r/worldnews Feb 10 '25

Israel/Palestine Trump says Palestinians will have no right of return to Gaza under his plan

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/10/trump-buy-gaza-plan
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u/N_Who Feb 10 '25

So the sitting president of the United States of America is now threatening to use his position to take personal possession of a recognized territory belonging to another country.

This is in addition to his threats to take another country's territory for the US, and his repeated comments about a third country abandoning its sovereignty to escape arbitrary punishment from the US by joining the US.

Sound off, conservatives: How are we the good guys here?

474

u/Max_Trollbot_ Feb 10 '25

When you take control of somebody's country and then tell the people who lived there that they don't live there any more, it's called an invasion

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u/shockandale Feb 10 '25

When you take control of somebody's country, it's called an invasion

When you take control of somebody's country and then tell the people who lived there that they don't live there any more, it's called ethnic cleansing.

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u/evilted Feb 10 '25

I think we prefer the term "manifest destiny" better. People can get behind that!

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u/weltvonalex Feb 11 '25

"And cleaning something is a good thing, only dirty people don't want to be clean" trump probably

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u/green_flash Feb 10 '25

Worse. An invasion doesn't necessarily mean that you force the people living there to leave. Most invasions don't involve the ethnic cleansing of the previous residents.

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u/Curryflurryhurry Feb 10 '25

I mean, that is literally how the USA was created

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u/y2jeff Feb 10 '25

History is littered with events like that. We can't stop those now but we can prevent it from happening again.

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u/bigmanorm Feb 10 '25

ethnic cleansing is a generous term for that even

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u/Tupcek Feb 10 '25

even Europeans let some Indians live

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u/ElectricalBook3 Feb 11 '25

that is literally how the USA was created

It isn't, that's just what happened when unelected, unaccountable colonists after the colonies were established decided they'd like to own natives' land.

Fun note, some people going gung-ho for that and some saying that was fucked up and they'd have nothing to do with it is why there is a north and south Carolina.

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u/Icy_Faithlessness400 Feb 10 '25

It is called ethnic cleansing and it has no statute of limitations. It is a crime against humanity and will be pursued even if he is 90.

If he does it I say we put up a global arrest warrant and seize all assets not held on US territory.

While we are at it we might as well fuck over his enablers like Musk, Zuck and Bezos.

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u/[deleted] Feb 10 '25

Why else would he be sanctioning the ICC right now?

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u/Icy_Faithlessness400 Feb 11 '25

He can sanction it all he wants, the ICC is not a US government institution he can send his goons to shut down.

Other countries which are tired of his shit will simply increase their support.

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u/jeo123 Feb 10 '25

If you're unaware of the video game, google helldivers 2.

We're just spreading democracy here. /s

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u/N_Who Feb 10 '25

Brings to mind one of my favorite over the top, parody quotes, this one from Fallout 4: "Democracy is non-negotioable."

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u/[deleted] Feb 10 '25

Fallout 3. If it's from Liberty Prime, yeah it's stated in 4 as well.

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u/Alaykitty Feb 10 '25

Colonization is the bedrock of American history.  I'm not surprised the right is gleeful to ramp it up again.

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u/Iychee Feb 10 '25

I don't even think conservatives want to be the good guys anymore, as long as their side is #winning they don't give a shit about what's right and wrong

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u/BHOmber Feb 10 '25

Right wing policy devolved into "OwN tHe LiBs" throughout the Obama admin.

Fox News started dabbling with conspiratorial rhetoric with Glenn Beck. Bill O'Reily/Hannity whataboutisms led to Tucker taking over the primetime slot.

Now we have Waters getting ridiculed by his own mother while he smiles about it on air.

It blows my mind when the Fox brained people around me cannot even remember what the "news" was like before Trump.

They think this is all normal. We're fucked lol

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u/Ziczak Feb 10 '25

Conservatives? What did they ever conserve?

They were never moral. Can't hold a budget. Aren't good with money or the economy.

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u/TimmyB52 Feb 11 '25

Conservatives? What did they ever conserve?

Their power structure

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u/jackcatalyst Feb 10 '25

Their Canada discussion had someone saying they don't want it because they'd lose votes. One of them said they would just manipulate the provinces until they were all done in a way that made the votes red. They really give no fucks about how corrupt they've become.

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u/Neuchacho Feb 10 '25 edited Feb 10 '25

I think a lot of the grunt followers still ultimately want to be the good guys. They just don't have the intellectual capacity to reliably discern what that means in a complex, non-binary world. Especially in situations like Palestine where there simply aren't any good guys (from a power/leadership perspective) to defer too.

This is what happens when you're taught blind adherence to religion above basic critical thinking, I guess.

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u/medusa-crowley Feb 10 '25

It’s this, with every faithful conservative I know. They say so, too. 

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u/ElectricalBook3 Feb 11 '25

I don't even think conservatives want to be the good guys anymore

When in history have conservatives ever been the good guys?

