President Donald Trump has proposed America occupy Gaza and forcefully resettle two million Palestinians in other nations. It is frequently a mystery how serious Trump is.

If he is serious, he ignores the long-term price the U.S. pays for inserting itself into other nations, especially those in decades-long conflicts. In Afghanistan, for example, where after two decades of occupation, the spending of $2 trillion, and the death of 2,324 soldiers and many others as well, the U.S.-created government fell to religious extremists within hours of our departure, leaving the people of the country in the same condition as they were when America entered.

An occupation of Gaza is not likely to go better.

Israel and Palestine

Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman recently signaled that he supports the “provocative” proposal, including the possible use of American troops, though he did not say how supportive he is. The Palestinians, he told the New York Times, “refused or have been unwilling to deliver a government that provided security and economic development for themselves.” He apparently thinks America would do better for them.

His Republican counterpart, Sen. Dave McCormick, has not said anything.

But U.S. troops will not be able to quell the conflict. Both sides, Israel and the Palestinians, have sincere religious and historic ties to the region.

The Palestinians will not give up their home. The Israelis will not want the land to go to the U.S. Neither want America to control what they believe is theirs.

What matters is the reality the president ignored: Families have been torn apart; loved ones have starved; hostages have been murdered; women have been raped; hospitals have been bombed; children have been killed. The suffering is immense, and the flippancy with which the president discusses the situation is alarming.

And none of it touches upon the cost to America in funds and in life. Nor does it consider the cost of turning Arab nations into permanent enemies and hampering Israel’s ability to provide a necessary sanctuary for Jewish people.

What the president really wants

In the best case, Trump’s proposal is only a distraction from Elon Musk and his quasi-governmental DOGE team taking a wrecking ball to the government with the stated goal of trimming “waste.” The National Institutes of Health is on the chopping block. So is the Department of Education.

This could also be an example of Trump’s “deal-making.” As David Shribman wrote on Sunday, he employs the “Madman Theory,” first pioneered by President Richard Nixon in his dealings with the Soviet Union. This, at the least, is an actual strategy. Maybe the threat of U.S. boots on the ground will actually change Hamas’ calculations.

Or he may in fact be sincere. His talk of buying Greenland, seizing the Panama Canal and incorporating Canada as the 51st state point toward this.

Whichever is true, the White House has already started to walk back his comments.

Sen. Fetterman has been praised and criticized in equal measure for his willingness to legislate alongside the new administration. We hope that this ability to compromise, not shown much in Washington these days, exists with a healthy measure of caution, especially with a president who has proven to be so reckless.

_____

©2025 PG Publishing Co. Visit at post-gazette.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.