Trump’s ethnic cleansing idea unlikely to come to fruition: Analysis
Monday, January 27, 2025
US President Trump’s idea of the mass expulsion of Palestinians in Gaza to Jordan and Egypt is unlikely to ever happen, says Middle East analyst Mouin Rabbani.
"Even if he applies pressure on Jordan and Egypt, I think their leaderships will recognise the price of going along with Trump is going to be much greater than the price of resisting him – in terms of the survival of their leaderships for participating in something like this," Rabbani told Al Jazeera, referring to Trump’s plan as "ethnic cleansing".
"This isn’t going to happen because Israel is not going to succeed in ethnically cleansing the Gaza Strip after a war, after having failed to do so during a war."
When former US Secretary of State Antony Blinken went on a tour of Arab states to promote this idea late last year, he was met with a "blanket refusal", Rabbani added.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu is feeling the heat from his coalition partners over the ceasefire deal who view the Israeli leader as succumbing to US demands, the analyst said.
“I think there’s a kind of a mix of personal, political and ideological factors at play. But ultimately, I think the key relationship to look at here is not that between Netanyahu and his coalition partners, or between Israelis and Palestinians, but between Washington and Israel – because Washington is the one calling the shots, and Israel has no choice but to comply.”
