Is this AI-generated vision of Gaza under President Donald Trump the future for the most embattled territory in the Middle East? Photo by Screenshot

An AI-generated video promo for “Trump Gaza” may be the most outlandish piece of media ever shared by a sitting president of the United States. And to a certain population — including President Donald Trump’s domestic supporters and likely a solid majority of Israeli Jews — it will be profoundly compelling. Failing to understand why means failing to understand some crucial dynamics surrounding the question of Gaza’s future.

The clip, which Trump blasted across social media on Wednesday, depicts Gaza as a glimmering beachside paradise — or dystopia, depending on your viewpoint — replete with palm tree-lined boulevards, bearded belly dancers, dollar bills flying through the sky, a gargantuan golden statue of Trump in a roundabout and a grinning Elon Musk eating hummus, all to a soundtrack proclaiming, “Donald’s coming to set you free.”

On the one hand, the video underscores the absurdity of Trump’s vision for Gaza, which involves turning the Palestinian enclave into a playground for the rich, rid of its current Palestinian inhabitants, where Trump will be worshipped as a god-like figure. On the other, Trump is a master at knowing his audience. And the video, for all its bizarreness, highlights genuine concerns that need to be addressed when imagining realistic options for Gaza’s future — even those that don’t involve steps as extreme as expelling a population against its will.

For Israel, Gaza is a quagmire. Under Hamas, the territory presents a large-scale security threat. And it is also the home of 2.3 million people whom Israel has no interest in governing.

For Israelis themselves, the very real threat posed by terrorism in Gaza resonates on a deep emotional level. Today’s burial of Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir Bibas, a mother and two young children kidnapped on Oct. 7, who were killed in captivity, was practically a national day of mourning. When Israelis see Hamas parading hostages and hostages’ coffins — like those of the Bibas family — through cheering civilian crowds, their understandable reaction is often to question whether any competing narrative to senseless hate exists within Gazan society.

After 15 months of war, now interrupted by a fragile ceasefire, Israel is no closer to addressing the strategic conundrum posed by Gaza. How can it credibly ensure that the territory won’t revert to being a terror base, without condemning its military to a full-scale occupation or an indefinite cycle of fighting teenage boys with Kalashnikovs?

Hence the appeal of Trump’s vision: What if all the mess could be cleared away?

The future depicted in the video he published may appear far-fetched, gaudy and authoritarian, but it is in some ways it’s a manifestation of many Israelis’ dream of a non-threatening, peaceful Gaza for which they bear no responsibility whatsoever. In this reality, the Palestinians have been offered a better life somewhere else, their existence no longer marred by war, destruction, and suffering. An existence with, as the AI voiceover promises, “no more tunnels” — how could anyone object?

There is, of course, the idea of non-Hamas Palestinian self-rule, which would avoid both the forced displacement of millions of Palestinians and the conversion of the war-torn strip into a Mediterranean Atlantic City.

This may be the best option, but it faces tremendous political obstacles.

The only actor in Palestinian society that could feasibly assume the mantle of ruling Gaza, aside from Hamas, is the Palestinian Authority. Washington’s Arab allies, who met last Friday in Riyadh in an attempt to develop a unified plan for Gaza’s reconstruction, all envision the PA as the central actor in Gaza’s future, even if they differ on other details. But the PA is badly hampered by ineffective governance and authoritarian tendencies — its president, Mahmoud Abbas, was last elected two decades ago — and widely distrusted by the Palestinian public.

Recognizing this reality, former President Joe Biden’s administration spoke constantly of the need for a revitalized PA to eventually take control of Gaza. But Prime Minister Netanyahu has unilaterally ruled out this option for months — even though Yoav Gallant, who served as defense minister during the war’s first year, has acknowledged the need for a PA role, as has opposition leader Yair Lapid, who just yesterday unveiled a proposal for an Egyptian trusteeship for Gaza that would lead to eventual PA control.

And it’s too easy to imagine a situation in which Hamas gives up power in Gaza, but continues to dominate behind the scenes with the PA as a figleaf for international legitimacy: a model akin to that of Hezbollah in Lebanon, which has long been the dominant military force on the ground without assuming the responsibility of governing. Hamas’ apparent willingness to cede control of Gaza to the PA suggests that this could be its intention. Perhaps in part because of this possibility, a recent poll showed that 60% of Israelis oppose the PA assuming control over Gaza after the war.

In that context, Trump’s alternative isn’t a terrifying flight of fancy. It’s wish fulfillment for those who just want the problem to go away.

What those who hold that wish might be ignoring, though, is that fulfilling it would create an equally big headache, in different ways.

Palestinians, the Arab world, and much of the international community see Trump’s vision as an abhorrent distortion of justice. The kind of forced population transfer for which Trump is openly advocating flies in the face of the liberal-democratic norms to which the U.S. and Israel are both avowedly committed. Replacing a territory that has an indisputably Palestinian character with Trump-branded hotels and highrises for wealthy international guests reeks of colonialism.

And no Israeli would accept a plan to end the war that envisioned such a future for, say, the kibbutzes Nir Oz or Kfar Azza. They would rightly understand it as an attempt to buy off their national aspirations with material sweeteners.

But such points simply aren’t compelling to Israelis — who overwhelmingly support Trump’s plan — when their foremost concern is preventing terrorists from being able to launch rockets at or invade their communities.

The takeaway here is not that the Trumpian vision for Gaza is feasible or desirable. But the reasons why its proponents see it as such need to be taken seriously.

Israelis deserve to live normal lives without the threat of being killed or abducted by terror organizations that seek the destruction of their society. When it comes to deradicalizing Gaza and preventing the resurgence of terror groups, the international community must not settle for lip service.

The good news is that the moderate Arab states have a real interest in supporting Gaza’s reconstruction, and also don’t want to throw billions of dollars down the drain only for Hamas to reemerge and the cycle to repeat. Israeli, U.S., and regional interests are more aligned than they may appear — and so too are the Palestinians, who deserve a safe future and accountable governance.

But any plans for Gaza’s future must not violate the basic principle that any resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must account for both peoples’ rights, individual and national. The vision of “Trump Gaza” bashes that principle into glittery nothingness.

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