, Donald Trump and Jared Kushner. The only problem is that it is full of people who are blocking their plans. Those people are poor Arabs, however, who don't count for much in their view. If they could just get those people to go somewhere else, voluntarily or otherwise, the coast would be clear. Literally.

Trump hasn't given up on his dream of "cleaning out" Gaza and developing it. He'd probably even be willing to cut the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, MBS, in on the deal since he seems to be such a modern, forward-looking guy who doesn't give a camel's ass about the Palestinians. On Saturday, Trump reiterated his dream to reporters, saying: "You're talking about probably a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing and say, 'You know, it's over.'" Invoking his inner real estate developer, he referred to Gaza as a "demolition site."

Of course, there is the problem of what to do with the Gazans Trump wants to remove, but he has a solution: Move them to Jordan. Temporarily or long term. In fact, he has already talked to King Abdullah II of Jordan to pitch the idea. He wants Abdullah to build more housing for the Gazans in Jordan. The kingdom has already taken in 2.4 million Palestinian refugees. The king is not keen on taking in another million or two.

Trump also said he would like Egypt to take in more Gazans. After all, the Sinai Peninsula is 23,000 square miles and has only 600,000 people. Sinai is about the size of West Virginia, which has a population of 1.8 million, so obviously there is plenty of room in the Sinai desert for more people. If Trump could just get Jordan and Egypt to accept all the Gazans, he and young Jared could develop Gaza into a really primo resort.

Trump's new comments haven't surprised people who live in the Middle East. There have been demonstrations all over the area protesting the war in Gaza for some time, with especially large ones in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, and the West Bank on Friday. The people there don't seem to like Trump's dream much. Neither do the leaders of any of those countries.

We checked the Dearborn newspapers to see how they are covering the story, but so far no items. Trump's plans will no doubt be of interest to the many (normally Democratic) voters there who voted for Trump to teach Joe Biden a lesson. Maybe the real lesson will be to the voters: If the lesser of two evils is 1000x better than the greater of two evils, go with the lesser. (V)



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