DOHA, Qatar — President Donald Trump’s plan to uproot more than two million Palestinians from the Gaza Strip — relocating them to neighboring Arab states and remaking the territory as a Middle Eastern “Riviera” — has had one clear real‐world impact already: It’s rocked Arab states around the region and forced them to reconsider an endgame to the latest eruption of Palestinian — Israeli violence.
Despite a barrage of condemnations for Mr. Trump’s plans — including a rare flat rejection by Jordan’s King Abdullah II following an Oval Office talk Tuesday — many hear warn that without a united, forceful “counteroffer,” the White House may press forward with what many see as an extreme yet increasingly tangible possibility.
Analysts and officials in Muscat, Doha, and Riyadh say Mr. Trump’s “disruptor diplomacy” is exposing deep divisions among Arab states.
While high-profile leaders such as Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman have denounced the idea of mass Palestinian relocation, the region still lacks a single robust plan to thwart the U.S. push. Hardliners in Israel and within Trump’s circle view forced displacement as a “clean break” for Gaza’s recurring upheavals.
“Without a concrete Arab plan, the White House will keep floating this outrageous idea,” said one seasoned observer in the Gulf. “Washington essentially says, ’If you hate our proposal, then show us yours.’ But the region remains stuck in reaction mode.”
Egypt, which has historically played a central role in Gaza negotiations and is, after Israel, the second-largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid, fiercely opposes Mr. Trump’s proposal. President Abdel-Fattah El-Sissi’s planned visit to the White House has been put on hold amid reports that Cairo categorically rejected any plan involving the displacement of Palestinians, temporary or otherwise.
While Mr. Trump has suggested that Cairo take in some of the 2.2 million Palestinian Gazans, Egyptian officials insist that no move will remove Gazans from their homeland.
Later this month, Egypt is set to host an emergency Arab summit focused on “serious developments” in the Palestinian cause. Jordan’s King Abdullah has said that Cairo will present a plan to work with the Trump administration in hopes of derailing what many call a “colonialist takeover.”
Shortly thereafter, top ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will convene with an eye toward forging a unified stance against forced relocation. Mr. El-Sissi has already declared that Egypt “cannot participate in the injustice of displacing the Palestinian people.”
Struggling for consensus
Even as Saudi Arabia and Qatar call any uprooting of Gazans intolerable, the Arab League’s response so far has been mostly general statements. Analysts point to structural limitations within the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states as a key factor.
Abdullah Baabood, a prominent Gulf affairs specialist in Muscat, noted, “I keep hearing the same refrain: ’We’re not just a cash machine, forced to rebuild Gaza whenever Israel flattens it.’ Yet there isn’t a single GCC stance that forbids Washington and Tel Aviv from even floating forced displacement.”
Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE have spent billions over the last decade on Gaza’s reconstruction, yet recurring wars, blockades, and mismanagement by Hamas have left the densely populated, desperate enclave trapped in a rebuild — demolish — rebuild loop. “Trump senses an opening: ’If you hate my plan, then propose a serious alternative.’ So far, that’s missing,” he said.
A political consultant in Riyadh who is closely attuned to top-level Saudi thinking described how Mr. Trump’s approach has upended standard diplomacy.
“The president thrives on disruption,” the consultant said, declining to be quoted by name. “He isn’t interested in endless wars or traditional democracy-building. He wants transactional deals. He’s used tariffs and trade threats worldwide to force allies into paying, either economically or politically.”
The consultant described Mr. Trump’s method as fundamentally “accelerationist” — built on the bet that destabilizing the region, forcing rapid economic integration, and sidelining political grievances will produce a new order.
He warned that offering prosperity in exchange for making the Palestinian problem go away underestimates how class tensions, nationalism, and religious identity do not vanish merely because economic opportunities arise.
For conservative Arab governments, the dilemma is stark: Resist and risk a U.S. economic backlash, or comply and erode domestic legitimacy. In this context, Saudi Arabia would accept a U.S. security deal only if it carries formal congressional backing, as anything less leaves Riyadh vulnerable to abrupt policy shifts.
Syria balks
Syria, for its part, did not welcome the U.S. president’s idea.
Although Damascus has talked of better relations with Washington following the ouster of longtime leader Bashar Assad, Syria’s interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa was quick to denounce Mr. Trump’s relocation proposal as “a serious crime that will ultimately fail.” In an interview on the British podcast The Rest is Politics, Mr. al-Sharaa argued that Palestinians have historically refused to leave their land, even under severe bombardment and hardship
“No power has succeeded in driving them out for good,” he said.
Adding a Palestinian perspective, Dr. Dalal Iriqat, a professor of diplomacy in Ramallah, cautioned, “A prolonged leadership vacuum on our side has allowed Trump’s coercive diplomacy to push top-down deals. In any arrangement, the rights of Gazans, the true landowners, must remain central, or else instability will only deepen.”
As Feb. 27 nears, Egypt faces mounting pressure to unify Arab states around a clear, feasible alternative. Without it, the White House may continue to claim there is “no local solution,” leaving forced displacement as the default approach. Jordan’s King Abdullah has asserted that “Egypt has multiple responses,” but success hinges on bridging differences over Hamas’s role and determining who will fund or enforce any plan.
Mehran Kamrava, professor of government at Georgetown University in Qatar, summed up the crisis: “If the Arab League and GCC can’t unify to reject uprooting Gaza’s population, how can they handle future crises? The Trump administration in Washington thrives in a vacuum.”
Dubai-based political analyst Taufik Rahim added, “Ultimately, this is about taking political and financial responsibility for the narrow strip with investments upward of $100 billion. Israel would likely welcome the UAE playing a strong role in the day-after scenario, yet the Gulf remains hesitant to shoulder another obligation.”