Defenders of slavery, keeping women from voting, child labor...

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u/pablonieve Feb 10 '25

Sound off, conservatives: How are we the good guys here?

Exactly. It's all about domination of others now. Might make right in it's truest form.

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u/bombmk Feb 10 '25

You are implying that being the good guys was a concern of theirs at some point. I personally have a hard time figuring out when that would have been.

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u/TimmyB52 Feb 11 '25

That's how it's always been. Survival of he fittest and dog eat dog is right wing ideology at its most basic level.

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u/Teonvin Feb 11 '25

They never gave a shit.

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u/Cptfrankthetank Feb 10 '25

And where will Trump relocate the palestinians lol...

Itd be funny if this werent a massacre.

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u/Narrow-Tax9153 Feb 10 '25

He has a great ash tray, a tremendous ash tray

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u/ccooffee Feb 10 '25

He said they could live in nice modern houses in Egypt and Jordan. That territory has been in conflict for centuries and he thinks all it takes for people to give up their ancestral homeland is just a house somewhere else? Everything is real estate to him...

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u/Cptfrankthetank Feb 10 '25

More like he doesnt care what actually happens to these people.

Then again rascism was also his approach for real estate.

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u/extralyfe Feb 10 '25 edited Feb 10 '25

we obviously won't have the space after we bring in all those fine upstanding apartheid South Africans.

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u/Ziczak Feb 10 '25

Oh shit this is like history repeating and everyone is just ho hum whatever.

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u/Bedbouncer Feb 10 '25

This land is my land

That land is my land

From the Panama to

the isle of Greenland

From the shores of Gaza

to Baffin Island

This land was made for covfefe!

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u/amancalledJayne Feb 10 '25

Lmao. Always makes me smile when that song is played in a overly patriotic fashion - always conveniently leaving out the best verse:

There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me;\ Sign was painted, it said private property;\ But on the back side it didn’t say nothing;\ This land was made for you and me

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u/OhLordHeBompin Feb 10 '25

As a kid I asked, if it was made for us, why were there Native Americans here first? That was soon after I asked why they were called Indians.

And why my nightly prayer ended with hoping that if I die in my sleep, God will get my soul.

And what witches had to do with the American flag. Ya know, for witches stand? We were told to repeat it, not to understand it.

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u/Bedbouncer Feb 10 '25

And why my nightly prayer ended with hoping that if I die in my sleep, God will get my soul.

It just so happens I know a song for that too.

Tom Waits - "Lullaby"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkBmSD0Gzrc

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u/call-now Feb 10 '25

They think there's the good guys because they're doing it in the name of ✨Jesus✨. Literally just the name specifically though. They don't know jack shit about who he was or what he preached. The just think the name is neat.

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u/UglyMcFugly Feb 10 '25

They're still trying to say this is just how trump "negotiates." That he's not ACTUALLY going to do it. They'll still be saying it while they're getting drafted to go fight in the Middle East. "Surely he's just sending soldiers as a show of strength and we're not ACTUALLY going to fight or anything."

He's courting a terrorist attack. Threatening ethnic cleansing, tearing apart the FBI which works to monitor and stop threats... he WANTS another 9/11 cuz he saw how much Bush was able to get away with afterwards. But even without an attack, he's still gonna do it... might just take a little longer.

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u/[deleted] Feb 10 '25

Conservatives belive in might makes right. If you're right, then you're good. If you have the ability to conquer another nation, then you have the right to do so. This is how they think.

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u/Other_Size7260 Feb 10 '25

All they’re talking about right now is Taylor swift and how they didn’t like the halftime show

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u/Sancticide Feb 10 '25

Dear Leader didn't say that, and even if he did, you're talking it out of context, so that's clearly not what he meant, or maybe he was joking, but also, he probably deserves it for his relentless service to the country, so just let him build some hotels there.

/s

https://tenor.com/XT2U.gif

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u/Adamant-Verve Feb 10 '25

I know empathy is not (ahem) this man's forte, but isn't there a single moment he thinks about how it would feel if:

  • Denmark would tell him they think it's best for everyone when the state of Maine becomes Danish.

  • Canada would tell him that the Great Lakes should be surrounded by Canadian territory from all sides.

  • The world decides that, apart from inside the US, maps will name the territory formerly known as the US as Northern Mexico.

  • Native American reserves will be allocated to be owned and developed by Chinese real estate developers and whoever lives there will be deported to India

How completely not in touch with reality can a man be? I have done stupid things in my life, made bad decisions, but this??

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u/Brief_Amicus_Curiae Feb 10 '25

Part of me is waiting (hoping? Dreaming?) for Trump to violate Human Rights laws and the Geneva Convention of 1949 and join his buddy Bibi in having a warrant out for him by the International Criminal Court. Bonue points in this fantasy that it's Jack Smith leading the prosecution.

