WIDE ANGLE | What may explain Trump’s Mideast plan: Gaza sits on gas worth trillions | Saeed Naqvi
Trump will be poaching on land that was promised by the Bible exclusively for the Jews
It quite beats me that US President Donald Trump is willing to go thousands of miles across the oceans to empty the Gaza Strip of millions of its Palestinian residents, and take it over in order to develop the seafront as a “Riviera of the Middle East”.
He will be poaching on land that was promised by the Bible exclusively for the Jews. Well, Miriam Adelson, the billionaire owner of the Las Vegas Sands, a Jewish philanthropist who donated $100 million to Mr Trump’s campaign, can be enlisted as a partner for the Riviera project. The Biblical red line will then not be crossed.
I was puzzling over the theme when a study by UNCTAD swam into my ken: “Unrealised Potential of Palestinian Oil and Gas Reserves”.
“Geologists and resource economists have confirmed that the Mediterranean off the Gaza Strip has 122 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.” The study concludes: “What could be a source of wealth and opportunities can also prove disastrous if these common resources are exploited individually and exclusively without due regard to international law and norms.”
In June 2023, Israel gave its preliminary approval for the development of a gas field off the Gaza Strip. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this would require security coordination with both the Palestinian Authority and Egypt. Was Mr Netanyahu’s approval of a project which sidelines the Palestinians from their natural wealth a provocation which caused Hamas to fast-forward the October 7, 2023 attack, which must have been in the works for years?
The intriguing fact is that this gas and oil angle to the Gaza story is nowhere in focus. Reuters said its reporter drew a blank when he asked the Palestinian Authority for a comment: “We can’t take positions based on a statement made to the media”, he was told.
If the mother of all gas finds is in the bargain, why would Israel make a gift of it to those who Benjamin Netanyahu and others consider “animals” or “barbarians”? The holy scriptures sanction the territory only for Jews. The two-state solution would give Palestinians exclusive access to the gas.
Mr Trump’s outrageous plan for a “Riviera of the Middle East” in Gaza should be seen alongside his interesting 1987 book The Art of the Deal. “I aim very high, and then I just keep pushing and pushing to get what I am after.” Who knows, he may have thrown a boulder in the pond to see how far the ripples will go. Mr Netanyahu and his extreme-right Cabinet colleagues would have been mollified.
“All hell will break loose” should Hamas not release all the hostages, he had thundered. In his book, Mr Trump talks of using hyperbole as a tactic. Faced with this threat, Hamas has not exactly buckled. They have not announced the release of all the hostages as “ordered” by Donald Trump, but only three, as the agreement stipulates. Will this keep Mr Trump in good humour, or as per the tactics in the book, he will “push and push”?
One of the principles enunciated by him is that the “best deal is one in which both sides get something”. So, hope is not exactly out of order. The Saudi foreign ministry has declared that it will not participate in any post-war programme for Gaza that removes the Palestinian population.
Is this Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman’s final position? Or is he amenable to some persuasion? There is a persistent chorus in the Western media about the need for new energy to place the Abraham Accords back on track. The process has no meaning without Saudi Arabia being enlisted.
There are good reasons why the Saudis cannot come on board easily. The gruesome pictures of the genocide in Gaza have shaken all Arabs, like people everywhere. The Saudis are not exempt from the guilt that all Arabs feel, after passively having watched the brutalities heaped on the Palestinians in Gaza for a full 17 months.
It is also not easy for Saudi Arabia to abandon its entente with Iran, which had been diligently supervised by China. The Saudi-Iran rapprochement is bad enough for the West and the Zionist combine, but what riles them even more is its sponsorship by the People’s Republic of China.
In the backdrop of recent conflicts has been the echo chamber resonating with the chant of Western decline -- and the loss of global dominance. Those uneasy with this trend are unsettled even more when the new US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, talks about a multipolar world order. This is a major shift in the US position.
Enthusiasts of the Arab Riviera in Gaza are trying to persuade MBS that his NEOM project, the futuristic city on the Red Sea, will be splendidly coherent with the Riviera in Gaza. More US pressure on MBS will manifest itself when the time comes for him to make a bid for the Saudi throne after the ailing King Salman. A Crown Prince does not automatically become King in Saudi Arabia, as the Crown Prince’s own experience shows.
After King Abdullah’s death, Prince Muqrim became Crown Prince. After three months, he was replaced by Prince Nyef. On June 21, 2017, Prince Nyef was deposed. Prince Mohammad bin Salman’s ascension was followed by high drama. Guests at Riyadh’s luxurious Ritz Carlton Hotel were hurriedly packed off to other hotels. Nearly 300 of the Saudi elite, royalty and businessmen were detained at the Ritz Carlton, apparently on charges of corruption. However, the speculation was that the move forestalled a rebellion.
When the time of reckoning approaches, MBS will need all the support he can muster. The United States, which remains an integral part of the Saudi system, will have a trump card then.
The writer is a senior journalist and commentator based in New Delhi
