U.S. pushes Middle East economic plan in face of Palestinian disdain and doubts

[snoop1130]

U.S. pushes Middle East economic plan in face of Palestinian disdain and doubts

by Matt Spetalnick

 

A Palestinian demonstrator gestures as he chants slogans during a protest against Bahrain's workshop for U.S. Middle East peace plan, in Gaza City, June 26, 2019. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

 

MANAMA (Reuters) - The Trump administration sought on Wednesday to win support for an economic plan it says will be a foundation for Israeli-Palestinian peace but which Palestinians and many other Arabs dismiss as pointless without a political solution to the decades-old conflict.

 

U.S. President Donald Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner opened a international meeting in Bahrain on Tuesday evening by urging Palestinians, whose leadership is boycotting the event, to think outside the “traditional box” for an economic pathway that he said was a precondition for peace.

 

International Monetary Fund managing director, Christine Lagarde, told the first panel session that the Fund’s experience in conflict-riven countries around the world showed it can be a struggle to generate economic growth in such an environment.

 

Neither the Israeli nor Palestinian governments are attending the event. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a close Trump ally, said Israel was open to the proposal.

 

In Gaza on Tuesday, the Islamist group Hamas and its rival Fatah movement of President Mahmoud Abbas convened a gathering of leaders and activists in a rare show of unity to voice their rejection of the Manama conference.

 

Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh criticized Arab states participating in the workshop, which 300 delegates are attending including Israeli and Palestinian businessmen.

 

The conference aimed to finish off the Palestinian cause under the cover of economic and financial benefits, he said.

 

 

“The (Palestinian) people, who have been fighting for one hundred years, did not commission anyone to concede or to bargain. Jerusalem is ours, the land is ours, and everything is ours,” Haniyeh said.

 

Although U.S. allies Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates discreetly support the plan, several Arab states, such as Lebanon, have stayed away while others including Jordan and Egypt, the two Arab nations that have reached peace with Israel, have sent deputy ministers.

 

The presence of Sunni Muslim Gulf states in Manama showed they want to encourage closer ties to Israelis - with whom they share a common foe in Shi’ite Iran - that have largely been under the table, said David Makovsky, a U.S.-based Middle East expert attending the event.

 

“(But) it’s clear they won’t bypass the Palestinians and do anything they don’t want,” he told Reuters.

 

(GRAPHIC: Milestones in Trump's Palestinian policy - tmsnrt.rs/2FtJXGi)

 

HARD SELL

 

Washington hopes wealthy Gulf oil producers will bankroll the plan, which expects donor nations and investors to contribute $50 billion to Palestinian and neighboring Arab state economies.

 

Saudi minister of state Mohammed Al-Sheikh told the panel that Kushner’s plan was bolstered by inclusion of the private sector as a similar proposal, relying heavily on state funding, had been attempted during the Oslo interim peace deals of the 1990s that eventually collapsed.

 

“While I accept that peace is essential, back then it was the hope of peace that got them actually excited and moving,” Al-Sheikh said.

 

But the “economy first” approach toward reviving the moribund peace process could be a hard sell as the political details of the plan, almost two years in the making, remain secret.

 

On Tuesday Riyadh reiterated that any peace deal should be based on a Saudi-led Arab peace initiative that calls for a Palestinian state drawn along borders which predate Israel’s capture of territory in the 1967 Middle East war, as well as a capital in East Jerusalem and refugees’ right of return - points rejected by Israel.

 

Kushner said on Monday the plan would not adhere to the Arab initiative.

 

It is not clear whether the Trump team plans to abandon the “two-state solution”, which involves creation of an independent Palestinian state living side-by-side with Israel.

 

The United Nations and most countries back the two-state solution, which has underpinned every peace plan for decades, but Trump’s team has consistently refused to commit to it.

 

Any solution must settle long-standing issues such as the status of Jerusalem, mutually agreed borders, Israel’s security concerns, Palestinian demands for statehood, and the fate of Israel’s settlements and military presence in territory where Palestinians want to build that state.

 

Palestinian leaders are refusing to engage with the White House, accusing it of pro-Israel bias. Breaking with the international consensus, Trump in 2017 recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, infuriating the Palestinians and other Arabs.

