The former PM’s leaked visit to the White House is concerning. This scheme is an outrage that no other Arab – or western – state could back
T
ony Blair’s leaked presence at the recent White House discussion of Donald Trump’s “Gaza Riviera” plan is either good news or outrageous. Good news if he used his influence with Trump to terminate this obscenity. Dreadful news if he were to be party to it.
The plan itself was first outlined to an incredulous world by Trump in February. The details have now emerged. It involves the expulsion – the de facto imprisonment – of 2 million Palestinians, while the US administers the exclave for 10 years. Each Palestinian would be paid $5,000 each plus four years’ rent somewhere else and one year’s supply of food. Gaza is then rebuilt as a skyscraper wonderland of artificial intelligence investment and tourism. It would be a second Dubai yielding up to $400bn for developers.
The scheme’s private contractors would be the same “humanitarian” trust now supplying food to the famine-hit territory. Trump said that the Palestinians would be better off “living beautifully in another location”. The Americans might one day see a “reformed and deradicalised Palestinian polity … ready to step in its shoes.” It is inconceivable that the plan would be deemed acceptable anywhere, apart from in Israel.
