Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., who last month proposed a constitutional amendment to allow President Donald Trump to serve a third term, has introduced legislation building off Trump's remarks this week about the U.S. taking control of the Gaza Strip.
The bill, dubbed "Make Gaza Great Again," would impose property and visa blocking sanctions on Middle Eastern nations — excluding Israel — who decline to offer humanitarian entry to Palestinians from Gaza, Breitbart reported Friday. If leaders of those countries do not cooperate with the U.S., the president can suspend any assistance to them.
After meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, Trump suggested Palestinians displaced by the Jewish state's military operation against Iranian-backed Hamas terrorists in Gaza be "permanently" resettled outside the war-torn territory and proposed the U.S. take "ownership" in redeveloping the strip.
He wrote Thursday on Truth Social that Israel would turn the Gaza Strip over to the U.S. after the fighting ends and that no U.S. soldiers would be needed there.
"The U.S., working with great development teams from all over the World, would slowly and carefully begin the construction of what would become one of the greatest and most spectacular developments of its kind on Earth," Trump wrote. "No soldiers by the U.S. would be needed! Stability for the region would reign!!!"
Ogles told Breitbart that Trump's plan "will take the willing cooperation of all our allies and partners to bring it to fruition."
"For decades, several Middle Eastern countries have complained about the so-called 'plight of the Palestinians,' yet they've never bothered to lift a finger to help — in fact, they've repeatedly made the Israel-Palestinian issue worse and worse," said Ogles, adding that sanctioning reluctant Middle East nations would provide Trump leverage to ensure cooperation with his plan.
Netanyahu told Newsmax on Friday that Trump's vision of rebuilding Gaza is the kind of "fresh" thinking that led to the Abraham Accords with four Arab nations during Trump's first term.
"I think it's a fresh new idea," Netanyahu said. "And President Trump always cuts to the chase. And he gets to the point that people don't even think about. It's the kind of thinking that brought us the Abraham Accords, when for 25 years we didn't have a peace treaty. And then we said, 'Well, we have to act differently; we wait for the Palestinians to agree, they'll never agree.' So, we went around the Palestinians and made these four peace accords."
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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