 

ACROSS THE GREAT DIVIDE

 

The IMF says unemployment stands at 30% in the West Bank and 50% in Gaza, the economy of which has suffered years of Israeli and Egyptian blockades as well as recent foreign aid cuts and sanctions by the Palestinian Authority, Hamas’ rival in the Israeli-occupied West bank.

 

Among the 179 proposed infrastructure and business projects is a $5 billion transportation corridor to connect the West Bank and Gaza, according to documents reviewed by Reuters. Some of them have been floated before and stalled for lack of underlying political or security agreements.

 

“The economic vision has to be linked to resolving the entire conflict, and this doesn’t bring the Israelis and Palestinians any closer together. So I’m not optimistic this plan can materialize anytime soon,” Makovsky said.

 

Even at a break between sessions in Bahrain, differences between the two sides of the Israeli-Arab divide could be seen.

 

Israeli businessman Shlomi Fogel was in conversation with a UAE businesswoman. Asked for their views on Kushner’s approach of tackling economic issues first, Fogel said: “If we wait for the politicians, it will take forever. We could do parts of this economic plan with the right support.”

 

The Dubai-based businesswoman suggested, however, that the plan was too ambitious to be put into effect anytime soon.

 

“There were efforts like Oslo that didn’t work out - and that was because of the Israelis,” she said. “You can’t assume the economics will work if the politics don’t move.”

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-06-26

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[spidermike007]

As usual, the big Kush is living on another planet with a total disconnect to reality. One wonders if he has ever met or talked to a Palestinian. The plan is severely flawed. If this is the best this administration can do, peace in the Middle East is hopeless. 

 

Using him as an advisor and representative is a bottom of the barrel choice. 

[Morch]

37 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

As usual, the big Kush is living on another planet with a total disconnect to reality. One wonders if he has ever met or talked to a Palestinian. The plan is severely flawed. If this is the best this administration can do, peace in the Middle East is hopeless. 

 

Using him as an advisor and representative is a bottom of the barrel choice. 

 

Of course he met and talked to Palestinians. It's a matter of record. Can't say this seems to apply to most posters participating in these topics. Instead of putting up inane comments, one could wonder if Kushner learned anything from these meetings and talks.

 

The plan, or at least the part of it presented so far, is unrealistic on several fronts. I would wager that the political part, to be disclosed later on, will be of similar quality.

 

Saying that peace in the Middle East is hopeless, because an obviously flawed administration failed to deliver, doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Doubt many seriously expect a different outcome, or for that matter, that prospects for peace were high before Trump.

 

As for the bottom of the barrel, no.

That would be someone like the Trump-appointed USA ambassador to Israel.

[candide]

1 hour ago, spidermike007 said:

As usual, the big Kush is living on another planet with a total disconnect to reality. One wonders if he has ever met or talked to a Palestinian. The plan is severely flawed. If this is the best this administration can do, peace in the Middle East is hopeless. 

 

Using him as an advisor and representative is a bottom of the barrel choice. 

One possible interpretation is that it is another communication campaign à la Trump aimed at the domestic public opinion. Does Trump really care if it works or not as long as he is seen as doing something? Then it will be easy to put the blame on Palestinians for not accepting a 'generous' plan (with money provided by others, lol) which will likely comfort possible annexion initiatives by Israel.

From this perspective, it's not that stupid.

Edited June 27, 2019 by candide

[jany123]

1 hour ago, spidermike007 said:

As usual, the big Kush is living on another planet with a total disconnect to reality. One wonders if he has ever met or talked to a Palestinian. The plan is severely flawed. If this is the best this administration can do, peace in the Middle East is hopeless. 

 

Using him as an advisor and representative is a bottom of the barrel choice. 

With a peace plan so diametrically opposed to any acceptable Palestinian version, one could indeed be excused for wondering if the kush had ever met a Palestinian. If he has, then he obviously didn’t have his ears turned on

 

moving forward, successive negotiators can always point to the Kush version, and claim all kinds of superiority... maybe that’s a plus for the K. Version... there’s your bottom most goal post chaps. Let’s try for something in the middle, shall we.

