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| Jared Kushner, Trump's MidEast Architect. |
Trump's Middle East Initiative - Jonathan Tobin
[I]t is almost certain the president will be denied the satisfaction of brokering a deal that eluded his predecessors. Under the current circumstances, Palestinian leadership and the political culture that sustains them simply won’t allow it. But that is not the only way to look at the Trump/Kushner plan.
[B]y sticking to a plan that puts economics first and refusing to prioritize pandering to Palestinian intransigence, as all his successors have done, Trump is creating a template for peace that makes sense. Even more to the point, it is being welcomed by most of the Arab world.
That means that even after they torpedo progress toward peace next month, as they have done every other time an effort has been made to end the conflict, it will be the Palestinians who will be more isolated than ever, not the United States. To the contrary, by convening an economic summit in which Israelis and representatives from Arab states will openly work toward creating greater cooperation, Trump will have enhanced America’s standing in the region.
[B]y shifting the discussion away from Palestinians’ inability to break free from their century-old war on Zionism toward achievable economic objectives, Trump will have still accomplished something important. It will also be more than Barack Obama did during the eight long years of bashing Israel and appeasing the Palestinians.
As futile as their quest seems, Kushner’s plan is also a breath of fresh air after decades of American efforts to accommodate the Palestinians’ unwillingness to admit that they’ve lost their long war against Zionism.
[T]he economic incentives on the table may, especially if they are backed by the Arab states that are sick of Abbas’s slippery refusal to negotiate, have a long-term impact on the conflict. That doesn’t mean that Saudi Arabia or any other of those other nations that will go to Bahrain will endorse Trump’s plan. But it does mean they are on board with changing the way peace is discussed in a way that will further isolate Fatah and Hamas after they refuse to negotiate.
The Sunni Arab states look to both the United States and Israel as allies in their struggle against Iran’s quest for regional hegemony. The notion that they will blame Trump for trying to make a peace that Palestinians will only again reject is absurd. When the dust settles from the rollout of the American plan, the Arab states will be firmly in America’s corner no matter what the Palestinians do.
(The Federalist)
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The Bahrain Economic Confab Is a Big Step Forward - Raphael Ahren
It's true that the U.S.-Bahraini economic "workshop" on June 25-26, billed as the first step in rolling out the U.S. peace plan, is unlikely to lead to a breakthrough in the long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process. But the mere fact that the peace proposal's rollout will take place in an Arab capital is nothing less than a sensation.
Moreover, it is worth highlighting that this first major parley on the planned U.S. path to Israeli-Palestinian peace is to be focused solely on the interests of one side. The meeting is devoted to the Palestinians' economic well-being.
Kushner and Greenblatt promised to publish a blueprint for what they think is a fair and feasible solution to the problem. It's quite likely that they themselves have never believed that ending a century-old conflict in an instant is possible.
Regardless of how the Palestinians will react to the peace plan (they will reject it), Bahrain's willingness to host the "Peace to Prosperity" summit strongly indicates that the Arab world is more inclined to normalize ties with Israel than some may think.
(Times of Israel)
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