The Gaza Riviera ?

[toucana]

President Trump outlined his vision of of the future of the Middle East yesterday after a White House meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/05/middleeast/takeaways-trump-gaza-proposal-intl-hnk/index.html

Quote

 

“The US will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it too,”

“We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings,”

“Why would they want to return? The place has been hell,”

Instead of Gaza, Trump suggested the Palestinians be provided a “good, fresh, beautiful piece of land” to live.

“The potential in the Gaza Strip is unbelievable..  it could become the “Riviera of the Middle East,”

“We have an opportunity to do something that could be phenomenal. And I don’t want to be cute, I don’t want to be a wise guy, but the Riviera of the Middle East, this could be something that could be so — this could be so magnificent,”

“I envision the world people living there. The world’s people. I think you’ll make that into an international, unbelievable place”  adding that “Palestinians might live there some day”

 

 

Leaving aside the little matter that this plan would amount to the wholly illegal ethnic cleansing of nearly 2 million Palestinians who would be forcibly evicted at gunpoint by US forces to Egypt and Jordan (once the US has finished occupying and subduing Panama, Greenland, Mexico and Canada) - you have to wonder what muslim voters in such places as Dearborn Michigan USA will make of it all ?

https://www.thejc.com/news/usa/trump-voting-muslim-leaders-in-us-disappointed-by-his-pro-israel-cabinet-choices-fe0x4jbs

Muslim leaders like Abed Hammoud who lives in Dearborn (the largest majority Arab American city in the US) lobbied ferociously against Kamala Harris in the Presidential election last November, and successfully delivered the key swing state of Michigan which had previously been a Democratic stronghold to Donald Trump with 47% of the vote - compared with 28% for Harris and 22% for Jill Stein the Green Party candidate.

These same muslim leaders were subsequently left aghast when Trump nominated Mike Huckabee the former  Governor of Arkansas  as Ambassador to Israel - a man who once said  “there’s really no such thing as a Palestinian”. Rather plaintively, some muslim leaders in Dearborn have recently said “President Trump, remember that you have a contract with us!”. Seems like someone forgot to remind them that Trump always stiffs his contractors.

As for the cost of creating this Gaza Riviera, complete with golf courses and Trump hotels - presumably the Gazans will pay for it all ?

[geordief]

26 minutes ago, toucana said:

President Trump outlined his vision of of the future of the Middle East yesterday after a White House meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/05/middleeast/takeaways-trump-gaza-proposal-intl-hnk/index.html

 

Leaving aside the little matter that this plan would amount to the wholly illegal ethnic cleansing of nearly 2 million Palestinians who would be forcibly evicted at gunpoint by US forces to Egypt and Jordan (once the US has finished occupying and subduing Panama, Greenland, Mexico and Canada) - you have to wonder what muslim voters in such places as Dearborn Michigan USA will make of it all ?

https://www.thejc.com/news/usa/trump-voting-muslim-leaders-in-us-disappointed-by-his-pro-israel-cabinet-choices-fe0x4jbs

Muslim leaders like Abed Hammoud who lives in Dearborn (the largest majority Arab American city in the US) lobbied ferociously against Kamala Harris in the Presidential election last November, and successfully delivered the key swing state of Michigan which had previously been a Democratic stronghold to Donald Trump with 47% of the vote - compared with 28% for Harris and 22% for Jill Stein the Green Party candidate.

These same muslim leaders were subsequently left aghast when Trump nominated Mike Huckabee the former  Governor of Arkansas  as Ambassador to Israel - a man who once said  “there’s really no such thing as a Palestinian”. Rather plaintively, some muslim leaders in Dearborn have recently said “President Trump, remember that you have a contract with us!”. Seems like someone forgot to remind them that Trump always stiffs his contractors.

As for the cost of creating this Gaza Riviera, complete with golf courses and Trump hotels - presumably the Gazans will pay for it all ?

Well I was watching Josh Rogin on CNN (with Abbey Phillip ?)last night saying that the Muslim voters who he spoke to  and who  "withheld" their votes from Harris knew well that Trump would be worse  but that this was designed to pressure the Dems in the longer term.

(think that is what he was saying)

[exchemist]

57 minutes ago, toucana said:

President Trump outlined his vision of of the future of the Middle East yesterday after a White House meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/05/middleeast/takeaways-trump-gaza-proposal-intl-hnk/index.html

 

Leaving aside the little matter that this plan would amount to the wholly illegal ethnic cleansing of nearly 2 million Palestinians who would be forcibly evicted at gunpoint by US forces to Egypt and Jordan (once the US has finished occupying and subduing Panama, Greenland, Mexico and Canada) - you have to wonder what muslim voters in such places as Dearborn Michigan USA will make of it all ?

https://www.thejc.com/news/usa/trump-voting-muslim-leaders-in-us-disappointed-by-his-pro-israel-cabinet-choices-fe0x4jbs

Muslim leaders like Abed Hammoud who lives in Dearborn (the largest majority Arab American city in the US) lobbied ferociously against Kamala Harris in the Presidential election last November, and successfully delivered the key swing state of Michigan which had previously been a Democratic stronghold to Donald Trump with 47% of the vote - compared with 28% for Harris and 22% for Jill Stein the Green Party candidate.