 

anyway.... I’m pretty sure as much effort was put into selecting the Kush for the job, as has been put into appeasing Palestine (bugger all), which should have been a determining factor in every phase of this proposal, even its rollout, which has no political recognition for a political problem.... so I’m sure that the deal was expected and designed (even if thru stupidity vs decision making),  to fail.

[spidermike007]

4 minutes ago, jany123 said:

With a peace plan so diametrically opposed to any acceptable Palestinian version, one could indeed be excused for wondering if the kush had ever met a Palestinian. If he has, then he obviously didn’t have his ears turned on

 

moving forward, successive negotiators can always point to the Kush version, and claim all kinds of superiority... maybe that’s a plus for the K. Version... there’s your bottom most goal post chaps. Let’s try for something in the middle, shall we.

 

anyway.... I’m pretty sure as much effort was put into selecting the Kush for the job, as has been put into appeasing Palestine (bugger all), which should have been a determining factor in every phase of this proposal, even its rollout, which has no political recognition for a political problem.... so I’m sure that the deal was expected and designed (even if thru stupidity vs decision making),  to fail.

Incompetents creating failed and dumb policy. One thing you can always count on with Trump. He will always select the least qualified and lowest quality choice, when it comes to hiring and appointments. And the results, ladies and gentlemen? 

 

Failed negotiations. Failed summits. Coddled dictators. Alienated allies. Trade wars. And possibly a real war with a tough adversary. 

[jany123]

Just now, spidermike007 said:

 

Failed negotiations. Failed summits. Coddled dictators. Alienated allies. Trade wars. And possibly a real war with a tough adversary. 

Crazy stuff, but what’s cracking me up at the moment is the concept of 19 “mini me” summits between the trump and the representatives of the other G20 nations, because the trump likes to do one on one negotiations. (Or is incapable of being a part of a Group)

 

makes me think of a comic con convention stall. ????

[jany123]

18 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Washington hopes wealthy Gulf oil producers will bankroll the plan, which expects donor nations and investors to contribute $50 billion to Palestinian and neighboring Arab state economies.

Meanwhile, I see Kushner is being criminally investigated for bank fraud..... yep.... real bottom of the barrel stuff being placed in charge of raising money

 

i pity those fools who go looking in that barrel for any money

[Pedrogaz]

This is probably the most useless "plan" ever. How can you present a plan between two parties when one of them, the Palestinians have never seen it, let alone bought into it. This was a failure of politics where everything is choreographed...the idiots knew what was going to happen....for god's sake even Saudi didn't back it...and they are Don and Kushner's best friends (after Israel, of course.  Israel and the US have both have the same ME policy, so they both loved and backed the plan, obviously assuming everybody else would love it too.

[Pedrogaz]

3 hours ago, Morch said:

 

Of course he met and talked to Palestinians. It's a matter of record. Can't say this seems to apply to most posters participating in these topics. Instead of putting up inane comments, one could wonder if Kushner learned anything from these meetings and talks.

 

The plan, or at least the part of it presented so far, is unrealistic on several fronts. I would wager that the political part, to be disclosed later on, will be of similar quality.

 

Saying that peace in the Middle East is hopeless, because an obviously flawed administration failed to deliver, doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Doubt many seriously expect a different outcome, or for that matter, that prospects for peace were high before Trump.

 

As for the bottom of the barrel, no.

That would be someone like the Trump-appointed USA ambassador to Israel.

Where is the record that Kushner discussed the plan with the Palestinians? R=There is none, because he didn't.

[Pedrogaz]

3 hours ago, jany123 said:

With a peace plan so diametrically opposed to any acceptable Palestinian version, one could indeed be excused for wondering if the kush had ever met a Palestinian. If he has, then he obviously didn’t have his ears turned on

 

moving forward, successive negotiators can always point to the Kush version, and claim all kinds of superiority... maybe that’s a plus for the K. Version... there’s your bottom most goal post chaps. Let’s try for something in the middle, shall we.

 

anyway.... I’m pretty sure as much effort was put into selecting the Kush for the job, as has been put into appeasing Palestine (bugger all), which should have been a determining factor in every phase of this proposal, even its rollout, which has no political recognition for a political problem.... so I’m sure that the deal was expected and designed (even if thru stupidity vs decision making),  to fail.

