After a wait of two and a half years, the US administration is launching its Middle East peace plan on Tuesday — with an economic initiative that the Palestinians are boycotting. For this most unconventional of US presidents, Donald Trump’s Middle East peace-making bid is unlike decades of previous US attempts.
There is no talk of land swaps, a Palestinian state or other political issues that have vexed diplomats for decades. The Trump administration says it will get to the political issues later. For now, its plan will open over cocktails and dinner Tuesday evening in Bahrain at an intimate two-day “economic workshop” at a luxury hotel overlooking the Gulf.
Led by Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner, the “Peace to Prosperity” framework dangles the prospect of USD 50 billion of investment in the Palestinian territories and neighbouring Arab countries over 10 years. Listing a slew of projects to develop roads, border crossings, power generation and tourism, the framework sets an optimistic goal of creating one million Palestinian jobs.
But the Palestinian Authority and its rival Hamas have both denounced the initiative, saying it amounts to a bid by the unabashedly pro-Israel Trump to buy them off in return for not enjoying their own state.
Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said that the Trump administration “is insinuating that they know what is best for the Palestinian people” without addressing the underlying issue of Israeli occupation.
“Such inciting campaigns aim at making the people and leadership of Palestine accept the dictations, threats and tyranny of both the US and Israel — and they are doomed to fail,” the veteran Palestinian negotiator said in a statement.