The suggestion of US ownership and reconstruction of Gaza as a Trump resort delegitimizes Palestinian agency and self-determination, implicitly endorses ethnic cleansing by ignoring the 2 million Palestinian inhabitants' voices, and signals that big powers can make decisions over the heads of smaller nations and less powerful people without consent.
causalpending
Speaker
Ben RhodesEvidence Quote
“the suggestion of taking ownership of Gaza and turning into the Riviera of the Middle East was was so jarring Beyond just that image of of kind of trump hotels and and the gods of um like many things you know if Trump proposes it it's not likely to happen but again it it it further legitimate legitimizes an idea that there are two million people Palestinians in Gaza who don't get a voice in any of these discussions about their future [11:35]”
Source
Ben Rhodes: The Warren and Anita Manshel Lecture in American Foreign Policy— Weatherhead Center for International AffairsCreated: 8/11/2026, 7:39:48 AM
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