#President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu joint press conference

[martynrandles]

Full Netanyahu, Trump press conference: POTUS says US plans Gaza takeove...

Feb 5, 2025                                          

President Donald Trump held a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. Trump said that the United States could take over the Gaza Strip as part of its rebuilding following the war between Israel and Hamas. "The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too," Trump said. "We'll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site." "I'm hopeful that this ceasefire could be the beginning of a larger and more enduring peace that will end the bloodshed and killing once and for all," Trump said.

[darkmaga-returns]

You could see heads exploding in the Middle East, the international media, and among Republicans and Democrats during President Trump’s February 4 joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he raised stunning new proposals for the U.S. to take over, “own,” and rebuild the Gaza Strip so it can become “the Riviera of the Middle East.” Trump also repeated his earlier call to relocate two million Palestinians from Gaza to Egypt and Jordan.

Predictably, Trump’s critics harshly condemned his proposals, calling them unrealistic, imperialism, ethnic cleansing, morally bankrupt, etc. But just like their rejection of Trump’s efforts to end the war in Ukraine, his critics offered no solutions for the hypocrisies Trump raised about the Gaza crisis.

On February 5, Trump’s advisers responded to questions about Trump’s new Gaza ideas. White House Press Spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt noted that President Trump has not committed to sending troops to Gaza and will not spend U.S. funds rebuilding it. National Security Adviser Michael Waltz said President Trump’s ideas would “bring the entire region to come with their own solutions.”

Yesterday, the president clarified but also doubled down on his new Gaza proposals. In a February 6 Truth Social post, the president said no U.S. soldiers would be needed for his plan, Israel would turn over Gaza to the U.S. after the fighting ends, and Palestinians would be resettled in a safer area. President Trump added about his Gaza reconstruction proposal:

“The U.S., working with great development teams from all over the world, would slowly and carefully begin the construction of what would become one of the greatest and most spectacular developments of its kind on Earth.”

[sixstringphonic]

Trump Proposes the U.S. Take Over Gaza

(The New York Times, 2/4/25 as of 8:07pm EST)

Gaza’s future: President Trump proposed on Tuesday that the United States take over Gaza and that all Palestinians there — some two million people — leave, describing a permanent relocation to one or more sites funded by “countries of interest with humanitarian hearts.” As he hosted Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, for a joint news conference in the White House, Mr. Trump said that he has studied the conditions in Gaza and his idea to seize and develop it has gotten “tremendous” support from the “highest of leadership” as a viable plan to bring peace to the Middle East.

Trump promises to turn Gaza into ‘the Riviera of the Middle East.’

President Trump declared on Tuesday that he would seek to permanently displace the entire Palestinian population of Gaza and take over the devastated seaside enclave as a U.S. territory, one of the most audacious ideas that any American leader has advanced in years.

Hosting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel at the White House, Mr. Trump said that all 2 million Palestinians from Gaza should be moved to countries like Egypt and Jordan because of the devastation wrought by Israel’s war with Hamas after the terrorist attack of Oct. 7, 2023.

“The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it too,” Mr. Trump said at an evening news conference. “We’ll own it and be responsible” for disposing of unexploded munitions and rebuilding Gaza into a mecca for jobs and tourism. Sounding like the real estate developer he once was, he vowed to turn it into “the Riviera of the Middle East.”

While the president framed the matter as a humanitarian imperative and an economic development opportunity, he effectively reopened a geopolitical Pandora’s box with far-reaching implications for the Middle East. Control over Gaza has been one of the major flash points of the Arab-Israeli conflict going back decades, and the idea of relocating its Palestinian residents recalls an era when Western great powers redrew the maps of the region and moved around populations without regard to local autonomy.

The notion of the United States taking over sovereign territory in the Middle East would be a dramatic reversal for Mr. Trump, who first ran for office in 2016 vowing to extract America from the region following the Iraq war and decried the nation-building of his predecessors. In unveiling the plan, Mr. Trump did not cite any legal authority giving him the right to take over the territory, nor did he address the fact that forcible removal of a population violates international law.

Hamas, which has ruled in Gaza for most of the past two decades and is re-establishing control there now, immediately rejected mass relocation on Tuesday, and Egypt and Jordan have rejected the idea of taking in a large influx of Palestinians, given the fraught history, burden and destabilizing potential. But Mr. Netanyahu, sitting at Mr. Trump’s side in the Oval Office, smiled with satisfaction as the president first outlined his ideas.

“I don’t think people should be going back to Gaza,” Mr. Trump said. “I heard that Gaza has been very unlucky for them. They live like hell. They live like they’re living in hell. Gaza is not a place for people to be living, and the only reason they want to go back, and I believe this strongly, is because they have no alternative.”

