Mark Mellman, who leads Democratic Majority for Israel, said that the president’s remarks are “cruel, immoral and impractical.”
By JNS Staff
(February 5, 2025 / JNS) U.S. President Donald Trump’s remarks on Tuesday evening, alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a White House press conference, that the United States “will take over the Gaza Strip” drew concern on Wednesday from pro-Israel and Jewish U.S. groups.
The American Jewish Committee stated that it was pleased with the president’s “unreserved reaffirmation” of U.S. support for Israeli security, the release of all of the hostages, barring Iran from a nuclear weapon and Israeli integration in the region.
Ted Deutch, the AJC CEO, stated that Trump “sent a powerful signal of American support for its one democratic ally in a region vital to U.S. national interests” by hosting Netanyahu as the first foreign leader of his second term.
But the AJC also called Trump’s plan to “take control” and “own” Gaza “surprising, concerning and confusing.” That control and relocating Gazans “raise a wealth of questions—first among them the impact of the president’s announcement on the ongoing hostage-release agreement,” AJC stated. “The release of all remaining hostages, and the agreement’s ultimate fulfillment of the objective to rid Gaza of Hamas rule, must remain U.S. and Israeli priorities.”
Mark Mellman, the president and CEO of Democratic Majority for Israel, stated on Wednesday that Trump’s plan is “cruel, immoral and impractical.”
“One of DMFI’s founding principles is support for a negotiated two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” Mellman stated. “While terrorist attacks by Hamas, Hezbollah and others have made that goal more difficult to achieve and pushed the timetable farther into the future, we remain committed to that approach.”
It is important to remain focused on phase two of the ceasefire and hostage release deal, according to Mellman. “Instead, the president is calling for the forcible relocation of two million Gazans,” he stated.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), a staunch Trump supporter, was among the U.S. lawmakers who told Jewish Insider that president’s plan was imprudent. “I don’t know that I think it’s the best use of United States resources to spend a bunch of money in Gaza,” he told the publication.
Morton Klein, national president of Zionist Organization of America, stated that the president’s remarks about the United States taking over and developing Gaza “is an extraordinary declaration that could assure the end of the Islamic-Arab terrorist group Hamas, and secure southern Israel after decades of terrorist attacks and missile launches from Hamas in Gaza.”
“It will also be a major step towards a real peace in the region,” Klein stated. “Trump’s statement and plan fulfills international law, which still clearly states that Israel still has the legal right to Gaza, ultimately giving Israel control and sovereignty over this ancient biblical Jewish territory where rabbis and scholars once studied and preached and where Jews once thrived.”
Klein added that he sees God’s hand in Trump’s plan, “ultimately fulfilling his promise to the Jews of sovereignty over all of the Jewish land of Israel.”
“Trump has shown a true understanding of how tiny Israel is, that it is one-800th the size of the Arab world,” Klein stated. “Trump’s move could enable Israel and the United States to develop this oceanfront oasis as a paradise in the Middle East while giving Israel the land it needs to thrive as a technological, scientific, cultural and religious giant.”
AIPAC told JNS that “we appreciate President Trump’s commitment to preventing Iran from ever getting a nuclear weapon, the steps he has already taken to reimpose dramatic economic pressure on Iran and his efforts to find a path forward for a post-Hamas Gaza.”
Daniel S. Mariaschin, CEO of B’nai B’rith International, told JNS that “it’s clear from yesterday’s press conference that the real-time objective is one that brings peace and security for Israel and its neighbors, and that there be no role whatsoever for Hamas going forward.”
“Any and all suggestions to reach that goal should be explored,” Mariaschin said. “Our immediate concern is the return of all hostages to their families and loved ones.”
Arsen Ostrovsksy, CEO of The International Legal Forum, told JNS that “there seems to be some intense hyperventilating at President Trump’s Gaza relocation plan.”
“To be clear, there is nothing illegal or contrary to international law, with respect to what President Trump has proposed. This is not ‘ethnic cleansing’ or ‘forcible transfer,’ which is strictly prohibited under the Geneva Conventions,” Ostrovsksy said. “To suggest so is not only erroneous, but willfully misleading.”
Trump “is not seeking to force anyone to do anything against their will, and nor does he have the power to do so,” according to Ostrovsksy.
“What the president has announced is essentially the intention to create an alternate and more appealing set of conditions,” he added, “to entice civilians in Gaza to voluntarily move in order to seek better lives elsewhere and to unshackle them from the clutches of Hamas and the destruction that the terror group has wrought following the Oct. 7 massacre they initiated.”
This article was originally published by JNS and can be viewed here.