NEW YORK - MAY 22: (L-R) Brian Kilmeade, Steve Doocy and Elisabeth Hasselbeck at Fox and Friends' All-American Summer Concert Series at Fox Studios on May 22, 2015 in New York City.
While President Donald Trump’s Tuesday announcement that the U.S. would “take over” the Gaza Strip was widely criticized, Fox News hosts Lawrence Jones and Steve Doocy downplayed fears that the move would involve military intervention, suggesting it is the start of a “conversation.”
“He does not want war,” Jones said on Fox & Friends Wednesday, not mentioning that the U.S. has provided military aid to support Israel in its war in Gaza. “He kept saying it over. He wants the best for all countries. He wants them to work on their interests, even when he signed yesterday in the Oval Office, the maximum pressure campaign against Iran. He was like, I don’t want to sign this. I don’t want to have to sign this, but this is where we’re at.”
He added: “And agree or disagree with the idea that he presented, he was talking about a new day for the Palestinian people. And that’s one thing — they haven’t had hope. You got all these kids from birth that are taught to hate another country to hate another people. They need something that can uplift them. I’m not saying this is the solution, but I’d like the conversation being started.”
“See, I agree with you, Lawrence,” Doocy said. “I think this is just the… conversation starter because, obviously, the president knows when he says we’ll take Gaza, he knows the United States can’t invade another country,” Doocy said on Fox & Friends. “The last thing he wants to do is put boots on the ground in Gaza. I mean, you know, he is always in his first term. He was talking about how he would like to get out of every war in the Middle East.”
Trump proposed the takeover at a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “I don’t want to be cute, I don’t want to be a wise guy, but the Riviera of the Middle East… This could be so magnificent,” he said.
“The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too,” he said. “We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site, and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out, create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs.”
Doocy continued: “What he did yesterday, by — I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt — I think what he did by saying, you know, look, if we take over and we redevelop it, I think that’s the first step in a negotiation, because he said the United States will redevelop it and the Palestinians will go someplace else. I think that’s the first step,” Doocy said.
“Now people are going, no, we can’t do that. Then he’ll go, okay, If we don’t redevelop it, who will? Suddenly it’ll be like, well, the United States and France and Russia or somebody like that. Where will the Palestinians go? Well, they’ll go here, here, here,” he concluded. “I think this was his opening salvo. First idea. A lot of people saying you can’t do it. But maybe they could add to it and come up with something because the way it’s working is not working.”
Trump’s son-in-law, real estate developer Jared Kushner, suggested last year that Gaza’s “waterfront property” could be “very valuable.”
“From Israel’s perspective I would do my best to move the people out and then clean it up,” he said.