Secretary of State Marco Rubio was assembly in Jerusalem on Sunday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel as political chaos rippled throughout the Center East over President Trump’s insistent proposals to grab the devastated Gaza Strip and drive out its Palestinian residents.
The journey is Mr. Rubio’s first to the area as secretary of state, and comes as Israel and Hamas are supposed to be negotiating to show a tenuous cease-fire in Gaza right into a everlasting finish to their battle.
However Mr. Trump’s inconceivable imaginative and prescient for remodeling Gaza into an American-owned “Riviera of the Center East” has overshadowed that high-stakes dialogue, and Mr. Rubio is certain to be pressed for extra readability concerning the plan throughout his visits to Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
It’s unclear whether or not Mr. Rubio may have any particulars to supply, nevertheless, and never solely as a result of Mr. Trump’s plan is as imprecise as it’s contentious — it’s unclear whether or not Mr. Rubio himself takes the president actually.
Mr. Rubio, a former Florida senator with a much more standard worldview and elegance than the president, has greater than as soon as urged that Mr. Trump’s concept is principally a negotiating tactic meant to impress Arab leaders into taking extra duty for the Palestinians.
Mr. Trump shocked the world along with his Gaza plan throughout a Feb. 4 information convention in Washington with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has since known as it “a revolutionary, inventive method” that needs to be studied. Mr. Netanyahu has not explicitly endorsed the concept, which some Israeli officers take into account impractical.
After Arab officers within the area instantly denounced it, Mr. Rubio urged to reporters that Mr. Trump was merely making an attempt to “get a response” and “stir” different nations into offering extra help for postwar Gaza.
Since then, nevertheless, Mr. Trump has doubled down, telling reporters within the Oval Workplace on two different events and in a Fox Information interview that he intends to maneuver ahead with the plan. On Friday, Mahmoud Abbas, who governs the West Financial institution because the president of the Palestinian Authority, stated the Palestinian folks “should stay” on their land.
The pressured expulsion of Palestinians can be ethnic cleaning and a battle crime, worldwide legislation students say. Greater than 47,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli army retaliation in Gaza for a Hamas-led assault in October 2023 that killed 1,200 folks. Many of the useless on each side have been civilians.
Mr. Trump has stated Jordan and Egypt ought to permit the Palestinian residents of Gaza to maneuver to their nations. The thought has lengthy been promoted by the Israeli proper however flatly rejected by Arab and Palestinian leaders in addition to previous U.S. presidents of each events. King Abdullah II of Jordan publicly rejected Mr. Trump’s proposal after a Wednesday assembly on the White Home that was additionally attended by Mr. Rubio.
In a radio interview on Thursday, Mr. Rubio once more spoke of Mr. Trump’s concept much less as a concrete goal and extra as sort of diplomatic stink bomb geared toward Arab nations.
“All these nations say how a lot they care concerning the Palestinians, however none of them need to take any Palestinians. None of them have a historical past of doing something for Gaza in that matter,” Mr. Rubio stated. “So the president says, all proper, then that is what we’re going to do. We’ll take it on. We’ll have to maneuver folks round.”
“It’s the one plan on the market proper now,” he added. “Now, if somebody has a greater plan — and we hope they do — if the Arab nations have a greater plan, then that’s nice.”
Mr. Rubio urged that any Arab proposal ought to deal with the mammoth activity of reconstructing Gaza and deploying a multinational safety drive to combat remnants of Hamas.
“I can let you know that any plan that leaves Hamas there may be going to be an issue, as a result of Israel isn’t going to tolerate it.” he stated.
Mr. Rubio made no point out of months of labor by the Biden administration, led by former Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, to plot simply such a plan. By the tip of final yr, Biden administration officers stated they had been getting near a posh settlement that may deliver Arab safety forces and reconstruction funds to Gaza together with larger accountability to the Palestinian Authority, which President Joe Biden stated ought to play a number one position in a postwar Gaza.
However any such plan is barely potential as soon as the battle in Gaza involves an finish, and progress towards that is dependent upon extending a cease-fire settlement that’s set to finish in March and that revolves round hostage-prisoner exchanges.
Mr. Rubio arrived in Israel on Saturday — the identical day that Hamas launched three Israeli hostages, together with a twin American citizen, in trade for 369 Palestinian prisoners.
The Israeli and American governments had been pressuring Hamas for days to launch the hostages in hopes of sustaining the cease-fire first reached with the prodding of Biden and Trump aides in mid-January. Mr. Trump warned final Monday that Israel might cancel the settlement and that “all hell goes to interrupt out” if Hamas didn’t launch all remaining hostages by midday on Saturday.
Mr. Rubio is on his second journey as secretary of state. He landed in Israel on Saturday night time after spending a few days on the Munich Safety Convention, and plans to fly to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates after conferences in Jerusalem. Mr. Rubio had deliberate to cease in Qatar earlier, however that was not on the introduced schedule.
In Saudi Arabia, Mr. Rubio and two different prime Trump aides plan to satisfy with Russian officers to debate ending the battle in Ukraine.
Mr. Rubio’s travels have attracted little public response in Israel, amid uncertainty concerning the secretary’s affect compared to Steve Witkoff, the president’s Mideast envoy, and different advisers to Mr. Trump.
Extra broadly, Israeli authorities officers have warmly welcomed the Trump administration’s assist for Israel. Mr. Netanyahu issued a press release on Tuesday that hailed “the president’s revolutionary imaginative and prescient for the way forward for Gaza.” He additionally credited Mr. Trump on Saturday with serving to to make sure that the cease-fire remained intact by means of the weekend.
Nonetheless, it’s unclear whether or not Mr. Netanyahu sees Mr. Trump’s plan to expel Gaza’s residents as a viable postwar technique, even when the concept has been praised by Mr. Netanyahu’s far-right allies.
Mr. Netanyahu himself has averted direct commentary on the premise of a U.S.-led constructing undertaking in Gaza. As a substitute, the Israeli management appears extra centered on a short-term aim — securing U.S. assist for resuming the battle if the cease-fire breaks down. Mr. Netanyahu has repeatedly stated the battle can’t finish earlier than Hamas is defeated, however it is going to be more durable to resume the preventing with out Mr. Trump’s blessing.
Isabel Kershner contributed reporting.
