US to roll out economic part of Mideast peace plan
By Deb Riechmann and Matthew Lee
Associated Press
May 19, 2019
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration will unveil the first phase of its long-awaited blueprint for Mideast peace next month at a conference in the region designed to highlight economic benefits that could be reaped if the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is resolved, the White House said Sunday.
The plan, which has been two years in the making, envisions large-scale investment and infrastructure work in the Palestinian territories. But the central political elements remain mostly unknown. And the economic workshop, June 25-26 in Bahrain, will not address the most contentious parts of the conflict: borders, the status of Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees and Israel’s security.
In a joint statement with Bahrain, the White House said the workshop will give government, civil and business leaders a chance to gather support for economic initiatives that could be possible with a peace agreement.
The U.S. wants to ensure security for Israel and economic opportunity to improve the lives of Palestinians. The administration hopes that Arab countries will help bankroll economic incentives, such as infrastructure and industrial projects, to get Palestinians to buy into the plan. But with details of the political aspects of the plan still under wraps, any commitments for economic development won’t be easily attained.
“The Palestinian people, along with all people in the Middle East, deserve a future with dignity and the opportunity to better their lives,” President Donald Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, said in a statement Sunday. “Economic progress can only be achieved with a solid economic vision and if the core political issues are resolved.”
Kushner and Jason Greenblatt, envoy of international negotiations, have been leading efforts to write the plan, but so far, there’s been no participation from the Palestinians. The Palestinian Authority, which has complained that the White House favors Israel, severed ties with the Trump administration following several actions targeting them.
Trump closed the Palestinian diplomatic mission in Washington, saying the Palestinians refused to engage in peace talks with Israel. The U.S. stopped funding the U.N. agency that helps Palestinian refugees, slashing hundreds of millions of dollars in aid for projects in the West Bank and Gaza and cutting funding to hospitals in Jerusalem that serve Palestinians. Trump also recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and moved the U.S. Embassy there from Tel Aviv.
The Palestinians’ demand that Israel fully withdraw from all territories it occupies. Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want those territories for a future state. They also seek the right of refugees to return to the lands and the recognition of east Jerusalem as the capital of an independent Palestine. It’s an open question as to whether the Palestinians will exchange some or all of their demands for the prospect of economic prosperity.
In an interview last month with The Associated Press, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh likened that to “financial blackmail, which we reject.”
Kushner said it has been disheartening that the Palestinian leadership has attacked the plan before it’s unveiled.
A senior administration official told reporters that invitations to the workshop are being sent to individuals in the United States, Europe, the Gulf, the wider Arab world and “some” Palestinian business leaders. The Trump administration decided to roll out the economic and political parts of the plan separately, the official said, adding that there will be no discussion about the political aspects of the plan at the upcoming workshop.
Earlier this month, Kushner insisted that the plan he’s helped craft is a very detailed, fresh approach that he hopes will stimulate discussion and lead to a breakthrough in solving the decades-old conflict. At a think tank in Washington, Kushner described it as an “in-depth operational document” not anchored to previous, failed negotiations, high-level political concepts or stale arguments.
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‘Any Palestinian that attends Bahrain conference is a collaborator for Americans, Israel’
Israel Hayom
May 21, 2019
Palestinians will stay away from a U.S.-led conference in Bahrain next month that the Trump administration has cast as an overture to its own plan for peace between them and Israel, a Palestinian cabinet minister said on Monday.
Washington announced the conference on Sunday, describing it as an opportunity to drum up international investment for the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The Palestinians, who have boycotted the Trump administration since it recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December 2017, have shown little interest in discussing a plan which they anticipate will fall far short of their core demands.
Following a meeting of the Palestinian cabinet on Monday, Ahmed Majdalani, the social development minister and a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s executive committee, said: “There will be no Palestinian participation in the Manama workshop.”
“Any Palestinian who would take part would be nothing but a collaborator for the Americans and Israel,” he said.
Mohammad Shtayyeh reiterated Palestinians’ aspirations for a two-state peace agreement with Israel entailing control of the West Bank and Gaza – currently run by the Islamist group Hamas – as well as east Jerusalem as their future capital. Internationally mediated talks have been stalemated for years.
4 comments:
Israel itself is a rebellion against the all-mighty.
There will never be peace in the Holy land until there is the peaceful dismantling of the Zionist state and its replacement with a Palestinian state. Any rebellion against G-D is doomed to fail. No “peace plan” can ever solve the problem. When “Israel” is replaced , we can return to the days of Arabs and Jews living together in harmony, as we did for years until the creation of this demonic state. Kushner, Greenblat and many other fools before them have tried to make peace, it is doomed to fail. Ray Charles or Stevie Wonder could see this.
Mr. Cohen, I've posted all your rotten comments, but by now you have thoroughly pissed me off. Your revisionist history on the love affair between the Arabs and Jews does not fly! As someone who lost both sets of grandparents to the Nazi gas chambers and was lucky that my parents fled Germany in 1936, I take great offense to just about everything you have written.
Your Torah Jews are more dangerous to the Jewish people than are the neo-Nazis and white supremacists. You should all just go back into the dark hole that you crawled out of!
Mr. Katz, thank you for having the editorial integrity to post my comment. As someone who lost relatives in the gas chambers I can certainly relate and appreciate your concern for the Jewish people. It is precisely because of our concern for all of humanity that we speak out against Zionism and the State of “Israel”, because we know things won’t end well if we continue on this course of rebellion.
The wonderful thing about our country, the United States, is we have the freedom of speech which includes the right to disagree.
You both make valid points in my humble opinion. From a strictly Halakha point of view, the state of Israel is forbidden. Additionally, Jews and Arabs did live in relative peace and harmony until the increase in Jewish immigration. From a practical point of view, Israel is not going anywhere.
Had Israel been in existence in the late 1930's, there would not have been a holocaust, because Jews would have had a welcoming country to immigrate to, something that was not available during the run up to the holocaust. Additionally, Hasidim , or ultra orthodox views aside, others , such as Rabbi Kook, have taken the position that the establishment of a state does not violate the three oaths.
The more useful exercise would be to try to find rational, moderate Palestinian leaders so that we can have a meaningful and lasting peace, and stop this horrible suffering on both sides. While some may believe it is a fools errand, I think sooner or later the Palestinians will pick someone who can lead them to accept the fact of Israel and move them to a peaceful coexistence.
Lastly, while I respect the sincere beliefs of the Satmar Torah Jews, and under any objective measure Rabbi Teitelbaum was one of the great Torah scholars, you seem to take the position that yours is the only view that represents "True Judaism", and anyone else who dares disagree is a heretic, or not even Jewish.
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