By Jacob Jaffa

Copyright thejc

Israel’s Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, has claimed that he in talks with the Trump administration over how to carve up Gaza for a “real estate bonanza” following the end of the war. Speaking at a property conference in Tel Aviv, the Religious Zionism leader said: “We have paid a lot of money for this war. We have to see how we are dividing up the land in percentages. “The demolition, the first stage in [Gaza City’s] renewal, we have already done. Now we need to build. “There is a business plan, put together by the most professional people here, that is on President Trump’s desk.” He added that the proposal would “pay for itself” and that he has “already started negotiations with the Americans”. The existence of such a plan has not been confirmed by the White House or State Department. Smotrich has long been an advocate of Israeli settlement in Gaza and has suggested that the IDF should occupy parts of the Strip to facilitate the process. He also told Ofek, a Religious Zionism-affiliated outlet, last month that he was working to re-establish the Ganim and Kadim settlements in the West Bank, which were dismantled as part of the 2005 disengagement from Gaza. And, in July, he spoke at a Knesset conference entitled “The Gaza Riviera – from vision to reality” and called for Gaza to become “an inseparable part of the State of Israel”. However, it now appears that the Trump-backed “Gaza Riviera” plan, which would see Gaza’s population transferred to a third country while the Strip was redeveloped, has been shelved. A new report from the Times of Israel suggests that Washington has given the green light to the Tony Blair Institute (TBI) to implement its own “day after” plan. Instead of the so-called “Trump Riviera”, which was outlined by the president earlier this year, the TBI scheme reportedly involves the creation of a Property Rights Preservation Unit, which would secure Gazans’ right to remain in the territory. “We do not have a plan to move the Gazan population out of Gaza. Gaza is for Gazans,” one source is reported to have said. The plan would also see the establishment of a Gaza International Transitional Authority (GITA), which would govern the Strip for an indeterminate period, after which control would be handed over to the Palestinian Authority (PA). Blair reportedly met PA President Mahmoud Abbas in July to hammer out the details of the transition, and Ramallah is said to have “engaged constructively” with the proposals. An Israeli delegation is reported to have been similarly accepting, though the Times of Israel’s source suggested that Prime Minister Netanyahu is still seen as a potential hurdle given his fierce public opposition to any PA involvement in Gaza’s future.