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Trump to Open Middle East Peace Drive With Economic Conference Trump to Open Middle East Peace Drive With Economic Incentives
(about 3 hours later)
WASHINGTON — The White House announced on Sunday that it would hold an “economic workshop” in Bahrain near the end of June to produce strategies for developing the Palestinian communities and other parts of the Arab world as part of President Trump’s Middle East peace plan. WASHINGTON — After more than two years of study and deliberation, President Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, have decided to take a businessman’s approach to Middle East peace: They will try to buy their way to a deal.
On Sunday, Mr. Trump and Mr. Kushner finally opened their long-awaited drive for what the president has called “the deal of the century” by announcing that the United States would hold an “economic workshop” in Bahrain next month to produce strategies to invest in the Palestinians and other Arabs.
The idea is to secure financial commitments from wealthy Persian Gulf states as well as donors in Europe and Asia to induce the Palestinians and their allies to make political concessions to resolve the decades-old conflict with Israel. The White House has indicated that it is seeking tens of billions of dollars but would not identify a precise figure; diplomats and lawmakers have been told the goal is about $68 billion for the Palestinians, Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon.
“This workshop is a pivotal opportunity to convene government, civil society and business leaders to share ideas, discuss strategies and galvanize support for potential economic investments and initiatives that could be made possible by a peace agreement,” the White House said in a statement.“This workshop is a pivotal opportunity to convene government, civil society and business leaders to share ideas, discuss strategies and galvanize support for potential economic investments and initiatives that could be made possible by a peace agreement,” the White House said in a statement.
The conference, to be held in the Bahraini capital, Manama, on June 25 and 26, would effectively open the first stage of Mr. Trump’s peace plan, which has been developed by Jared Kushner, his son-in-law and senior adviser, and Jason Greenblatt, another top adviser. The administration hopes to focus first on economic opportunity before disclosing its proposals for political changes. In effect, Mr. Trump and Mr. Kushner have decided to introduce their much-anticipated peace plan in stages, starting with the economic component to show the possible benefits of peace and build credibility with the Palestinians, who have broken off discussions with the United States after the president’s pro-Israel moves.
Only then would the administration move on to the political elements of its yet-to-be-released plan, developed by Mr. Kushner and Jason Greenblatt, the president’s adviser. By most indications, the plan would not involve the creation of a Palestinian state, as the United States has sought for the last quarter-century under presidents of both political parties.
But just as they have done in their sometimes highly leveraged real estate businesses, Mr. Trump and Mr. Kushner hope to use other people’s money to achieve their goals. The vast bulk of the funds they hope to generate as part of the plan would come from other nations, not the United States.
Indeed, the Trump administration has over the last two years moved in the opposite direction, cutting off aid from the United States to the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza because, as the president once put it, Americans “get no appreciation or respect” in response.
Administration officials have said that does not mean the United States would not be willing to invest again in the Palestinians, but only after political changes that could foster peace with Israel.
The challenges inherent in Mr. Trump’s emerging approach were evident even in Sunday’s announcement of the economic conference. Administration officials would not identify who would attend or even say whether invitations were sent to the Palestinian Authority, which rules the West Bank, or the Israeli government.
Moreover, Bahrain, the host of the forum, is at odds with nearby Qatar, which has been one of the main funders of the Palestinians for years. Bahrain, along with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, has severed diplomatic relations with Qatar and imposed a blockade on the small state, leaving unclear whether it would participate in any economic initiative.
The international community has held economic meetings to benefit the Palestinians before without leading to peace, and veterans of past negotiations and analysts have expressed deep skepticism that Mr. Trump’s effort will gain traction.
“‘Avoiding the political issues that have made peace so elusive’, of course, is not a peace plan,” Daniel B. Shapiro, a former United States ambassador to Israel under President Barack Obama, wrote on Twitter on Sunday.
Aaron David Miller, a former Middle East negotiator under Republican and Democratic presidents, said the plan was “necessary but not sufficient” and that if the United States could have bought peace in the Middle East through economic development, it would have done so before.
“The proverbial cart is before the horse,” Mr. Miller said. “What makes any plan attractive is the package. And where are they on statehood and Jerusalem? They can now delay that piece having thrown up economic chaff.” But “they lose, not gain, leverage by sequencing this.”
Tamara Cofman Wittes of the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution said it was like selling apartments for a skyscraper for which there were not yet architectural plans.
“The risk of releasing an economic vision without the accompanying political vision is that it will smell to many Palestinians, and perhaps others in the region, like another attempt to buy off core Palestinian demands,” she said. “This may sour the environment for any political plan if and when one is released.”
Mr. Trump is not expected to attend the Bahrain conference since he will be heading that week to Japan for a meeting of the Group of 20 economic powers. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin appears set to lead the American delegation, and other nations will be represented by finance ministers, rather than foreign ministers, to emphasize the economic focus.
“I look forward to these important discussions about a vision that will offer Palestinians exciting new opportunities to realize their full potential,” Mr. Mnuchin said in the White House statement. “This workshop will engage leaders from across the entire Middle East to promote economic growth and opportunity for the people in this important region.”
Mr. Trump and his team have built strong relations with Saudi Arabia and other gulf states, which they hope to make the foundation of their peace effort. But neither of the two main antagonists appears to be in a political position conducive to casting aside longstanding enmities to forge a deal.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel pivoted even further to the right before his recent election and vowed to begin annexing parts of the West Bank. His emerging coalition will be even more right-wing and religious than the last one, which might make peacemaking even more difficult.
As for Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, he has already declared that the Trump administration is not a neutral broker who can negotiate peace because the president has tilted so strongly to Israel’s side.
In addition to cutting aid, Mr. Trump has ordered the American Embassy moved to Jerusalem, folded the consulate charged with dealing with the Palestinians into the embassy and closed the Palestinian office in Washington.
Moreover, the Palestinians themselves are divided between the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and the Hamas militant group that governs Gaza.
The announcement of the Bahrain conference, however, could assist Mr. Netanyahu in breaking the logjam in putting together his postelection governing coalition. Different factions have been holding out, but Mr. Netanyahu could use the conference as an incentive to get Moshe Kahlon, the finance minister who apparently wants to keep his job, to sign on, which could then lead to others joining the alliance.