Carrying out such a proposal is strongly opposed by Egypt as well as by Jordan. Cairo has pushed back on accepting Palestinian refugees out of security concerns. Militants could target Israel from Egyptian soil, inviting Israeli retaliation, or be recruited into the local insurgency in Sinai.
At the same time, Jordan’s monarchy has a tense history with militant Palestinian factions.
The far right in Israel has long maintained that Palestinians forced out of Gaza and the West Bank should resettle in Jordan. Accepting Palestinians from Gaza would raise concerns among Jordanians that Israel would then try to push people out of the West Bank.
“Obviously the king cannot take those people,” said James Jeffrey, Mr. Trump’s former Syria envoy. “This is an existential issue for him.”
“This would be a regime killer,” Mr. Jeffrey said.
The Jordanian king himself could try to make the case that the forced displacement of Palestinians would destabilize the Middle East region and complicate the United States’ efforts to get Saudi Arabia to join Mr. Trump’s 2020 Abraham Accords, which established formal ties between Israel and four Arab countries.
But Jordan, like Egypt, is also among top recipients of U.S. military aid, providing Mr. Trump leverage in his dialogue with King Abdullah.
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