He suggested that nations in the region could finance the resettlement of Gazans to new places that would provide better living conditions, either as a single territory or as many as a dozen. “It would be my hope that we could do something really nice, really good, where they wouldn’t want to return,” he said without offering details of what that would entail.

Asked how many Palestinians he had in mind, he said, “all of them,” adding, “I would think that they would be thrilled.” Pressed repeatedly on whether he would force them to go even if they did not want to, Mr. Trump said, “I don’t think they’re going to tell me no.”

Hamas, at least, was quick to tell him no. Sami Abu Zuhri, a senior Hamas official, said that the president’s proposed relocation was “a recipe for creating chaos and tension in the region.”

“Our people in Gaza will not allow for these plans to come to pass,” he said in a statement distributed by Hamas. “What is needed is the end of the occupation and the aggression against our people, not expelling them from their land.”

Gaza has a long and tortured history of conflict and crisis. Many Gazans are descendants of Palestinians who were forced out of their homes during the 1948 war following Israel’s independence, an event known around the Arab world as the Nakba, or catastrophe. Now Mr. Trump is suggesting that they be displaced again, even though the Geneva Conventions — international agreements that the United States and Israel both ratified — bar forcible relocation of populations.

Egypt captured Gaza during the 1948 war and controlled it until Israel seized it along with other Palestinian territory in a 1967 war against a coalition of Arab nations seeking to destroy the Jewish state. Palestinians in Gaza waged violent resistance for years afterward, and Israel eventually withdrew from Gaza in 2005.

But within two years, Hamas, an avowed enemy of Israel that is designated a terrorist group by the United States and other nations, took control of the enclave and used it as a base for war against Israel.

For years, Israel blockaded Gaza while Hamas fired rockets and staged terrorist attacks, culminating in the October 2023 operation that killed 1,200 people and led to the capture of 250 more. Israel retaliated with an unrelenting military operation that killed more than 47,000 people, according to Gazan health officials, whose count does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

In the weeks since a cease-fire negotiated under President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s administration and pushed by Mr. Trump came into effect, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians repeatedly displaced throughout the war have returned to their homes in Gaza to find them and their communities demolished. Steve Witkoff, Mr. Trump’s new Middle East envoy, visited Gaza last week and said it would take 10 to 15 years to reconstruct.

“If you had damage that was one-hundredth of what I saw in Gaza, nobody would be allowed to go back to their homes,” Mr. Witkoff told reporters on Tuesday. “That’s how dangerous it is. There’s 30,000 unexploded munitions. It is buildings that could tip over at any moment. There’s no utilities.”

Picking up on the theme later in the day, Mr. Trump said it was not realistic to have Palestinians return to Gaza. “They have no alternative right now” but to leave, Mr. Trump told reporters before Mr. Netanyahu’s arrival.

“I mean, they’re there because they have no alternative,” he said. “What do they have? It is a big pile of rubble right now.” He added: “I don’t know how they could want to stay. It’s a demolition site. It’s a pure demolition site.”

Mr. Trump suggested the resettlement of Palestinians would be akin to the New York real estate projects he built his career on.. “If we could find the right piece of land, or numerous pieces of land, and build them some really nice places with plenty of money in the area, that’s for sure,” he said. “I think that would be a lot better than going back to Gaza.”

Mr. Trump’s summit with Mr. Netanyahu was his first in-person meeting with another world leader since returning to power two weeks ago. The two were expected to discuss negotiations for the second phase of the fragile cease-fire with Hamas, Iran’s efforts to build a nuclear weapon, new arms shipments and hopes for a deal to normalize relations with Saudi Arabia.

The meeting, part of a multiday visit to Washington by Mr. Netanyahu, was meant to demonstrate the close ties between the two leaders. The Israeli prime minister made a point of flattering Mr. Trump, giving him credit for the cease-fire deal brokered last month without mentioning Mr. Biden.

“I think President Trump added great force and powerful leadership to this effort,” Mr. Netanyahu said. He alluded to friction with Mr. Biden, saying that it was important that Israel’s enemies not perceive any differences between his country and the United States. “Occasionally in the last few years, to put it mildly, they saw daylight,” he said.

Mr. Trump and Mr. Netanyahu forged a close partnership during the president’s first term but fell out toward its end over a number of issues, including the Israeli leader’s willingness to congratulate Mr. Biden on his victory in the 2020 election, which Mr. Trump insists he won. Mr. Trump and Mr. Netanyahu have since sought to smooth over their rift.

