The Ben Mulroney Show - How much of what Donald Trump said about Gaza is actually feasible?

Episode Date: February 5, 2025

Guests and Topics: -Trump wants U.S. to take ownership of Gaza and redevelop it after Palestinians are resettled elsewhere with Guest: Bill Roggio, Senior Fellow with Foundation for Defense of Democracies If you enjoyed the podcast, tell a friend! For more of the Ben Mulroney Show, subscribe to the podcast! https://globalnews.ca/national/program/the-ben-mulroney-show Follow Ben on Twitter/X at https://x.com/BenMulroney Enjoy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oh hi there, I'm Norma, the unofficial mayor of the town of Destiny. Speaking of, FanDuel's Kick of Destiny 3 is happening live Super Bowl Sunday. You should watch, it's gonna be a hoot. While you're at it, download FanDuel, North America's number one sports book. You can bet on touchdowns, turnovers, heck, even total kicker points, don't you know? Anywho, enjoy your podcast or whatnot. Please play responsibly, 19 plus and physically located in Ontario. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling

or the gambling of someone close to you, please go to connectsontario.ca. Playoff football is here with BetMGM and as an official sports book partner of the NFL, BetMGM is the best place to fuel your football fandom on every game day with a variety of exciting features. BetMGM offers you plenty of seamless ways to jump straight onto the gridiron

and to embrace peak sports action. Visit BedMGM.com for terms and conditions. Must be 19 years of age or older, Ontario only. Please gamble responsibly. Gambling problem? For free assistance, call the Connex Ontario Helpline at 1-866-531-2600. BedMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Welcome back to the Ben Mulry Show. Thank you so much for joining us. And I think everyone in Canada thought

after we got the 30 day reprieve from the Trump tariffs that we could take a breather from the velocity of crazy headlines coming out of the White House. Well, it didn't last very long because Donald Trump has now come up with a new plan on how to bring peace to the Middle East. The only reason the Palestinians want to go back to Gaza is they have no alternative. It's right now a demolition site.

This is just a demolition site. Virtually every building is down. They're living under fallen concrete that's very dangerous and very precarious. the U.S. government, the U.S. government is a very dangerous and precarious site, virtually every building is down. They're living under fallen concrete that's very dangerous and very precarious.

They instead can occupy all of a beautiful area with homes and safety and they can live out their lives in peace and harmonyrip and we will do a job with it too. 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 and housing for the people of the area.

Do a real job. Okay, that was said during a joint press conference in Washington with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. And I've got, I have so many questions. I've got so many questions. So let's welcome Bill Roggio, Senior Fellow for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies to the show. Bill, thank you so much for joining us. Thanks for having me, Ben. So listen, I'm, I'm, some would

argue that we are at the end of our rope in in the Middle East, that we're at the point where there are no ideas or bad ideas. Let's throw them all out. and let's see what we get. This is a new one. I'll give the president this, this is a new one. What do you think with someone who has far more domain expertise than I? Well, yeah, it certainly is a disruptive idea for sure. I think, look, for a president that didn't want to stay in Afghanistan, that

wants to withdraw from Syria, that doesn't want to get entangled in foreign wars, I think it's interesting that he's jumping in at first into one of the most intractable problems in the Middle East, which is the Israeli-Palestinian situation. Um, but I think what's more important here is that he's communicating that the failed policies of the past three decades of a two-state solution just isn't working and isn't going to work. The reality is that the Palestinians don't want a two-state solution, which is why they launch war, repeatedly launch war on the Israelis. I mean, the Israelis withdrew from Gaza in 2006 and here we are two decades

later, still the still, they're still fighting the Israelis. They're launching attacks. Yeah. I, I, I'm mixed on this. I get that he is, you know, tired of the status quo and the status quo doesn't work. But US getting involved, putting, you know, this would require US beach on the ground in Gaza. I, you know, I balk at that idea.

