"We Are Not Going to Pay for Gaza. We Will Take It and Keep It"

Donald Trump does not buy, he takes. Yesterday, in the Oval Office, where he received King Abdullah II of Jordan, the magnate, famous in his business dealings for defrauding small contractors and illegal employees, boasted of his "long career" in real estate and announced his intention to take Gaza without paying a cent. "We are not going to buy anything. We will take it, and we will keep it," he said. "Under what authority?" a journalist asked. "Under the authority of the USA," he replied without further explanation.

The Jordanian king, stoic, maintained his composure in the face of the declaration and played his cards as best as possible, although a slight nervous tic could be observed when the horde of journalists forced him to answer questions. His long relationship with the magnate, which precedes even his first term in the White House, gave him a status that many counted on to make him see the absurdity of his plan, but Abdullah II was not there to discuss the idea of an American Gaza, or the possible annexation of the West Bank to Israel, which according to Trump, "that will go very well." His goal is precisely to avoid the forced relocation of the Palestinian population to his kingdom, and that involves making the American president believe he supports him. He did so astutely, announcing unexpectedly that he would start hosting Palestinians by taking in 2,000 hospitalized children.

"I did not know what you just said, that there were children with cancer and other problems. That is a really beautiful gesture," his host praised him. "Music to my ears." Arab-American doctors were at the UN two weeks ago, as part of an international campaign pleading for the evacuation of 2,500 Palestinian children who, if not immediately transferred to hospitals, would die "in the coming weeks," they said. It is presumed that by now only 2,000 remain. Israel has complicated their evacuation with all sorts of obstacles, even requiring the presence of a companion for mostly orphaned children, who have lost their parents in bombings. In at least one case, the aunt of two mutilated girls is prevented from bringing along the baby she is nursing, without guaranteeing her the right to return, effectively forcing her to choose between saving the lives of her two nieces at the cost of abandoning her own child, or letting them die.

With Trump on board, satisfied with what he considered his own victory, the monarch put Israel in a bind. "We will have to look to the USA to ensure that COGAT (Israeli Coordination Agency in the Occupied Territories), which must give them the green light, does so as efficiently as possible," the monarch requested. "The best way to transfer them to our healthcare institutions is by helicopter. I believe there are also a number of Arab countries that want to host them in their hospitals. Europeans also want to be part," he announced.

The situation in Gaza could significantly worsen from Saturday at noon, when the deadline Trump has given Hamas to release "all the hostages" or "open the gates of hell" expires. The US president says he has seen the released hostages arrive in such poor condition, "that they seem to come from the Holocaust," that he no longer wants them to come out "two now, two next week, another two in four weeks..." He personally believes that Hamas will not accept his ultimatum. "They will want to act tough. We will see how tough they are," he threatened.

Exultant, convinced that his vision of Gaza is a diamond in the rough to turn the region into an economic development hub, the president, whom the world agrees with to avoid unleashing his wrath, believes his plan has been received with enthusiasm. "It will be wonderful for the Middle East and will finally bring peace," he assured. He spoke of hotels and offices, prosperity and security, as if the solution to the region's most entrenched conflict is another real estate operation by the Trump Organization. He thanked the attacks of October 7, "without which this would not have happened," and assured that the Palestinians agree. "I know them all, they do not want to live there," he responded to a direct question. Even the Arab American community agrees, according to him. "I won Michigan," he recalled.

Faced with his host's verbosity, Abdullah II, visibly uncomfortable despite his smile, diverted any response to the plan that Egypt and other Arab countries will present in the Saudi capital, which Trump said he already knows.