These same muslim leaders were subsequently left aghast when Trump nominated Mike Huckabee the former  Governor of Arkansas  as Ambassador to Israel - a man who once said  “there’s really no such thing as a Palestinian”. Rather plaintively, some muslim leaders in Dearborn have recently said “President Trump, remember that you have a contract with us!”. Seems like someone forgot to remind them that Trump always stiffs his contractors.

As for the cost of creating this Gaza Riviera, complete with golf courses and Trump hotels - presumably the Gazans will pay for it all ?

Yeah, it's a mad and repulsive idea. Trump looks at the world as real estate.  The suffering of 2 million destitute people, whom he now airily proposes to deprive of even their homeland, gives him no pause for thought at all.  He's a psychopath. 

As with the stupid tariffs, he seems not to have through it through either. What will the Saudis, whom he is trying to get to increase oil production, have to say? This even has the potential to bring Iran and KSA together in fierce opposition, not to mention the rest of the Middle East, including Turkey. He claimed he would extract the USA from foreign entanglements. This could easily enmesh the USA in another Afghanistan.    

China has carefully positioned itself as opposing the idea. As with the tariff fiasco, China now poses as the responsible Great Power, upholding the rules of international behaviour, while Trump's USA increasingly looks like a Great Power in decline, highly aggressive, vicious and untrustworthy as a partner.

 

 

Edited Wednesday at 11:22 AM by exchemist

[TheVat]

Muslim voters basically agreed to punching themselves in the face.  Pretty much like the rest of the Stay Homers and the 70 million Trump voters.  The ballot may as well have read, I hereby consent to a minimum of four years of punching myself in the face, in order to teach the Democratic Party to focus their entire platform on rent and groceries.  

 

 

[Genady]

Where are the pro-Palestinian protesters that were so loud a year ago?

[Externet]

And where in the plan of "Make United States Great Again" fits a 5000 Km distant strip of nations violent during the last 4000 years fit ?  Is Gaza a new province belonging to U.S.  ?

Use all your energy in reversing inflation; not in affairs of not your incumbence, mister president.  Or will your personal pocket finance its reconstruction ?  Because whenever your dream is achieved, I will not go any nearer to your NewRiviera resort hotel that will get crumbled again in the next battle a few years away with armament again supplied by U.S.

[exchemist]

4 hours ago, Genady said:

Where are the pro-Palestinian protesters that were so loud a year ago?

In London, marching. I went on a couple of these myself last year.

Here is one girl, with poppy earrings as it was Remembrance Day. I had one in my buttonhole and lots of the marchers had them. The then Tory government tried to make out it was "disrespectful" to march on that day but as Remembrance Day is all about honouring the dead killed in combat, I couldn't think of a more appropriate day to do it.

On another march there was a group of orthodox Ashkenazy Jews, complete with their Sabbath day shtreimels, joining the procession.  None of the predominantly muslim crowd were at all hostile to them. The marches are continuing this year.  

[Genady]

48 minutes ago, exchemist said:

In London, marching. I went on a couple of these myself last year.

Here is one girl, with poppy earrings as it was Remembrance Day. I had one in my buttonhole and lots of the marchers had them. The then Tory government tried to make out it was "disrespectful" to march on that day but as Remembrance Day is all about honouring the dead killed in combat, I couldn't think of a more appropriate day to do it.

On another march there was a group of orthodox Ashkenazy Jews, complete with their Sabbath day shtreimels, joining the procession.  None of the predominantly muslim crowd were at all hostile to them. The marches are continuing this year.  

Good, and good to know. Thank you. Last year it was in the news a lot, this year - none.

Btw, an OT question. How did you know that those Jews were Ashkenazy?

P.S. Ah, the shtreimels.

Were they from Neturei Karta - Wikipedia?

