Phill Kline, former Kansas Attorney General and current law professor at Liberty University School of Law, said President Donald Trump’s proposal for the U.S. to “take over” the Gaza Strip is “not a bad idea.”
On Tuesday during a White House news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump said the U.S. will “take over” the Gaza Strip and develop the land into “an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs.”
Kline said Trump’s vision for the area “really comes down to whether he can build the support necessary for locating these Palestinian refugees, as well as for the United States to have a sufficient interest in rebuilding Gaza.”
“It can be done, but the president has got to get to the negotiating table and work with the other Arab nations in order to get them to have buy-in away from what was an adoption of a two state plan or an independent Palestinian nation,” Kline explained on Wednesday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
Kline said Trump’s skills as a real estate developer would allow him to “find ways to overcome the obstacles” Gaza faces barring it from becoming an area of opportunity.
“You have to recognize that Trump enters the picture as the son of a developer and a developer himself. When he looks at a piece of land, he doesn’t primarily see what is there. He sees what could be there and then tries to find ways to overcome the obstacles of what is there. That’s what the president is doing, and now he’s got all of the chips of the United States of America to play this game to try to induce or entice others to buy into the plan,” Kline explained.
Overall, Kline said the president’s vision for Gaza to be turned into a “strong economic zone” and “good place to live” is “not a bad idea.”
“There’s a lot of interest in the world in that area, and he’s saying let’s come together peacefully and build that up and make it a strong economic zone. It’s right in the center of things. Why not make it a good place to live. Those are good ideas,” Kline said.
“[Trump is saying] let’s do something good there, and we have enough resources to do it together…Let’s get rid of the slum, let’s build something beautiful, and make sure the people who are living in the slum have a good place to live. It’s not a bad idea,” Kline added.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.