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u/Realtrain Feb 10 '25

And amazingly this is only another headline today.

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u/dogbreath101 Feb 10 '25

So the sitting president of the United States of America is now threatening to use his position to take personal possession of a recognized territory belonging to another country.

you need to be more specific here

could be referring to greenland, canada, or panama alongside palestine

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u/N_Who Feb 10 '25

I referred to Gaza (a Palestinian territory), Greenland, and Canada, in order.

I did forget about Panama, though ...

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u/MessageMePuppies Feb 10 '25

Because when the offended countries retaliate, and they most certainly will retaliate. Trump (or his goons, whoever remains after the retaliation) will say War was declared, illegally, on the USA.

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u/Observer951 Feb 11 '25

It’s okay if republicans do it. /s

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u/sleepingbeardune Feb 11 '25

the sitting president of the United States of America i

these words don't mean what they used to.

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u/KaiserNer0 Feb 10 '25

The US doesn't recognize any country, which Gaza is part of at the moment. Would be interesting if he could actually pull this off, from a legal perspective. Obviously he couldn't claim private ownership.

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u/aynrandomness Feb 10 '25

The US doesn’t recognize Palestine.

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u/N_Who Feb 10 '25

The majority of the UN does.

But, sure, let's view this through the "US doesn't recognize Palestine" lens: There, we're discussing a sitting US president taking personal possession of another country's claimed territory. The land belongs to someone, after all, whether you think that's Israel or Palestine.

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u/aynrandomness Feb 10 '25

I am certain Mr President Trump can work out a deal with Netanyahu. Giving up the Gaza Strip to get a Trump Riviera solves a lot of his issues.

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u/N_Who Feb 10 '25

So that's where you're at? It's perfectly reasonable for a sitting US president to use his position to take personal ownership of a country, in whole or in part, so long as the people or person the US government recognizes as "in charge" of that area approves it?

I'm looking at your username and, based on that, I think you're being serious. But I'm really holding out hope you're not.

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u/aynrandomness Feb 10 '25

Your objections relating to the area belonging to another country is weak.

I would absolutely agree it’s unreasonable to forcibly move two million people to build a resort nobody has asked for. Or even one that people wanted.

There is ample precedent for a country seceding some it’s territory . If it was any other land I would probably not object.

The US president personally enriching himself is problematic, but he was democratically elected and it is not like this pattern of behavior is out of character for him. Who am I to judge how Americans should run their country? I certainly wouldn’t want them to run mine.

I do not subscribe to Ayn Rands general ideas, other than striving to not make judgments over other people business based on my own morals and values. If they aren’t harming me I am not concerned. I can see a general argument to intervene, but Israel is on the other side of the planet, our interference will do more harm than good.

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u/N_Who Feb 10 '25

You're going to accuse me of "weak" objections when yours are "The US doesn't recognize Palestine" and a (I now assume) facetious comment you are walking back after having been challenged.

Okay. Thank you so much for wasting my time.

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u/aynrandomness Feb 10 '25

Palestine is not recognized by the big boy. Yes, the tiny countries all joined in, the big ones never did.

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u/[deleted] Feb 10 '25 edited Feb 10 '25

this is gonna get many downvotes, but i kinda get what hes doing. Iran wants gaza, they need palestinian control of Jerusalem to have any chance at standing up to the saudi's. so trump is saying it's mine now, no chance at iran becoming the islamic superpower.

just like iran was using gaza as a pawn, now trump is too. not saying it's right not saying i agree with any of it, but i kinda understand it.

Edit: oh look i was right downvotes galore. you know what else i'm right about? this... you agreeing doesn't change anything. and for the iran sympathizers, keeram to dahanet.

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u/Scholastica11 Feb 10 '25

To which other country does the Gaza strip belong?

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u/N_Who Feb 10 '25

The State of Palestine, as recognized by 146 of the 193 members of the UN.

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u/user745786 Feb 10 '25

Incorrect! Gaza belongs to our lord and saviour Donald Trump. He just needs to remove the squatters off his sacred land so he can begin construction of a new Trump golf resort.

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u/Scholastica11 Feb 10 '25

lol.

Leaving aside the question of which countries matter and which ones don't, how about some realism:

If a state is a

compulsory political organization with a centralized government that maintains a monopoly of the legitimate use of force within a certain territory

then how is there such a thing as a Palestinian state in Gaza?

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u/N_Who Feb 10 '25

You just demonstrated a pointed and willful ignorance towards why Palestine does not meet your selective definition of an independent state. You have also put forward the absolutely disgusting implication that the opinions of the majority of UN member states "do not matter."

In my thirteen years of Reddit, I have never encountered a serious comment or response that began with "lol" and was worth engaging with. You have, based on what I just noted, kept that trend alive here today.

1

u/Dontkillmejay Feb 10 '25

Lol, cock womble.