Summary
Trump’s proposal for the U.S. to take over Gaza and resettle its Palestinian population was widely condemned by allies and adversaries alike.
Arab nations, including Egypt and Saudi Arabia, firmly rejected the plan, reaffirming support for Palestinian sovereignty. U.S. allies like Australia and New Zealand reiterated their backing of a two-state solution.
Critics, including Palestinian leaders and Hamas, denounced the move as illegal and destabilizing.
U.S. lawmakers also opposed it, with some calling it “dangerous” and “ethnic cleansing.”
Well, but there is a pretty significant difference. For example, when the Nazis were planning to send all the German Jews to Madagascar, they were attempting an ethnic cleansing, meaning ‘just’ their removal - They didn’t care when Jews died, but it wasn’t their actual plan to slaughter them all. However, when the Madagascar Plan didn’t seem possible anymore, they switched to genocide in stead, meaning their extermination.
There is a incredibly huge difference between these two things. And please don’t get me wrong, they are both absolutely, unequivocally horrific. Unacceptable, period. But still this difference is important, especially for the victims. In hindsight, I’m sure many people would have wished the Nazis had been successful in their ethnic cleansing. Many more people would have survived.
What Israel has been doing is not ethnic cleansing. They’ve been systematically killing people for no other reason than “because we want to and we can.” I’d call that a genocide. What Trump is describing, however, is ethnic cleansing.
And just to reiterate, I’m not saying it’s not bad. It’s sickeningly bad. But quite different.