US President Donald Trump\u2019s whirlwind start to his second term has swept Israel into yet another cyclone of condemnation. It was stunning to see how quickly the world blamed Israel for Trump\u2019s pronouncement about emptying Gaza to redevelop it. Outsiders claiming they know what Trump intended should climb the \u201cbig beautiful\u201d wall he promised to build on the Mexican border in 2016 \u2013 but didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Historically, presidents often fail to fulfill central campaign vows, let alone improvisational riffs. Everyone \u201cknew\u201d Barack Obama would shut down Guantanamo Bay\u2019s terrorist detention facilities.<\/p>\n
When he was elected in 2008, lawyers defending the terrorists formed a conga line and chanted \u201cHey, Hey goodbye\u201d to Guantanamo and George W. Bush. On his second day as president, Obama issued an executive order shutting it down within a year. Sixteen years later, some terrorists remain in Guantanamo.<\/p>\n
As kids we learned that when a big wave comes, if it hits you hard, it could sweep you away, but if you ride it, you can go far. Rather than going hysterical whenever Trump speaks, the pro-Israel community should try shaping the debate Trump\u2019s press conference with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched.<\/p>\n
In 98 words, Trump\u2019s desire to \u201cdo something different\u201d exposed more Palestinian hypocrisy and the international community\u2019s sclerotic approach to the conflict.<\/p>\n
As soon as Trump suggested they leave, Gazans forgot their claims to Israeli land and bonded with Gaza as their enduring homeland. And, predictably, the world panicked that America was abandoning the \u201ctwo-state solution\u201d everyone keeps yapping about without acknowledging how such thinking caused October 7.<\/p>\n
On Facebook, the human rights activist (and my Never Alone coauthor) Natan Sharansky mocked the world\u2019s outrage. \u201cMany people see the \u2018out of the box thinking\u2019 of Trump about changing the future of Gaza by resettling the Gazans, improving their life conditions, and rebuilding Gaza \u2013 as something absolutely unrealistic and out of touch with the reality of the Middle East,\u201d he chided.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith all my doubts and fears, I think this \u2018crazy\u2019 idea is much less crazy than the idea of the Oslo Accords \u2013 if we bring [the] ruthless dictator Arafat from Tunis to Ramallah and give him enough land, money, and weapons, without the Supreme Court, human rights organizations, and free press, he will defeat Hamas and live with us in peace and security (in the words of our prime ministers Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres); or the idea of the disengagement \u2013 we will leave Gaza, build the fence between us,\u201d and if there is even \u201cone shot from their side, we will destroy them, and the world will be fully on our side. (I quote prime minister Ariel Sharon from our conversations).\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s diplomatic tsunami highlights three overlooked challenges. First, Gaza is now a toxic waste site. The EPA estimates it will take weeks to clean the 3,100 properties destroyed in the Pacific Palisades, which needs an \u201cunprecedented lithium-ion battery cleanup,\u201d NBC Los Angeles reports. Few were thinking about how to detox Gaza \u2013 literally and ideologically \u2013 until Trump spoke.<\/p>\n
Moreover, rather than joking about \u201cGaz-a-Largo,\u201d we need serious conversations about Hamas\u2019s tunnels \u2013 as part of a broader redrawing of the Gaza map to include a permanent buffer zone along Israel\u2019s border which no Gazan should dare enter.<\/p>\n
Unless we want to see the October 7 replay Hamas keeps promising, why invest even one dollar in rebuilding until its 400 miles (640 km.) worth of tunnels are blocked or destroyed? Having been attacked, then having counterattacked successfully, Israel has earned the right to ask how to guarantee that, in reconstructing Gaza, Palestinians don\u2019t recreate their threat to Israel.<\/p>\n
This is the greatest debate Trump\u2019s provocation should trigger. Gaza needs to be rehabilitated. How that is done as Hamas continues to seek Israel\u2019s destruction, and two million people remain there, is a logistical, conceptual, diplomatic, and political mystery.<\/p>\n
But Israel\u2019s one defining post-October 7 lesson must be a vow never to return to the assumptions of October 6. Rather than shrieking every time Trump speaks, it\u2019s worth redirecting his often off-the-wall ideas into out-of-the-box conversations that will outdo the status quo.<\/p>\n
ALAS, INSTEAD of riding this Trumpian wave to a potentially better outcome for all, the internal Israeli anguish brigade automatically felt guilty that we were responsible for Trump\u2019s transfer idea.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Bash Israel Firsters kept trying to blame Israel for anything bad that happens. Before I spoke at the University of Ottawa on February 10 as part of my \u201cTo Resist the Academic Intifada\u201d book tour, anti-Israel forces tried blocking my speech. \u201cGil Troy is not welcome on our campus,\u201d they declared.<\/p>\n
Their charge? That I am an \u201cethnic cleanser\u201d who \u201cendorsed Trump\u2019s plan to ethnically cleanse Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n
This claim imputed to me a prophetic power I didn\u2019t know I had. The article the anti-Israel haters referenced said nothing about Trump\u2019s Gaza plan, because I filed it on February 3. Trump made his remarks the next day, February 4.<\/p>\n
This farce is a sad indicator of what passes for academic debate today \u2013 and what\u2019s happening in politics today, too. Indignation is addictive, but it\u2019s also blinding and binding. Watching people use their hatred for Trump, for Israel, or for any opponents, to avoid growing, being self-critical, brainstorming, is depressing.<\/p>\n
Big problems don\u2019t just require big solutions. They require great leaps of creativity, of hope, and of faith in our fellow citizens that, together, we can avoid yesterday\u2019s mistakes and paralysis to build a better tomorrow.<\/p>\n