{"id":87172,"date":"2025-04-07T19:25:14","date_gmt":"2025-04-08T00:25:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=87172"},"modified":"2025-04-08T03:45:41","modified_gmt":"2025-04-08T08:45:41","slug":"meeting-with-netanyahu-trump-again-floats-proposal-for-us-to-take-over-gaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/meeting-with-netanyahu-trump-again-floats-proposal-for-us-to-take-over-gaza\/","title":{"rendered":"Meeting with Netanyahu, Trump again floats proposal for US to take over Gaza"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By BEN SALES<\/p>\n<p>(JTA) \u2014 Last time President Donald Trump met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington, he shocked listeners by announcing that the United States would take over Gaza.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_87173\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/PMPOTUSOvalOffice2-scaled.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-87173\" class=\"wp-image-87173 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/PMPOTUSOvalOffice2-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/PMPOTUSOvalOffice2-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/PMPOTUSOvalOffice2-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/PMPOTUSOvalOffice2-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/PMPOTUSOvalOffice2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/PMPOTUSOvalOffice2-2048x1365.jpg 2048w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/200;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-87173\" class=\"wp-image-87173 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/PMPOTUSOvalOffice2-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/PMPOTUSOvalOffice2-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/PMPOTUSOvalOffice2-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/PMPOTUSOvalOffice2-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/PMPOTUSOvalOffice2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/PMPOTUSOvalOffice2-2048x1365.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-87173\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets in the Oval Office with U.S. President Donald Trump. (Photo by Avi Ohayon \/GPO)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Now, Netanyahu is in Washington again. And, after weeks during which the Gaza takeover proposal appeared to have receded, Trump brought it back.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou know how I feel about the Gaza Strip,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s an incredible piece of important real estate and I think it\u2019s something that we would be involved in, but having a peace force like the United States there controlling and owning the Gaza Strip would be a good thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He also touted the second piece of the plan: to depopulate the territory, which sparked opposition across the Middle East where several countries said they would refuse to take in Gaza Palestinians. But this time, Netanyahu said any relocation would be voluntary.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you take the people, the Palestinians, and move them around to different countries \u2014 and you have plenty of countries that will do that \u2014 you really have a freedom zone,\u201d Trump&nbsp;said. \u201cYou know what I call it? A great location that nobody wants to live in.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Netanyahu said, \u201cWhat the president talked about is, first of all, to give people a choice. Gazans were closed in\u2026 What is wrong with giving people a choice?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added, \u201cIt\u2019s going to take years to rebuild Gaza, and in the meantime, people can have an option.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_87174\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2209061259.webp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-87174\" class=\"wp-image-87174 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2209061259-300x167.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"167\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2209061259-300x167.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2209061259-1024x569.webp 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2209061259-768x427.webp 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2209061259-1536x853.webp 1536w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2209061259-2048x1138.webp 2048w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/167;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-87174\" class=\"wp-image-87174 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2209061259-300x167.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"167\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2209061259-300x167.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2209061259-1024x569.webp 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2209061259-768x427.webp 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2209061259-1536x853.webp 1536w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2209061259-2048x1138.webp 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-87174\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accompanied by U.S. President Donald Trump, U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and U.S. National Security Adviser Michael Waltz, speaks during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House on April 7, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Kevin Dietsch\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Trump came into office in January shortly after Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire in which dozens of Israeli hostages were released. Netanyahu ended that ceasefire in March, after the hostage releases ended, and has since pledged to destroy Hamas. The choice was a controversial one in Israel, where mass demonstrations have called for a renewal of the truce in order to save the remaining hostages, 24 of whom are thought to still be alive.<\/p>\n<p>In the meeting on Monday, Netanyahu reiterated the goal of eliminating Hamas, though both men also said they were working on a new ceasefire deal that they did not detail. Trump also spoke about a meeting he held in the Oval Office last month with released hostages, and compared their treatment to Germany, appearing to make an analogy to the Holocaust that he did not elaborate on.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI said to them, \u2018Was there any sign of love?&#8217;\u201d Trump said. \u201cDid Hamas show any signs of, like, help or liking you? Did they wink at you, did they give you a piece of bread extra? Did they give you a meal on the side, like you know, you think of doing, like what happened in Germany, what happened elsewhere, people would try and help people that were in unbelievable distress. They said no.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Trump also mused about Israel\u2019s 2005 unilateral evacuation of its settlements and soldiers from Gaza. The president claimed that Netanyahu would not have made that decision; in fact, as a member of Israel\u2019s cabinet at the time, Netanyahu voted for it. The prime minister did not chime in on that part of the meeting.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t understand why Israel ever gave it up,\u201d Trump said. \u201cIsrael owned it. It wasn\u2019t this man\u2026 He wouldn\u2019t have given it up, I know him very well. There\u2019s no way. They took oceanfront property and they gave it to people for peace. How did that work out? Not good.\u201d<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Meeting%20with%20Netanyahu%2C%20Trump%20again%20floats%20proposal%20for%20US%20to%20take%20over%20Gaza\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":87173,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[208,3069,1781,8781,8790,8795,8788,518,8839],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87172"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87172"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87175,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87172\/revisions\/87175"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}