But Mr. Netanyahu went into his meeting at odds with Mr. Trump on several important issues, according to analysts, likely including how to confront Iran’s nuclear ambitions and how quickly to end the war in Gaza.

The Trump administration has made clear that it wants to see all of the hostages held by Hamas returned and then move on to a grand bargain involving Saudi Arabia that formalizes relations with Israel. All of that hinges on a lasting end to fighting in the Palestinian seaside enclave.

Advisers to Mr. Trump told reporters on Tuesday morning that the president and Mr. Netanyahu were united behind the idea that Hamas should not be allowed to remain in power.

With Mr. Netanyahu’s right-wing government in jeopardy if the war ends with Hamas still in control in Gaza, and with no other plan for the area in place, analysts expect the Israeli prime minister to try to delay moving to the next stage of the deal, which calls for a permanent cease-fire.

“Netanyahu made this salami deal,” said Shira Efron, the senior director of policy research at the Israel Policy Forum, a New York-based research group, referring to the three-phased agreement with Hamas. “He’s always playing for time and kicking the can down the road — something he is an expert in. Trump wants to cut to the chase and end the war.”

Mr. Netanyahu is also in a vulnerable position internationally, with an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court accusing him of war crimes during the war with Hamas.

Adding to the anxiety in the region were reports on Monday that U.S. intelligence officials believe Iran is seeking to build a cruder atomic weapon that could be developed quickly if the leadership in Tehran decided to do so.

It remains unclear whether that decision has been made, and Iran’s new president has indicated that he would like to begin a negotiation with Mr. Trump’s administration even as the country’s nuclear scientists push ahead with their efforts.

Mr. Trump on Tuesday signed an order directing a return to the policy of “maximum pressure” on Iran through sanctions, but avoided hostile language and refused to say whether he would support an Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear facilities, an indication of his interest in reaching an agreement. “This is one I’m torn about,” he said as he signed the order. “Hopefully, we’re not going to have to use it very much. We will see whether we can arrange, work out a deal with Iran.”

[townflex]

Trump Suggests US Takeover of Gaza Strip During Netanyahu Visit

U.S. President Donald Trump has proposed that the United States take control of the Gaza Strip, calling for a “long-term ownership position” over the war-torn region. The statement came during a joint press conference at the White House on Tuesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, marking Netanyahu’s first visit since Trump’s return to office. Trump asserted that the U.S. would…

[mizelaneus]

“President Donald Trump says he wants the U.S. to take ownership of the Gaza Strip and redevelop it after Palestinians are resettled elsewhere. He made the remarks in a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Earlier today, Trump’s Middle East envoy said that a three to five-year timeline for the reconstruction of Gaza is not a viable post-war plan for the battle-torn territory.”

WTAF

[news365timesindia]

[ad_1] Israel has announced that it will no longer participate in the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), following the United States’ decision to withdraw from the body. The announcement was made by Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar on Wednesday, who accused the council of bias against Israel. Sa’ar expressed strong support for US President Donald Trump’s decision, arguing that the UNHRC has failed in its mission to uphold human rights and has instead targeted Israel unfairly. The UNHRC has traditionally protected human rights abusers by allowing them to hide from scrutiny, and instead obsessively demonizes the one democracy in the Middle East – Israel,” Sa’ar stated. The Israeli foreign minister further criticized the council’s structure, highlighting that Israel is the only country with a permanent agenda item dedicated solely to it. According to Sa’ar, this systematic scrutiny has led to more than 100 resolutions against Israel, amounting to over 20% of all resolutions issued by the council. Israel welcomes President Trump’s decision not to participate in the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC). Israel joins the United States and will not participate in the UNHRC. The UNHRC has traditionally protected human rights abusers by allowing them to hide from scrutiny, and… — Gideon Sa’ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) February 5, 2025 The timing of Israel’s announcement coincided with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the United States, where he met with President Trump in Washington, DC. During a joint press conference on Tuesday, Trump reiterated his administration’s decision to withdraw from both the UNHRC and the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), citing alleged ties between UNRWA and the militant group Hamas. The US president condemned the UNHRC as an “antisemitic” body that has failed to fulfill its intended purpose. Click here for Latest Fact Checked News On NewsMobile WhatsApp Channel For viral videos and Latest trends subscribe to NewsMobile YouTube Channel and Follow us on Instagram [ad_2] Source link

[news365times]

