Ex-US State Department official warns Trump’s postwar Gaza plan leads down 'dark path'

A former US State Department official who resigned in 2023 over Washington’s increased arms support to Israel has strongly criticized President Donald Trump’s so-called “Gaza Riviera” project, warning that the plan—centered on ethnic cleansing of Palestinians—could lead the region down a dark path.

Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, and former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair reportedly participated in Trump’s meeting at the White House on Wednesday about a plan for post-war Gaza.

Kushner, an influential adviser during Trump’s first administration, doesn’t hold an official role inside the White House, but has been quietly advising administration officials on West Asia issues since Trump returned to office in January.

Little is known about the post-war plans discussed in the meeting. Still, Trump in February proposed a US takeover of Gaza, forced displacement of its residents and redevelopment into a “Middle Eastern Riviera.”

Josh Paul, a former director in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, and the first US official to resign amid the ongoing genocide in Gaza, in an interview with Democracy Now on Thursday, said that the plan is “a nightmarish example of profits over people.”

“What you have with Kushner and Blair is a combination of the corrupt and the feckless,” he said.

Paul noted that he worked with Blair and that he prioritized pie-in-the-sky economic programs over the real political progress that needs to be made to allow any sort of Palestinian economic development and reconstruction.

According to Paul, the Boston Consulting Group, which had played a part in developing the Gaza Riviera project, not only withdrew from the project, but fired some of the consultants who had been involved, precisely because there is no way to advance this project without violating international law.

“So, it is a deeply concerning development and, I think, shows the continuing path that Israel and other partners of its — in [West Asia], other corporate partners, and certainly Misters Kushner and Blair, are trying to take Gaza on. It’s a dark path,” he warned.

Hamas accepts ceasefire proposal as Trump backs Israeli plans to occupy Gaza

US President Donald Trump says Israel’s captives will be released only after Hamas is “destroyed,” openly giving a green light to Israel’s plan to occupy Gaza City, while the Palestinian resistance movement has accepted a proposed deal for ceasefire and prisoner exchange with the occupying regime.

Paul also addressed recent comments by Joe Biden administration officials, including National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and former State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller, the latter of whom acknowledged that Israel had committed war crimes in Gaza.

“It is never too late for genuine contrition. But that is not what this is,” he said, describing these statements as politically motivated rather than morally grounded.

On the broader peace process, Paul condemned efforts to shape Gaza’s future without Palestinian input.

“This is a discussion that should never have taken place without Palestinian representation,” he said, adding that current initiatives reflect a form of corporate and foreign colonialism that divides Palestinians into “manageable” groups for profit and strategic advantage.

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