$$$ - A bright future for Gaza (without the Gazans) as envisioned by Trump. Smotrich is on it.
1hr ago
Smotrich says Israel sitting on a ‘real estate bonanza’ in Gaza, talking to the US about dividing it up
By Sam Sokol
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich gestures toward a map of the West Bank during a press conference at the Finance Ministry in Jerusalem, September 3, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says that the Gaza Strip is a “real estate bonanza,” and that he is in talks with the Americans on how to divide it up the coastal enclave after the war.
There is “a real estate bonanza” in Gaza that “pays for itself” and he has “already started negotiations with the Americans,” Hebrew media quotes the far-right minister saying at a real estate conference in Tel Aviv.
“We have poured a lot of money into this war. We have to see how we are dividing up the land in percentages,” Smotrich says, adding that “the demolition, the first stage in the city’s renewal, we have already done. Now we just need to build.”
US President Donald Trump has at times spoken of his desire to turn the Gaza Strip into an American-controlled “Riviera” in a move that would see much of the Palestinian population encouraged to leave after the war.
Last month, the Washington Post reported that Trump administration was weighing a proposal for the postwar reconstruction of Gaza that would put the Strip under US control for a decade and pay roughly a quarter of its population to relocate, many of them permanently.
Trump’s plans have been rejected by the Palestinians, the Arab world, and much of the international community.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel has no plans to resettle the Strip, but far-right members of his government, including Smotrich, are actively advancing plans to do so.
Smotrich also repudiates Netanyahu’s statement on Monday that Israel was facing increasing isolation and may be required to become a self-reliant economy with “autarkic characteristics” and a kind of “super-Sparta.”
“I do not agree with the prime minister’s words and I really did not like the comparison to Sparta,” he says.
Netanyahu’s comments sparked fierce criticism from opposition heads and business leaders and were followed by a dip in the value of shares on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.
In response, the prime minister said on Tuesday that he had “full confidence” in the Israeli economy and sought to clarify that his comments were focused on the defense industries rather than the broader economy.
timesofisrael.com |