[ad_1] Israel has announced that it will no longer participate in the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), following the United States’ decision to withdraw from the body. The announcement was made by Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar on Wednesday, who accused the council of bias against Israel. Sa’ar expressed strong support for US President Donald Trump’s decision, arguing that the UNHRC has failed in its mission to uphold human rights and has instead targeted Israel unfairly. The UNHRC has traditionally protected human rights abusers by allowing them to hide from scrutiny, and instead obsessively demonizes the one democracy in the Middle East – Israel,” Sa’ar stated. The Israeli foreign minister further criticized the council’s structure, highlighting that Israel is the only country with a permanent agenda item dedicated solely to it. According to Sa’ar, this systematic scrutiny has led to more than 100 resolutions against Israel, amounting to over 20% of all resolutions issued by the council. Israel welcomes President Trump’s decision not to participate in the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC). Israel joins the United States and will not participate in the UNHRC. The UNHRC has traditionally protected human rights abusers by allowing them to hide from scrutiny, and… — Gideon Sa’ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) February 5, 2025 The timing of Israel’s announcement coincided with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the United States, where he met with President Trump in Washington, DC. During a joint press conference on Tuesday, Trump reiterated his administration’s decision to withdraw from both the UNHRC and the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), citing alleged ties between UNRWA and the militant group Hamas. The US president condemned the UNHRC as an “antisemitic” body that has failed to fulfill its intended purpose. Click here for Latest Fact Checked News On NewsMobile WhatsApp Channel For viral videos and Latest trends subscribe to NewsMobile YouTube Channel and Follow us on Instagram [ad_2] Source link

[masr356]

Trump signs order sanctioning International Criminal Court | masr356.com

During his time in office, President Biden also criticised the ICC’s warrant for Netanyahu, calling the move “outrageous” and saying there was no equivalence between Israel and Hamas. Trump’s signing of his latest executive order follows his announcement during a joint press conference with the Israeli prime minister on Tuesday of a plan for the US to “take over” Gaza, resettle its Palestinian…

[news7272]

President Donald Trump revealed an extraordinary plan on February 4 for the United States to take over the Gaza Strip, resettle Palestinians in other countries -- seemingly whether they wanted to leave or not -- and turn the territory into "the Riviera of the Middle East." Trump made the proposal to audible gasps during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he was hosting at the White House for talks.

#Trump #US #Gaza

[memotrends]

Just a day after Trump called the Palestinians of Gaza "permanently" and built the "Riviera del Middle East", the US officials say that Trump meant that it would be only temporary

The President of the United States Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (they have not seen) hold a joint press conference in the East Room at the White House of Washington, DC, United States on 04 February 2025. Kyle Mazza / Anadolu: images Source link

[yourworldnews]

Washington — Mike Waltz, President Trump’s national security adviser, on Wednesday defended the president’s suggestion that the U.S. would take The post Trump adviser defends Gaza plan, says it will “bring the entire region” to reach its own solution appeared first on World News.

[darkmaga-returns]

“We have written a joint letter calling on all countries to stop the sale of arms and ammunition to Israel. We delivered this letter, which has 54 signatories, to the UN on November 1,” said Hakan Fidan at a press conference in Djibouti, where he was attending a Turkey-Africa partnership summit.

“We must repeat at every opportunity that selling arms to Israel means participating in its genocide,” said Fidan, adding that the letter is “an initiative launched by Turkey.”

Among the signatories were Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Algeria, China, Iran and Russia. The Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, both inter-governmental organizations within the UN, also signed the document.

Last month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on the UN to impose an arms embargo on Israel. He said the measure would be an “effective solution” to end Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza, which was sparked when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages.

Erdogan has been a harsh critic of Israel throughout the war in Gaza, at one point appearing to say he would invade Israel to end the war. In May, he banned trade with Israel, ending the two countries’ robust economic ties.

Erdogan also met with Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Istanbul in April, several months before he was slain in an explosion in Tehran widely attributed to Israel. Government officials told The Times of Israel earlier this year that Hamas’s leadership had briefly moved from Qatar to Turkey that month amid tensions with Doha.

Some of Israel’s allies have also floated restricting arms deliveries to the country. French President Emmanuel Macron said last month that an arms embargo is the only way to end the war in Gaza. In September, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer halted the delivery of some weapons out of fear they could be used to commit war crimes, but stopped short of calling for a full embargo. Canada’s Foreign Minister Melanie Joly also announced in September that she was suspending some 30 permits for arms shipments to Israel, saying Ottawa would not have “arms or parts of arms be sent to Gaza.”

Israel’s two largest arms sources, the United States and Germany, have resisted calls for an embargo on Israel, though each has been accused of withholding certain arms during the war.