[Genady]

11 hours ago, toucana said:

President Trump outlined his vision of of the future of the Middle East yesterday after a White House meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/05/middleeast/takeaways-trump-gaza-proposal-intl-hnk/index.html

 

Leaving aside the little matter that this plan would amount to the wholly illegal ethnic cleansing of nearly 2 million Palestinians who would be forcibly evicted at gunpoint by US forces to Egypt and Jordan (once the US has finished occupying and subduing Panama, Greenland, Mexico and Canada) - you have to wonder what muslim voters in such places as Dearborn Michigan USA will make of it all ?

https://www.thejc.com/news/usa/trump-voting-muslim-leaders-in-us-disappointed-by-his-pro-israel-cabinet-choices-fe0x4jbs

Muslim leaders like Abed Hammoud who lives in Dearborn (the largest majority Arab American city in the US) lobbied ferociously against Kamala Harris in the Presidential election last November, and successfully delivered the key swing state of Michigan which had previously been a Democratic stronghold to Donald Trump with 47% of the vote - compared with 28% for Harris and 22% for Jill Stein the Green Party candidate.

These same muslim leaders were subsequently left aghast when Trump nominated Mike Huckabee the former  Governor of Arkansas  as Ambassador to Israel - a man who once said  “there’s really no such thing as a Palestinian”. Rather plaintively, some muslim leaders in Dearborn have recently said “President Trump, remember that you have a contract with us!”. Seems like someone forgot to remind them that Trump always stiffs his contractors.

As for the cost of creating this Gaza Riviera, complete with golf courses and Trump hotels - presumably the Gazans will pay for it all ?

Quote

Bishara Bahbah, chairman of the group formerly known as Arab Americans for Trump, said during a phone interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday that the group would now be called Arab Americans for Peace.

Pro-Trump Arab American group changes its name after the president's Gaza 'Riviera' comments | AP News

[exchemist]

1 hour ago, Genady said:

Good, and good to know. Thank you. Last year it was in the news a lot, this year - none.

Btw, an OT question. How did you know that those Jews were Ashkenazy?

P.S. Ah, the shtreimels.

Were they from Neturei Karta - Wikipedia?

They could well have been. I tried to upload a photo I took of them, but the forum website said the file is too big. I have never found out how to make a smaller (lower resolution) version of these photo files , which are taken with my iPhone. It takes good pics, but the file sizes can be enormous. Do you know how to make the file size smaller? It would be nice to post the picture so you can see. 

But yeah the shtreimels were quite something. The first time I came across them when when I was doing the Capital Ring circular walk around London and we passed through Stamford Hill (a very Jewish, but not prosperous Jewish, district of outer London) on a Saturday. These guys were everywhere, in their huge furry hats. My friend and I stopped for a pub lunch, where we ate a selection of smoked sausages. I remember feeling a bit guilty about doing that in the circumstances.😁

Edited Wednesday at 09:55 PM by exchemist

[Genady]

26 minutes ago, exchemist said:

Do you know how to make the file size smaller?

In the Windows, find the app Paint:

 

Open your picture in it:

 

Click on Resize and skew:

 

In the floating window, change 100 to a smaller number:

 

OK, Save.

[geordief]

1 minute ago, Genady said:

In the Windows, find the app Paint:

 

Open your picture in it:

 

Click on Resize and skew:

 

In the floating window, change 100 to a smaller number:

 

OK, Save.

Exchem is on an iphone( which I have never used)

Maybe it is simpler to  just change the format from jpeg to gif?

I think that resizes it automatically (downwards and by quite a lot)

[Genady]

6 minutes ago, geordief said:

Exchem is on an iphone( which I have never used)

Maybe it is simpler to  just change the format from jpeg to gif?

I think that resizes it automatically (downwards and by quite a lot)

I don't know how to do it in iPhone either. I always transfer pictures onto the laptop.

[exchemist]

2 minutes ago, Genady said:

I don't know how to do it in iPhone either. I always transfer pictures onto the laptop.

I'm doing this on a Mac, having imported the photos from the iPhone. Let's try a version "Exported" to my desktop as a .PNG file, with the "small" size option selected:

Al- Hamdulillah! Mumtaz! 

 

[TheVat]

3 hours ago, exchemist said:

On another march there was a group of orthodox Ashkenazy Jews, complete with their Sabbath day shtreimels

  I remember seeing the shtreimels when I was in Brooklyn - those were Hasidim, a subgroup of Haredi Judaism.  They were mainly Ashkenazi, but not exclusively.  There are some Sephardic people in the various Haredi groups.  

I hope Israel can get Netanyahu out and in jail where he belongs, and make some real progress towards a two state solution.  

 

[Genady]

32 minutes ago, exchemist said:

I'm doing this on a Mac, having imported the photos from the iPhone. Let's try a version "Exported" to my desktop as a .PNG file, with the "small" size option selected:

Al- Hamdulillah! Mumtaz! 

 

Well, mumtaz is a bit of exaggeration: too small, can't read farther than the first sign. Something with the word 'Israel'? They surely look like Neturei Karta or something similar.

