TEHRAN - President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are walking down a path toward Gaza with a controversial and fateful plan that amounts to smashing not a glass ceiling but the hopes of millions of Palestinians and sculpting the future of the region in a manner that not even its harshest critics could have predicted would be decided under U.S. auspices. 

Such complicity, as is evident through new proposals and the ongoing uptick in military activity, risks exacerbating the humanitarian catastrophe even further, killing off whatever little room is left for peace to exist.

In early 2025, Trump announced a plan to move the entire Palestinian population of Gaza— 2.3 million to neighboring countries such as Egypt and Jordan, and the U.S. would take over Gaza itself.

Trump cast this as a humanitarian and economic development project, and he imagined Gaza becoming the “Riviera of the Middle East,” overseen by the United States. He proposed that those Palestinians who wanted to depart Gaza would be allowed to leave with the right to return or be resettled elsewhere. Netanyahu publicly championed this vision as well, calling it “extraordinary” and “the most realistic idea” he’d heard for rehabilitating Gaza.

But this scheme runs counter to international law, which forbids the expulsion of civilian populations by force, and has been condemned by human rights groups, Arab countries, and large numbers of politicians inside the U.S. Even some Republicans have recoiled at the notion of the U.S. acquiring Gaza or ejecting its population by force. Yet Netanyahu's government, which is under increasing international legal pressure and domestic political strain, seems to be all but embracing Trump's disengagement and tacit blessing to act as it pleases with impunity.

As Israel gets ready for a significant military escalation in Gaza, this hardline strategy is showing up on the ground. Plans to mobilize tens of thousands of reservists for a renewed offensive dubbed "intensive" and possibly "the concluding moves" of the war were recently approved by Netanyahu's security cabinet. To strengthen a blockade that has already resulted in severe shortages of food, water, and medication, the Israeli military intends to seize and secure sizable portions of Gaza while evicting Palestinians further south.

Analysts caution that this escalation runs the risk of destroying any last hope for peace, especially when combined with the Trump-Netanyahu plan for population displacement. Trump has mostly distanced himself from the conflict in recent weeks, essentially giving Netanyahu a free hand. Initially, he demonstrated some diplomatic engagement to free hostages and broker a ceasefire.

This Trump-Netanyahu collusion has far-reaching consequences. The proposal for forced relocation is reminiscent of past population transfers that have resulted in chronic instability and hardship. With hundreds of thousands of Palestinians at risk of being displaced due to continuous bombardment and blockade, the military escalation poses a threat to worsen Gaza's humanitarian crisis.

In the meantime, the absence of active U.S. diplomatic involvement erodes the likelihood of a negotiated settlement and eliminates a vital potential check on Israeli military actions. 

Trump’s silence and Netanyahu’s militarism now serve as complementary pillars in a policy that shoves diplomacy aside in favor of domination. Left unchecked, this complicity will not only crush prospects for a just resolution but also sow the seeds of further instability well beyond Gaza’s borders. The world must face down this moment before peace is permanently ceded to oblivion.