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/more-than-50-countries-press-un-for-arms-embargo-on--israel

[jonathanmoya1955]

From Conflict Zone to Casino: Trump's Hilarious Plan to Make Gaza Great Again"

A.I. generated image of Trump’s Gaza land proposal In a move that has left the world both bewildered and rolling in the aisles, President Donald Trump has proposed a solution to the Gaza problem that is as audacious as it is outlandish: **the United States should take over the Gaza Strip**. During a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump unveiled his vision…

[gurutrends]

Trump Gaza Takeover Plan Sparks Global Outrage

Trump Gaza Takeover Plan Sparks Global Outrage Former U.S. President Donald Trump has sparked international outrage after announcing plans for the United States to take control of the war-torn Gaza Strip following the displacement of Palestinians. Speaking at a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, Trump spoke on redeveloping Gaza into…

[home-inspiration-blog]

'Riviera of the Middle East?' The world reacts to Trump's suggestion that U.S. take over Gaza

Both U.S. allies and adversaries alike rejected President Donald Trump’s suggestion that the U.S. “take over” the war-torn Gaza Strip and turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”  Trump floated the idea during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Tuesday. He said the U.S. would be involved in clearing the territory where not only…

[head-post]

Latest on Trump: CIA buyouts, tariffs, Ukraine

Not even a month after his inauguration, US President Donald Trump has stepped up his foreign policy efforts, from the American continent to Europe and the Middle East. The CIA announces sweeping layoffs, while Mexico and Canada temporarily cancel tariffs.

Layoffs and kickbacks

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) offered buyouts to all of its employees on Tuesday, citing a goal to align the agency with US President Donald Trump’s priorities. A CIA spokesman said the move was intended to bring the agency in line with the policies of new CIA Director John Ratcliffe.

Director Ratcliffe is moving swiftly to ensure the CIA workforce is responsive to the Administration’s national security priorities. These moves are part of a holistic strategy to infuse the Agency with renewed energy.

The agency did not disclose its budget or number of employees. The reported buyout offers correspond to a sweeping overhaul of the US government launched by the Trump administration, which has fired and suspended hundreds of government employees as part of its first steps to cut bureaucracy.

Ratcliffe, a former member of the House of Representatives who served as director of National Intelligence during Trump’s first term, was confirmed by the US Senate to be CIA director days after Trump took office for a second term.

On Tuesday, Trump also said he believes he will wind down the US Agency for International Development (USAID). The agency faced challenges amid a freeze on most foreign aid funds to check whether they matched the interests of the US.

He’s [Elon Musk who accused USAID of being a “criminal” organisation] done a great job. Look at all the fraud that he’s found in this USAID. (…) Nobody could approve that. They [‘radical left lunatics’] can only approve that if they were getting kickbacks.

Potential trade war

Trade seemed to have moved to the back burner amid the government’s immigration initiatives. However, that all changed last weekend when Trump announced comprehensive 25% tariffs on US allies Canada and Mexico, as well as 10% duties on Chinese imports.

Trump said he viewed the tariffs not only as a tool to achieve political goals, but also as a permanent source of US revenue and a means of funding government programmes and reducing the budget deficit.

After talks with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Trump put the tariffs on pause. Although the new duties on China went into effect and prompted retaliatory measures from Beijing, markets found the US moves to be less disruptive and smaller in scale than they could have been.

In contrast, if the US were to impose a series of escalating tariffs with Canada and Mexico on more than $1.57 trillion of goods, the global economic impact could be catastrophic, analysts said.

Mexico, meanwhile, pledged to step up anti-drug measures and commit 10,000 troops to patrol the US-Mexico border. However, those numbers reflected the number of troops the country had deployed in 2019 and 2021.

War in Ukraine

The US president said at a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the US was negotiating a war between Ukraine and Russia.

We’re having very good talks, very constructive talks on Ukraine. And we’re talking to the Russians, we’re talking to Ukrainian leadership.

Trump voiced hope that deals would be reached as soon as possible. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stressed that his country needed security guarantees before returning to the negotiating table. Russia, for its part, underlined that it would negotiate only with the legally elected government of Ukraine.

In early February, Trump said that his administration had already held “very serious” talks with Russia on the war in Ukraine and that both he and Russian President Vladimir Putin could soon take “significant” action to put an end to the conflict.

We will be speaking, and I think will perhaps do something that’ll be significant. We want to end that war. That war would have not started if I was president.

Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, also said in an interview that presidential and parliamentary elections in Ukraine, suspended during the war with Russia, “need to be done.”

Most democratic nations have elections in their time of war. I think it is important they do so.I think it is good for democracy. That’s the beauty of a solid democracy, you have more than one person potentially running.

Read more HERE