‘We don’t know what the details are yet, but someone had to take the lead,’ said Senator Markwayne Mullin.
President Donald Trump shocked Washington Tuesday evening when he suggested during a press conference alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the U.S. should develop and take a “long-term ownership position” in Gaza. He said the U.S. would “level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings” and would bring in troops to secure the region if “necessary.”
Less than 24 hours later, many Senate Republicans are adopting a wait-and-see approach to Trump’s occupy Gaza proposal, which comes amid continuing cease-fire negotiations between Israel and Hamas. While some Republican lawmakers moved quickly to dismiss the idea outright, others tell reporters that the president’s suggestion is simply an opening salvo in a broader conversation about how to bring about peace the region.
“We don’t know what the details are yet, but someone had to take the lead,” said Senator Markwayne Mullin (R., Okla.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “America always leads from the front, and the president’s showing leadership to get our allies in that area to help step up.”
“He was giving an aspirational idea of what could happen. He hasn’t laid out the details,” says Senator Bernie Moreno (R., Ohio). “I think what President Trump is saying here is – all options are on the table, let’s be creative about how to fix this problem.”
Trump’s Gaza takeover proposal comes as the White House’s foreign policy continues to take shape, with the president recently floating acquiring Greenland, making Canada the 51st state, and taking back the Panama Canal. Last month, Trump suggested to reporters that neighboring Egypt and Jordan should welcome Palestinian refugees.
“There are two main issues with respect to Gaza. Number one, who’s going to pay to rebuild it if we decide to rebuild it? And number two, who’s going to run the place?” Senator John Kennedy (R., La.) told reporters on Wednesday. “He said he would like to see American involvement. The contours of that involvement we’re going to have to talk about.”
Other Republicans are pouring cold water on the proposal, calling it unrealistic and untenable. “We’ll see what our Arab friends said about that, and I think most South Carolinians would probably not be excited about sending Americans to take over Gaza. I think that might be problematic,” said Senator Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.).
“Obviously it’s not going to happen,” said Senator Thom Tillis (R., N.C.). “I don’t know under what circumstance it would make sense, even for Israel.”
Responding to a social media post from his former colleague, secretary of state Marco Rubio, that the U.S. stands ready to “Make Gaza Beautiful Again,” libertarian-leaning Senator Rand Paul (R., Ky.) suggested Wednesday morning that annexing the Gaza Strip runs counter to the president’s campaign promise to end U.S. entanglements overseas.
“The pursuit for peace should be that of the Israelis and the Palestinians,” Paul said. “I thought we voted for America First. We have no business contemplating yet another occupation to doom our treasure and spill our soldiers blood.”
Except for ardently pro-Israel Democratic Senator John Fetterman, who seemed open to what he called Trump’s “provocative” proposal, congressional Democrats are largely in agreement that U.S. annexation of Gaza is both irresponsible, and, in the words of Senator Chris Coons (D., Del.): “Insane.”
“This guy wants to establish United States colony in the Middle East, and that is deeply, deeply dangerous,” Senator Brian Schatz (D., Hawaii) told reporters.
Asked by a reporter to provide further details on his Gaza takeover plan during Attorney General Pam Bondi’s swearing in ceremony on Wednesday, Trump insisted that “everybody loves” the plan but that it wasn’t an appropriate setting to go into further detail.