If President Donald Trump wants to spend trillions turning Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East,” there’s the “Riviera of the Midwest” that needs some tending. A good billion dollars should be enough to transform empty lots and fallow fields along Lake County’s shoreline into a flashy mecca.
That is if Trump is serious about the U.S. taking over the Gaza Strip and turning it into a resort destination for the rich and famous as he suggested last week at the White House while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who backs the proposal, stood nearby. Trump also suggested American troops might be needed if the U.S. wants to use the 141-square-mile territory for development.
After the president — known for his building skills in numerous regions across the globe prior to his presidential terms — floated this trial balloon, members of his administration have spelled out there is no true commitment to putting U.S. troops, possibly battalions of Army engineers or Navy Seabees, in Gaza to remove Palestinians and raze the uninhabitable rubble left from repeated Israeli bombings during the past year while battling Hamas terrorists.
Was the president just continuing to chum the waters of official Washington?
If changing the Gaza Strip’s 25-mile-long beachfront along the Mediterranean Sea into a jet-set destination complete with golf courses with plenty of sand traps, and providing new towns for some two million displaced Palestinians, then the “Lake Illinois” shoreline, as Gov. JB Pritzker has christened Lake Michigan, from Zion south to North Chicago surely deserves consideration. It should be included as part of Trump’s “America First” pledge made during the runup to last fall’s presidential election.
The first Waukegan mayor, Robert Sabonjian, dubbed the city’s then-industrialized Lake Michigan lakefront with the potential to be the “Riviera of the Midwest.” With the largesse of federal money, let’s enlarge that footprint to include the lake’s shoreline to include the tri-cities for a continuous string of commerce.
Sabonjian was mayor from 1957 to 1977, and again from 1985 to 1989. Like other Waukegan mayors, he saw the potential of development on property abutting Lake Michigan. His son, also named Robert, was mayor from 2009 to 2013.
The Waukegan Harbor area, with significant marina facilities, already is a popular spot for recreational boating and fishing. Just think what the infusion of a mere billion dollars of federal funding would do to jumpstart development.
That type of cash could introduce a grand mixture of low- and high-rise housing, retail and restaurants, sharing vistas of the Big Lake with a series of interspersed open lands, parks and trails. Even Elon Musk, our shadow president, and his Musketeer followers (or do you prefer Muskrats?) should be able to see a future lakefront flanked by majestic structures if the U.S. will be dishing out funds to develop Gaza. Perhaps done via the Department of Magical Thinking, which could replace the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Bringing development to the lakefront, with Waukegan being the linchpin, should be in line for Trump funding, although some don’t believe him calling for a U.S. takeover of Gaza is realistic. Like 10th District Congressman Brad Schneider, D-Highland Park.
“President Trump’s proposal to forcibly remove two million Gazans is not just unworkable — it is immoral and illegal,” Schneider said in a statement last week. “Mass displacement violates fundamental human rights, international law, and the very values for which the U.S. and Israel stand.”
Schneider pointed out that such “population transfers,” aka “ethnic cleansing,” bring suffering and long-term insecurity. He called on the administration to work with regional allies and European partners to help rebuild Gaza, “in a way that ensures lasting security for Israel, dignity for Palestinians and stability for the broader region.”
Democrats aren’t the only ones to question the wisdom of occupying Gaza. “I think it’s a really dumb idea to talk about having U.S. troops in Gaza. It’s the last place on Earth I’d send U.S. troops and I won’t support it,” said U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky. Echoed Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, “The idea of Americans going in on the ground in Gaza is a nonstarter for every senator.”
As for the Palestinians, U.N. representative Riyad Mansour said they won’t be leaving. “There is no power on Earth that can remove the Palestinian people from our ancestral homeland, including Gaza,” he said.
That isn’t a problem if Trump wants to issue funding to develop the “Riviera of the Midwest.” Few houses exist close to the lakefront sites that are ripe for rejuvenation, so displacing people wouldn’t be a problem.
Like in Gaza, developers would be lining up to break ground on the lakefront. Let’s make it happen in our own backyard.
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Charles Selle is a former News-Sun reporter, political editor and editor.
X: @sellenews