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President Trump’s talk about a removal of Gazans from Gaza—while transforming the coastal enclave into prime beachfront real estate, a Riviera on the eastern Mediterranean no less—struck many as outlandish. But many in Israel have taken the idea—at least the kernel of it, not necessarily with Trump’s trappings—seriously, and efforts are underway to get it off the ground.
Late last month, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer—close confidant of Prime Minister Netanyahu—reportedly “held a ‘tense’ meeting with a senior Egyptian official…in Jerusalem.” The topic—or at least one of them—was moving Gazans into the vast, sparsely populated Sinai Peninsula. The Egyptian official
relayed that Cairo is alarmed by calls from Israeli politicians to push Palestinians into Gaza and stressed that Egypt views any such effort as an existential threat….
According to the sources, Dermer responded by maintaining that the Egyptian people are not as opposed to taking in Gazans as the Egyptian government is.
Alarmed by the answer—in addition to disagreeing with it—Egyptian officials have since sought to arrange a meeting for Dermer with some of the country’s more senior leaders in Cairo in order to further make the case against the relocation of Palestinians into the Sinai.
Unlike Jordan—a small country that already has a large, restive Palestinian population and is under a concerted effort by Iran to undermine its foundations—Egypt has a population of 107 million, while Gaza’s population comes to two million, and no one is suggesting a total population transfer. Egypt’s adamant opposition to taking in Gazans can be seen as a severe case of NIMBYism—even as, of course, Egypt officially intones the proper phrases about the “Palestinian cause.”
For now, Egypt’s President Sissi is turning a cold shoulder to Trump’s overtures for a White House meeting—where Sissi’s NIMBYism just might get exposed to a wide public.