\n<\/p>\n
President Trump touted the 2020 Abraham Accords that established formal ties between Israel and four Arab countries as one of the biggest foreign policy achievements of his first term.<\/p>\n
Now he is pursuing his long-desired goal of getting Saudi Arabia to join the accords \u2014 but he may have just dealt himself a serious setback. Mr. Trump\u2019s proposal to transfer all two million Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip and then rebuild the enclave as the \u201cRiviera of the Middle East\u201d has antagonized some of the very people he needs to seal the deal.<\/p>\n
The Gaza idea was swiftly rejected by Arab countries, among them Saudi Arabia. The Gulf powerhouse released a pre-dawn statement right after Mr. Trump floated the proposal on Tuesday evening alongside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel in Washington.<\/p>\n
The kingdom made clear that it is standing by its demand that a Palestinian state first be established before it will normalize relations with Israel. The precondition, which the Saudis have insisted on<\/a> for the past year, is \u201cnonnegotiable and not subject to compromises,\u201d the Foreign Ministry said in a statement<\/a> on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The statement directly contradicted Mr. Trump, who had just told reporters in Washington that Saudi Arabia had dropped the precondition<\/a>. One senior Saudi royal said what the American leader was proposing would be tantamount to an \u201cethnic cleansing\u201d of Gaza.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n By proposing to \u201cclean out\u201d Gaza, Mr. Trump has earned little but suspicion and anger in Arab countries. Efforts by the American administration to soften the stance, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggesting that Gazans would be relocated only temporarily, have done little to mollify them.<\/p>\n The issue of Palestinian statehood is at the heart of the controversy over Mr. Trump\u2019s Gaza proposal. For many Arabs, displacing Palestinians is anathema because it would shred their hopes for an independent state.<\/p>\n Egypt and Jordan, the countries Mr. Trump has suggested could be persuaded to take in Gazans, have publicly remained adamant that they would never accept a mass displacement of Palestinians. Officials, journalists and analysts in both countries said history spoke for itself: When Palestinians have been forced from their homes, they have not been allowed back.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Since the war in Gaza, both countries have been taking in Palestinians in need of medical attention. Egypt has accepted at least 100,000 medical evacuees and others who fled the neighboring enclave. Jordan, much of whose population is of Palestinian descent, is treating dozens of injured people from Gaza.<\/p>\n But participating in any forcible or permanent displacement of Palestinians from Gaza would be \u201cmorally and legally horrifying,\u201d said Abdel Monem Saied Aly, a pro-government Egyptian political analyst and columnist.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Given the Saudi population\u2019s broad support for the Palestinians, it would be difficult for the government to accept any agreement that does not address their aspirations for statehood. Public outrage in the kingdom over the war, and now over Mr. Trump\u2019s proposal to empty Gaza, has complicated the prospects of a deal with Israel that was already going to be difficult to pull off.<\/p>\n Before Mr. Trump took office for his second term, there was some cause for modest optimism that Saudi-Israel normalization might move forward. A cease-fire<\/a> between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas was reached on the eve of Mr. Trump\u2019s Jan. 20 inauguration. And the new American president has for years fostered a good working relationship with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n But now, some strains seem to be emerging in that relationship.<\/p>\n Prince Turki al-Faisal, Saudi Arabia\u2019s former spy chief and former ambassador to the United States, told CNN on Wednesday that Mr. Trump \u201cwill get an earful from the leadership here\u201d not only about the lack of wisdom in what he is proposing but also the injustice of \u201cethnic cleansing.\u201d<\/p>\n As if to underscore his point, he wore a Palestinian black-and-white checked kaffiyeh<\/a> in lieu of his traditional white headdress.<\/p>\n The four Arab governments that signed the Abraham Accords<\/a> \u2014 the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan \u2014 did so despite criticisms that they were giving up on what had for decades been the Arab precondition for any ties with Israel, the establishment of a Palestinian state.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n When Bahrain and the Emirates became the first two nations to sign the agreements, the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, called it \u201ca stab in the back of the Palestinian people.\u201d Mr. Abbas governs parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n After 15 months of war in Gaza, outraged Arab publics are unlikely to accept any similar compromises now and the Israeli government led by Mr. Netanyahu firmly opposes Palestinian statehood.<\/p>\n \u201cIf normalization with Saudi Arabia depends on progress toward a Palestinian state even by a millimeter, it won\u2019t happen. Period,\u201d Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich was quoted as saying by Israel\u2019s army radio last month.<\/p>\n The Saudis sat out the historic signing<\/a> of the Abraham Accords, but when the deal expanded to include Morocco and Sudan, the Saudi crown prince called Israel a \u201cpotential ally\u201d<\/a> in a 2022 interview with The Atlantic.<\/p>\n