Well, yeah, I mean, there are two schools of thought, as far as I can see. There's those who believe that Donald Trump's words are full of bombast and bluster and you have to take them with a grain of salt and you've got to interpret them in, throw them through a Trump filter. And there are others who say he's the most powerful man in the world and therefore everything he says must be taken at face value. But I wonder as a negotiator, I wonder whether he's throwing out this most extreme, ridiculous policy proposal in order to get people to accept something far more reasonable. So, he's essentially telling the people of Gaza that he's going to relocate them to Jordan, and I'm wondering whether he's saying, what he's really saying is, I have the power to do that.

You don't want me to do that. So we need you to be more reasonable. Does that make sense? I actually agree with that. I think that I don't think he's serious about ejecting the Palestinians from Gaza. I think he wants something in between. I think this is, you know, look at the, just look at the tariff wars, right, with Canada, with Mexico, the issues with, you know, deporting illegals into, back to Central and South America. He

does get his way. He's shown that he's willing to do things that are extreme in order to come back to the middle. And I think you're onto something here, to my view as well. I don't think this is really what he's intending to do. He's trying to get, find some type of middle ground. But I think you're correct. Yeah. Well, there's also what to do, at least in the short and medium term, with refugees from Gaza who do have no homes to return to. And on that topic, I think that he's, I think we should take him exactly at his word,

that he is instructing the neighboring countries of Jordan and Egypt to open up their borders to these people to say, you know, you'd be keeping them out as well. And you need to help out if we want peace in the area, you're going to have to do your part. And I do think in that case, he's talking directly to them and they should believe him. I agree with that as well. And the problem there is that Egyptians and the Jordanians, particularly Jordanians do not want to increase their problems to take Palestinians into their countries, um, into their country that they're going to, that cause problems, not just for Israel, but can cause problems for the, uh, for the,

you know, for the king of Jordan, right? Who has his own policy in problems. know, for the King of Jordan, right? Who has his own policy in problems. The, and then these countries are looking at their, but you know, how did their populations, uh, are they going to accept this type of situation? It's a really difficult problem. I'm very surprised that he's gone in with, you know, headlong into this. Uh, but you know, again, I do think he's looking for some type of compromise and he's, you

said it perfectly. He's coming in at the most extreme position and hoping he can get some type of compromise. The problem, the ultimate problem is, is that the Palestinians don't really want a two state solution. I find it ironic in all of this, Ben, that the Palestinians, the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and that when they say they want to destroy the Israeli state and kick out all the Jews out of Israel,

that that's just accepted and no one balks at that. But when Trump basically says the same thing, there's an uproar throughout the world. And, you know, this is a really interesting time, to say the least. Well, you know, we were sitting here scratching our heads and say, what would possess him to say something like this? Somebody who doesn't want to get involved in any foreign wars. All of a sudden, he's essentially creating the foundation for what could be a long-term occupation. And he said this, he said this during that press conference. It's a horrible thing. We can't forget it. I'll never forget it. And you can't forget it.

And some people want to put it out of their memory, but we're not going to ever let that happen. And some people want to put it out of their memory, but we're not going to ever let that happen. It was a horrible day, October 7th. That was a horrible, that was a horrible period of time. And a lot of people like to pretend it didn't happen. It happened. It's a big group of people that like to pretend it didn't happen, like the Holocaust didn't happen. Same mindset. Now, the rumor is that he was shown some very graphic video of October 7 prior to this press conference, which could have been the catalyst for this sort of emotional, I don't want to say outburst, but this emotional positioning on the subject. I

find it hard to believe that he would not have seen any videos prior to this. But that's that's an argument that's being floated right now. What do you think? No, I can't find it hard. He's president of the United States. He would have access to this. Israelis were, you know, bringing this video and having showings immediately after October 7. I find it hard to believe that he is only privy to this information, you know, right before Prime Minister Netanyahu comes to the country. I just think that this is an issue that, you know, I think he is truly is horrified by what happened on October 7th. But I don't think his exposure to this was to place, you

know, in the last week. All right, Bill, thank you so much for being here. Hope to talk to you again soon. For the most important stories from around the world. We are here in Jerusalem. We just heard the siren. And here hope to talk to you again soon. Canada's number one national newscast. A rail strike could cost this one Southern Alberta farm as much as a million dollars. The award-winning Global National with Donna Friesen.