Mahmood Issa

In a press conference with Jordanian King Abdullah in February, U.S. President Donald Trump touted his proposal that the United States should seize control of Gaza, empty it of its roughly two million residents, and redevelop the territory as a tourist area, a “Riviera of the Middle East.” Such a plan is a nonstarter among Arab countries. They perceive it as tantamount to accepting the ethnic cleansing of Gaza. Put on the spot, Abdullah demurred and suggested that he awaited an alternative plan for Gaza, one that would be advanced by Egypt.

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The war in Gaza, however, offers Egypt a chance to regain the status it once had in the Arab world. On March 4, Egypt unveiled what it described as “a comprehensive vision for rebuilding Gaza while ensuring Palestinians remain on their land.” This reconstruction plan for Gaza was presented in a 112-page prospectus, complete with maps, AI-generated renderings, a phased five-year timeline, and an estimated budget of about $53 billion. It envisions redeveloped infrastructure, housing units for 1.6 million people, a commercial seaport, a technology hub, industrial zones, beach hotels, and an airport. And it insists, contrary to Trump’s claims, that such real estate development in Gaza is feasible without displacing its residents. Indeed, this was the plan’s principal purpose; its political prescriptions are deliberately vague, outlining a technocratic Palestinian interim administration of the territory, assisted by international peacekeepers. In separate meetings in early March, the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Countries backed the Egyptian plan. And the foreign ministers of France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom commended the plan as “realistic.”

Israel, whose right-wing government seems intent on forcing out the residents of Gaza, rejected the plan immediately. Washington offered mixed messages, with Trump initially dismissing it as unworkable before other administration officials welcomed the initiative. Steve Witkoff, the U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, called the plan “a good-faith first step from the Egyptians,” suggesting that the Arab proposal was not, in fact, dead on arrival.

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Just by advancing this peace plan for Gaza, Egypt has salvaged the Palestinian aspiration for statehood from Trump’s desire to conjure a showy real estate development deal.

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[Ed What this article doesn’t make clear is that this proposal would remove Hamas from power in Gaza, placing it under the political control of the Palestinian authority. Nor that Hamas is agreeing to the proposal, as they indicated in their meeting with hostage negotiator Adam Boehler. See https://www.jns.org/egypt-proposes-interim-governance-for-gaza-replacing-hamas/ and https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/hamas-welcomes-egypts-gaza-reconstruction-plan-2025-03-04/%5D

Via https://www.foreignaffairs.com/egypt/promise-egyptian-plan-gaza