Trump makes first big foreign policy blunder with 'clean out' remark: analyst

President Donald Trump kicked a hornet's nest when he suggested "cleaning out" Gaza of Palestinians and resettling them in Jordan and Egypt to completely redevelop the land for new settlers, wrote foreign affairs columnist David Ignatius for The Washington Post — a move experts have said would amount to a massive ethnic cleansing project, and which Ignatius believes is a massive blunder for his foreign policy right out of the gate.

The idea of resettling Palestinians without granting a right of return to lands they were removed from during the founding of the modern Israeli state has a long and controversial history, with neighboring Arab countries fearful of the consequences for their own stability as well as the precedent it would set in international law.

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When Trump told reporters Gaza is “literally a demolition site right now,” and he could work with Arab nations to "build housing in a different location, where they can maybe live in peace for a change," it may have "represented a personal impulse more than a planned policy," wrote Ignatius. "But the offhand public statement astonished moderate Arab leaders who had been looking forward to working with him. Relocation of Palestinians could destabilize moderate Arab governments across the region. Trump enjoys being a disruptor, but this was closer to tossing a grenade."

Not only is it a firestorm for foreign policy, it has also prompted immediate pushback from Trump's own Arab-American supporters in domestic politics, Ignatius noted, with Arab Americans for Trump chair Bishara Bahbah saying, “We categorically reject the president’s suggestion that the Palestinians in Gaza be moved — apparently forcefully — to either Egypt or Jordan. We don’t need wildish claims or statements relating to the fate of the Palestinians.”

"By lighting new fires in the region, Trump reduces his ability to dampen the flames already there. And as a president who prizes the appearance of independence, he risks appearing a captive of the most right-wing factions in Israel, who have been among the few advocates of forcibly relocating Palestinians from Gaza," wrote Ignatius. Moreover, "With his omnidirectional barrage, Trump is starting more battles than he will be able to finish. The first directive in war is usually to concentrate fire rather than scattering it — and achieve your objectives one by one."

Not all of Trump's foreign policy ideas are necessarily terrible, Ignatius concluded. But "he risks his good ideas by advancing a volley of bad ones, with an unfocused approach that increasingly looks like everything, everywhere, all at once."