The plan was designed not to be accepted....so the US can say, look they are being intransigent, keep on committing those atrocities and war crimes Israel, the Palestinians obviously don't want peace. 

[spidermike007]

2 hours ago, Pedrogaz said:

The plan was designed not to be accepted....so the US can say, look they are being intransigent, keep on committing those atrocities and war crimes Israel, the Palestinians obviously don't want peace. 

Could be. It was certainly designed to be unpalatable to the Palestinians. 

 

How do you create more investment and manufacturing when Israel does not allow them free passage back and forth, heavily restricts movement of trucks and freight and represses the Palestinians in a fashion as heinous as, and comparable to South African Apartheid? 

 

Don't call me a Jew hater. Or an anti-semite. That gets really old. I am Jewish. I retain the right to be critical of Israeli policy. LOL. 

[from the home of CC]

2 hours ago, Pedrogaz said:

Where is the record that Kushner discussed the plan with the Palestinians? R=There is none, because he didn't.

this was the only reference I could find but apparently he's not a rep lol

 

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/miriamberger/ashraf-jabari-palestine-profile-kushner-peace-conference

 

have to remind myself that people will say anything anonymously... 

[Morch]

2 hours ago, Pedrogaz said:

Where is the record that Kushner discussed the plan with the Palestinians? R=There is none, because he didn't.

 

I never claimed Kushner discussed the plan with the Palestinians.

The comment I responded to was "One wonders if he has ever met or talked to a Palestinian."

That he did, is a matter of record. Such meeting were even the topics of past topics on this forum.

 

Kushner meets Abbas, Netanyahu to try to restart talks

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/08/kushner-meets-abbas-netanyahu-restart-talks-170825015417094.html

 

I have no idea if the current plan was discussed. But pretty sure it wasn't all just small talk either:

 

Abbas says Kushner explored forming a Palestinian-Jordanian confederacy

https://www.axios.com/jared-kushner-mahmoud-abbas-palestine-jordan-peace-plan-0896dbce-c27e-4582-8bc6-1253e5261ecf.html

 

 

[Morch]

21 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

Could be. It was certainly designed to be unpalatable to the Palestinians. 

 

How do you create more investment and manufacturing when Israel does not allow them free passage back and forth, heavily restricts movement of trucks and freight and represses the Palestinians in a fashion as heinous as, and comparable to South African Apartheid? 

 

Don't call me a Jew hater. Or an anti-semite. That gets really old. I am Jewish. I retain the right to be critical of Israeli policy. LOL. 

 

And, of course, none of Israel's policies got anything to do with the Palestinians'. The South Africa nonsense is dully noted. Obviously, no one called you anything of the sort.

 

[Morch]

14 minutes ago, from the home of CC said:

this was the only reference I could find but apparently he's not a rep lol

 

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/miriamberger/ashraf-jabari-palestine-profile-kushner-peace-conference

 

have to remind myself that people will say anything anonymously... 

 

You weren't looking very hard. Kushner & Co. met with many relevant PA officials. Granted, most of this was prior to Trump moving the USA embassy, and the Palestinians later on pretty much cutting off relations.

[metisdead]

A troll post using a trolling representation of Kushner's name has been removed.  If you do not want your post to be removed, spell people's names correctly. 

[dexterm]

It's a very strange way of making a monumental peace deal for a conflict that has lasted a century.

 

Kushner: Here are some possible benefits before I tell you what the actual political deal is. It's sort of putting the cart before the horse when Trump has already shot the horse by pre-empting what were supposed to be so many final status decisions, and Kushner hinting that a two state solution is now off the table too.

 

Could be another attempt at Oslo Accords scenario..simply trust the USA  again for another 30 years: so many promises that just proved to be a smoke screen/charade for Israel to expand its illegal occupation further.

 

If an economic package will improve Palestinians' lives and have a calming effect on the conflict ... good. May make for a more conducive negotiating atmosphere.

 

But if it has so many strings attached such as total capitulation to Israel as the Jewish only state and your masters, forget having your own state, return of refugees, Jerusalem as your capital and if you dont accept that then the whole package is cancelled, then it wasn't philanthropic in the first place ; it was just a cheap bribe to get the Palestinians to roll over.

