The Orange Colossus straddling the world stage can no longer be anticipated – nor contained.

Basically the entire world had responded to his genuinely earthshaking call for Gazan resettlement by reflexively rummaging up and running the moldered “two-state solution” playbook. (Although that wall could be crumbling a bit with King Abdullah’s equivocation.)

But Donald J. Trump not only hasn’t retreated – he continues to napalm decades of mal-diplomacy by doubling down on a negotiating gambit (which is how it must be understood) so momentous, consequential, farsighted, far-reaching, unorthodox and previously unthinkable that every such adjective in the thesaurus couldn’t begin to describe its impact.

His initial call-to-action, now expanded upon several times, cannot even be summarized or paraphrased to convey its head-spinning, historic significance – only quoted:

“The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip. … We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous, unexplored bombs and other weapons on the site.

“Level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings … I see it bringing great stability to that part of the Middle East and maybe the entire Middle East. … 

“Developing and creating thousands of jobs with something that will be magnificent in a really magnificent area that nobody would know. Nobody can look because all they see is death and destruction and rubble.” 

One word stands out in Trump’s game-changing concept.

Own!

Such a development, in both senses of the word, wouldn’t just cut the Gordian knot of postwar Middle East maneuvering. It would slice, dice and pulp it and reconstitute an entirely novel cord. 

Unfortunately, it would also position the United States in world opinion as a neo-imperialist power.  Which is one reason it will certainly never happen – not in the way The Post-Lawfare, Post-Assassination-Attempts, Truly Re-energized, Fully Unleashed, Nothing-to-Lose, Take-no-Prisoners Donald has presented it.

Nevertheless, in vintage over-the-top, over-and-back, “Art of the Deal”–on-steroids style, The U.S. Demander in Chief’s extraordinary raising of the stakes (which now includes insistence on accelerated release of Israeli and U.S. hostages) has made mere relocation the fallback position. And not only a possible but necessary endgame.

Having provided a vision of what could be, but never will – given hardened prevailing positions – The Donald and his team must now hyperfocus on bringing about what must be.

The Strip’s full demilitarization.

Far from Vegas-style development, Gaza must be vacated – and never resettled. Not by the Gazans, not by Israel and certainly not by the U.S. Because a resettled Gaza, depending on who is in charge, can only become one of two things: 

A terrorist base. Or a terror target.

A truth brought into sharp relief by Gaza’s malign, malicious manipulation of hostage releases. Hamas, the undeserving beneficiaries of scandalously generous terms, insisted on turning the exchanges into spectacles described understatedly by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as “shocking,” “horrific” and “unimaginable cruelty.” 

Hostages were transported or forced on foot through gauntlets of chanting, shrieking, invective-spewing throngs, potentially placing their lives in imminent peril. Those terrifying scenes followed days of ceasefire-violating games around delayed releases and refusal to name hostages being released – and were followed by another release of emaciated, sickeningly mistreated captives forced to praise their tormentors before rapturous mobs.

These outrages underscored three unassailable realities:

• Hamas will never abide by even the most basic norms of civilization. Ever. With anyone. 
• This terrorist cadre maintains complete control over, and the overwhelming support of, the Strip’s civilian population, and
• Most important: that population is, to its core, as brutal, barbarous, and bloodthirsty as Hamas.

The global intelligentsia and legacy media portray Gazans as innocent victims of Israeli overzealousness. But as the Jewish News Syndicate’s Alex Traiman reminds readers, “Nearly every (Gazan) residential building, mosque, school and hospital was turned into a weapons storage depot or a tunnel entrance.”

Yes, Hamas viciously and violently suppresses Gazans who dare oppose its evil schemes. Yet such thorough threading and integration of military capabilities into every sinew of society still could not have been accomplished without extraordinary degrees of civilian cooperation.

Moreover, captured plans reported on by Israel Hayom and Germany’s Bild magazine drive home the Gazan population’s own malicious nature: enthusiastic civilian participation in Oct. 7 terror was not spontaneous, but rather a meticulously planned third wave of “looters.” According to the report: 

The October 7 massacre was not only explicitly directed at Israeli civilians but was deliberately carried out by Gazan civilians who were an inherent part of the grand plan Hamas had devised (and) didn’t settle for just kidnapping, stealing, and burning.

Some committed the most horrific atrocities.

Recall, if you can bear to, the nature of just some of those crimes against humanity carried out by civilians:

• “Shooting and killing at will,” often in front of family members
• Babies burned alive or decapitated
• Victims routinely butchered and beheaded
• Women gang-raped while being mutilated and shot; carried off as trophies, bleeding from repeated violation; and found with genitalia slashed or burned
• Entire families burned alive in homes and shelters.

Per an expert quoted by Hayom and Bild: “The cruelty was supposed to be as graphic as possible, because that’s how you show your superiority.”

Donald Trump has discussed resettling Gazans in compassionate terms: they have “no alternative” but to leave a “demolition site” where they are “living in Hell.”

But the far more compelling and decisive rationale: Israel can simply no longer be forced to bear with the human and financial cost of an entire citizenry that has repeatedly, and recently, proven itself inalterably committed not only to the Jewish state’s utter humiliation and annihilation – but willing and even eager to engage in the most warped, subhuman abominations imaginable to achieve it.

Beachfront property or no, The Orange Colossus’s initial initiative – the Gaza’s population’s complete relocation – must be completed not as a mega real estate deal, but as a global security imperative. 

Negotiations must now ensue on the destination and logistics for providing the buffer needed to ensure Israel’s survival and achieve the true, ultimate goal: durable peace in the region.

Bob Maistros, a regular contributor to Issues & Insights, is a messaging and communications strategist, crisis specialist, and former political speechwriter. He can be reached at bob@rpmexecutive.com.