[toucana]

1 hour ago, exchemist said:

I'm doing this on a Mac, having imported the photos from the iPhone. Let's try a version "Exported" to my desktop as a .PNG file, with the "small" size option selected:

Al- Hamdulillah! Mumtaz! 

 

I use an iPhone and iMac. If you have managed to get a HIEC/PNG format photo off your iPhone and onto your iMac or MacBook, then open up the photo in Preview. and use the File—> Export menu options to export and resave the image on your desktop as a JPEG.

Now reopen the JPEG version in Preview and this time use the Tools—>Adjust size menu options to open up a resizing dialog box. Click the Resolution down from the default 144 to 72, and set the Height to no more than 8 inches.

Hint  - then use the Tools—>Adjust Colour—> Sharpness slider menu options in Preview to resharpen the image and resave.

Edited Wednesday at 11:56 PM by toucana
edited redundant 'the' L.1

[exchemist]

6 hours ago, Genady said:

Well, mumtaz is a bit of exaggeration: too small, can't read farther than the first sign. Something with the word 'Israel'? They surely look like Neturei Karta or something similar.

OK , I may have overdone it. When  I get up I’ll have another go,  using an intermediate size.

[exchemist]

10 hours ago, Genady said:

Well, mumtaz is a bit of exaggeration: too small, can't read farther than the first sign. Something with the word 'Israel'? They surely look like Neturei Karta or something similar.

Any better? (This is a "medium" .PNG file):- 

 

I thought "State of Israel does not represent world Jewry" is a sentiment we can all get behind. 

Edited Thursday at 09:59 AM by exchemist

[Genady]

1 hour ago, exchemist said:

I thought "State of Israel does not represent world Jewry" is a sentiment we can all get behind. 

Certainly. 

With a caveat: this is a trivial statement. The State of Israel also agrees with it.

 

[exchemist]

13 minutes ago, Genady said:

Certainly. 

With a caveat: this is a trivial statement. The State of Israel also agrees with it.

 

Not always trivial in the popular imagination however. The failure to make this distinction leads either to antisemitism or, as I know from personal experience, to unjustified accusations of antisemitism.  British, and a fortiori US politics, are both full of distortions due to confusing the two, sometimes by accident, sometimes by design. 

[Genady]

35 minutes ago, exchemist said:

Not always trivial in the popular imagination however. The failure to make this distinction leads either to antisemitism or, as I know from personal experience, to unjustified accusations of antisemitism.  British, and a fortiori US politics, are both full of distortions due to confusing the two, sometimes by accident, sometimes by design. 

Yes, this is how it is. Being a Jew didn't protect me from such personal experience either.

[exchemist]

17 minutes ago, Genady said:

Yes, this is how it is. Being a Jew didn't protect me from such personal experience either.

Exactly. We had a scandal some years back in the UK Labour Party, due to opposition to Israel's actions in the West Bank morphing into generalised antisemitism. It even started to resurrect old conspiracy theories about world banking being dominated by Jews (Rothschild) etc. Starmer had to expel quite a few party members over that, including the former leader, Jeremy Corbyn. 

Edited Thursday at 12:54 PM by exchemist

[Ten oz]

In 2026 the World Cup is coming to the U.S.. Then in 2028 the Olympics. Two major international events during this current administration. 

I can think of few things that would make the U.S. a bigger target for an extremist attack then occupying the Gaza. 

Major international events with Millions of attendees mixed with highly charged and historically volatile foreign policy creates a serious domestic security challenge. 

I do not think its smart. 

[StringJunky]

On 2/5/2025 at 9:54 PM, exchemist said:

They could well have been. I tried to upload a photo I took of them, but the forum website said the file is too big. I have never found out how to make a smaller (lower resolution) version of these photo files , which are taken with my iPhone. It takes good pics, but the file sizes can be enormous. Do you know how to make the file size smaller? It would be nice to post the picture so you can see. 

But yeah the shtreimels were quite something. The first time I came across them when when I was doing the Capital Ring circular walk around London and we passed through Stamford Hill (a very Jewish, but not prosperous Jewish, district of outer London) on a Saturday. These guys were everywhere, in their huge furry hats. My friend and I stopped for a pub lunch, where we ate a selection of smoked sausages. I remember feeling a bit guilty about doing that in the circumstances.😁

If you are on Windows, you could open the photo on your screen and then capture it with 'snipping tool' Put that in Windows Search in the taskbar.  When it comes up click 'New' Then click and drag the '+' symbol over the area you want to capture. Then cllck the 'Save' icon next to "Edit in.." on the top right. The resolution will be that of the screen.

I follow Naturei Karta on Facebook. They are fervent antizionists and supporters of reconciliatory dialogue between Torah-respecting Jews and Muslims. 

Edited Friday at 12:24 AM by StringJunky