 

I could be pleasantly surprised that the political solution is some sort of equitable confederation where both peoples share the land within an appropriate secure and balanced political framework, but I doubt it. Israel wouldn't be so enthusiastic about that and they are already privy to the political deal whereas the Palestinians still have not been informed.

 

Maybe we will find out in a few months time. Maybe the political component will never see the light of day after the current poor reception to his economic package.

Edited June 27, 2019 by dexterm

[Morch]

2 hours ago, dexterm said:

It's a very strange way of making a monumental peace deal for a conflict that has lasted a century.

 

Kushner: Here are some possible benefits before I tell you what the actual political deal is. It's sort of putting the cart before the horse when Trump has already shot the horse by pre-empting what were supposed to be so many final status decisions, and Kushner hinting that a two state solution is now off the table too.

 

Could be another attempt at Oslo Accords scenario..simply trust the USA  again for another 30 years: so many promises that just proved to be a smoke screen/charade for Israel to expand its illegal occupation further.

 

If an economic package will improve Palestinians' lives and have a calming effect on the conflict ... good. May make for a more conducive negotiating atmosphere.

 

But if it has so many strings attached such as total capitulation to Israel as the Jewish only state and your masters, forget having your own state, return of refugees, Jerusalem as your capital and if you dont accept that then the whole package is cancelled, then it wasn't philanthropic in the first place ; it was just a cheap bribe to get the Palestinians to roll over.

 

I could be pleasantly surprised that the political solution is some sort of equitable confederation where both peoples share the land within an appropriate secure and balanced political framework, but I doubt it. Israel wouldn't be so enthusiastic about that and they are already privy to the political deal whereas the Palestinians still have not been informed.

 

Maybe we will find out in a few months time. Maybe the political component will never see the light of day after the current poor reception to his economic package.

 

Trump "preempting...many final status decisions", the two-state solution being "off the table", and the Oslo Accords bit are your own interpretations and versions of events and things said. Presenting them as facts doesn't make them such.

 

Investment on such scale will come with strings attached. It's folly to think otherwise. One of the most obvious ones would be cessation of attacks against Israel. Another would be toning down the rhetoric.

 

I have no idea what's included in the political part of this plan. And not holding my breath that it will prove helpful. But if the list of "unacceptable" things you push was to be adopted, it would pretty much make negotiations an exercise is futility.

 

You paint the economic part of this peace plan as an either/or thing. I think (to the extent I take this plan seriously) it can be somewhere in-between. That's how such things often are. Something is expected to be given in return - one way or another.

 

As far as I'm aware, Israel (and especially the Israeli political right) aren't "enthusiastic" when it comes to the plan. It already implies more concessions then some of them would like to accept.

 

[Munsterman]

I saw someone describe Trump/Netanyahu/Kushner's Palestinian Plan as the equivalent of a "paedophile offering candy to kids from the back of a van". Obviously Israel and the US has been softening up the Palestinians economically for a few years (destruction of Gaza, de-funding of UNWRA, closing of the Palestinian delegation in Washington etc etc), and thought throwing a couple of coins at them would do the trick. That they expected an "economic solution" without addressing the context of military occupation indicates the extent of idiocy in the Trump administration. Even avid Israeli supporters like Tony Blair were embarassed at being forced to attend Kushner's little picnic.

[Morch]

4 hours ago, Munsterman said:

I saw someone describe Trump/Netanyahu/Kushner's Palestinian Plan as the equivalent of a "paedophile offering candy to kids from the back of a van". Obviously Israel and the US has been softening up the Palestinians economically for a few years (destruction of Gaza, de-funding of UNWRA, closing of the Palestinian delegation in Washington etc etc), and thought throwing a couple of coins at them would do the trick. That they expected an "economic solution" without addressing the context of military occupation indicates the extent of idiocy in the Trump administration. Even avid Israeli supporters like Tony Blair were embarassed at being forced to attend Kushner's little picnic.

 

I kinda think that quoted description is your own, and even if it was real, the equivalency would still be questionable.

 

The situation in Gaza predates Trump's presidency, and Israeli politicians were caught somewhat off-guard with the two other examples mentioned. Doubt the conspiracy view offered is quite how things unfolded.