Donald Trump has been hailed a “big thinker and a deal maker” by federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton after the president proposed the US take over and redevelop Gaza.
Mr Trump’s suggestion on Wednesday that the bombed-out strip could be redeveloped into the “Riviera of the Middle East” has been widely denounced, including by Europe and Middle Eastern nations.
The White House later walked back some of the president’s comments, saying Palestinians would be temporarily relocated rather than permanently displaced and said no decision had been made about sending in US troops.
Mr Dutton said the billionaire, the subject of a popular 1987 memoir Trump: The Art of the Deal, didn’t become president for the second time “by being anything other than shrewd”.
“I think a lot of people … are coming to grips with it as well as he’s a big thinker and a deal maker,” the opposition leader told Sydney radio 2GB on Thursday.
“You’ve seen it in his business life, and the art of the deal is incredibly important to him, that both sides of the deal are contributing, that nobody’s ripping each other off.
“There’s a desire for peace here from every reasonable person and hopefully it can be achieved.”
Those who dismissed Mr Trump’s idea defied “the reality of the gravitas that he brings to the situation”, Mr Dutton said, adding that the president was trying to force allies to contribute more to rebuilding the region.
“I don’t think they’re unreasonable expectations, but yes, I think it is about how do you leverage the best possible outcome to provide that peace and stability,” he said.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese reiterated Australia’s long-standing support for a two-state solution in the region.
“Australia’s position is the right of both Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace and security in their own states and that remains our position,” he told Nine’s Today Show.
Jewish groups in Australia have already rejected Mr Trump’s initial proposal to relocate the Palestinian residents.
“The question of whether some Gazans choose to remain in the territory through this process, temporarily relocate or are permanently absorbed by neighbouring states is ultimately a decision for those affected, most of all, Gaza’s civilian population,” Executive Council of Australian Jewry president Daniel Aghion said.
The Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council said it was hopeful the cycle of violence in the Middle East could be broken.
But it also expressed “strong concern over any hint that the US president is suggesting forcibly evacuating Gazans”.
Mr Trump on Wednesday repeated his previous call for Jordan, Egypt and other Arab states to take in Gazans, saying Palestinians there had no alternative but to abandon the strip, adding he would support resettling Palestinians “permanently”.
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