MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough is tearing into Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump over their reported plan to relocate besieged Palestinians from the area and over the support they claim other countries in the region are expressing for the idea.
Netanyahu, who has been accused of war crimes for the military campaign in Gaza following Hamas’ 2023 terrorist attacks in Israel, dined Monday at the White House, where a reporter asked Trump if his “Palestinian relocation plan” was still on the table.
Trump, who proffered the idea earlier this year, deferred the answer to his guest.
“I think President Trump had a brilliant vision. It’s called free choice. You know, if people want to stay, they can stay, but if they want to leave, they should be able to leave. It shouldn’t be a prison. It should be an open place and give people a free choice,” said Netanyahu.
“We’re working with the United States very closely about finding countries that will seek to realize what they always say, that they wanted to give the Palestinians a better future, and I think we’re getting close to finding several countries,” he continued, adding that Palestinians will have “the freedom to choose.”
Scarborough slammed the idea that other countries want to take in displaced Palestinians as a “preposterous statement” during Tuesday’s edition of “Morning Joe,” where he was joined by Richard Haass, former advisor to then-Secretary of State Colin Powell during the administration of ex-President George W. Bush.
“And the idea that somehow the answer to the Palestinian problem is pushing Palestinians off of land they have considered their own for thousands of years seems, at best, to be a non-starter,” Scarborough told Haass.
“I didn’t see, on his menu, the idea of a Palestinian state,” Haass noted in agreement. “So, look, you’ve got 2 million Palestinians in Gaza, three more million in the West Bank, and the idea that you’re going to find homes for them outside of these areas, I think is fanciful.”
He continued, “There’s a word for this: It’s called ‘transfer.’”
Alex Brandon/Associated Press
The Palestinian death toll from the Israel-Hamas war surpassed 55,000 in June, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Netanyahu has long claimed the military campaign in Gaza is strictly a defensive measure to retrieve Israeli hostages from Hamas. Trump said in February that the U.S. should “take over” Gaza and turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East,” prompting severe backlash at the time.
Haass noted Tuesday that right-wing Israelis have “a deeply held hope” to settle the Palestinian land “or even annex” it entirely.
“So I think other than a tiny number of Palestinians who might make their way to Egypt or something, the idea that this is ‘a solution to the Palestinian issue’ is, again, it’s simply drilling a dry hole,” said Haass. “It’s not a serious proposition.”
Scarborough replied, “No, it’s not serious. And you can’t talk about peace in the Middle East without talking about a two-state solution. And people that claim you can have their heads stuck in the sand.”