![Jared Kushner's Middle East peace plan has been rejected by the Palestinian leadership [Kevin Lamarque/Reuters]](https://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/imagecache/mbdxxlarge/mritems/Images/2019/6/22/3541a462f2bb4b8281ff4ac7ce403064_18.jpg "Palestinians reject economic part of US peace plan")
The usual suspects have all rejected this plan, yet it specifically does not address any of the known issues of contention. A complete unwillingness to develop a plan for the future that can be implemented after a political agreement is settled merely tells us that these folks have no moral credibility to ever be involved in a political agreement in the first place.
There will be no political settlement. Israel will have to continue its process of slow absorption leading ultimately to the removal of all refusniks from the West Bank and Gaza and any form of direct attachment to the Land of Israel. The Palestinian hold is crumbling and the top third of the young are surely settling elsewhere which eliminates the future leadership needed to build a society.
This will lead to diminished communities and many more exiting to join their children. It does not have to be this way, but the fact remains that Jewish colony of Israel is an established reality, as is true for just about every nation in existence. This is certainly not unique. What is unique is the failure to extract a sane deal from the situation that avoids national suicide..
As i have also posted, there is a modernist solution available, but it must be forced. The proposed transportation corridor is central to this for it to really work. Israel needs the Palestinian to be productive participants in the economy..
There will be no political settlement. Israel will have to continue its process of slow absorption leading ultimately to the removal of all refusniks from the West Bank and Gaza and any form of direct attachment to the Land of Israel. The Palestinian hold is crumbling and the top third of the young are surely settling elsewhere which eliminates the future leadership needed to build a society.
This will lead to diminished communities and many more exiting to join their children. It does not have to be this way, but the fact remains that Jewish colony of Israel is an established reality, as is true for just about every nation in existence. This is certainly not unique. What is unique is the failure to extract a sane deal from the situation that avoids national suicide..
As i have also posted, there is a modernist solution available, but it must be forced. The proposed transportation corridor is central to this for it to really work. Israel needs the Palestinian to be productive participants in the economy..
Palestinians reject economic part of US peace plan
Palestinian officials dismiss $50bn investment and infrastructure proposal, say political solution must be found first.
Jared Kushner's Middle East peace plan has been rejected by the Palestinian leadership [Kevin Lamarque/Reuters]
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/06/unveils-economic-portion-middle-east-peace-plan-190622162812890.html
US economic plan for Middle East peace process
A global investment fund of $50bn, which will cover 179 infrastructure and business projects
The US is hoping the wealthy Arab Gulf states will finance most of the $50bn
Of the total, $28bn will go to the occupied Palestinian territories of West Bank and Gaza Strip
Jordan's economy will receive $7.5bn, Egypt $9bn, and Lebanon $6bn
$15bn of the total would come from grants, $25bn in subsidised loans, and $11bn from private capital
$5bn transportation corridor to connect the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip
The United States has revealed a proposal to create a $50bn global investment fund for the Palestinians and neighbouring Arab states, designed to be the economic engine of the long-awaited US Middle East peace plan.
The plan was posted on the White House website on Saturday, two days before a US-led workshop in Bahrain where the economic portion of the so-called "deal of the century" is set to be discussed.
The Manama conference is taking place despite opposition from the Palestinians, who will not attend.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday rejected the economic plan and the US peace effort, which is led by President Donald Trump's senior adviser Jared Kushner.
"The economic situation should not be discussed before the political one," Abbas said on Saturday. "As long as there is no political solution, we do not deal with any economic solution."
'Less controversial'
Speaking to Reuters news agency, Kushner, who is also Trump's son-in-law, said the economy-first approach was "necessary" to break away from the political side, as it would be "less controversial".
"Let's let people study it, give feedback," he said. "Let's try to finalise if we can all agree on what that could look like in the event of a peace agreement."
Fundamental political issues such as the occupation of Palestinian territories, the right of return for refugees and their descendants (of which roughly five million live in refugee camps in neighbouring Arab countries) and border sovereignty were not mentioned in the plan.
Instead, the economic scheme included 179 infrastructure and business projects, a billion-dollar investment to build up the Palestinians' tourism sector, and a $5bn transportation corridor to connect the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
More than half of the $50bn would be spent in the economically troubled Palestinian territories over 10 years, while the rest would be split between Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan, according to the plan.
Some of the projects would take place in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, where investments could benefit Palestinians living in adjacent Gaza, a crowded and impoverished coastal enclave blockaded by Israel and Egypt for 12 years.
According to Kushner, the 10-year plan "would create a million jobs in the West Bank and Gaza".
"It would take their unemployment rate from about 30 percent to the single digits," he said. "It would reduce their poverty rate by half, if it's implemented correctly."
His comments drew the ire of Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) executive committee.
"First, lift the siege of Gaza, stop the Israeli theft of our land, resources and funds, give us our freedom of movement and control over our borders, airspace, territorial waters etc," she said in a post on Twitter.
"Then, watch us build a vibrant prosperous economy as a free and sovereign people."
[ this really worked for the American Indians - arclein ]
Ali Abunimah, a cofounder of Electronic Intifada, told Al Jazeera Kushner's plan is "an effort to buy Palestine for peanuts and give Palestinians nothing in exchange".
[ all the land in Palistine is worth peanuts now and your point? arclein ]
"The basic issue of Israeli military occupation, colonisation and apartheid is really the elephant in the room," Abunimah said.
"The Trump administration and other US officials in charge of this so-called peace process actively support all the things that destroy the Palestinian economy, that plunge millions of Palestinians in poverty and prevent Palestinians from thriving."
"According to the World Bank, Israeli military restrictions on Palestinian businesses and agriculture reduce Palestinian economy by 35 percent," Abunimah continued. "Palestinians don't need Jared Kushner's charity. What they need is liberation."
In Gaza, Hamas official Ismail Rudwan also rejected Kushner's proposals.
"We reject the 'deal of the century' and all its dimensions, the economic, the political and the security dimensions," Rudwan told Reuters.
"The issue of our Palestinian people is a nationalistic issue, it is the issue of a people who are seeking to be free from occupation. Palestine isn't for sale, and it is not an issue for bargaining. Palestine is a sacred land and there is no option for the occupation, except to leave," he said.
Regional tensions
Several Gulf Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, will also participate in the Bahrain workshop. Their presence, some US officials say privately, appears intended in part to curry favour with Trump as he takes a hard line against Iran, those countries' regional rival.
The Trump administration also hopes that the wealthy Gulf states and private investors would foot much of the bill.
The White House said it decided against inviting the Israeli government because the Palestinian Authority would not be there, making do instead with a small Israeli business delegation.
Palestinian officials dismiss $50bn investment and infrastructure proposal, say political solution must be found first.
Jared Kushner's Middle East peace plan has been rejected by the Palestinian leadership [Kevin Lamarque/Reuters]
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/06/unveils-economic-portion-middle-east-peace-plan-190622162812890.html
US economic plan for Middle East peace process
A global investment fund of $50bn, which will cover 179 infrastructure and business projects
The US is hoping the wealthy Arab Gulf states will finance most of the $50bn
Of the total, $28bn will go to the occupied Palestinian territories of West Bank and Gaza Strip
Jordan's economy will receive $7.5bn, Egypt $9bn, and Lebanon $6bn
$15bn of the total would come from grants, $25bn in subsidised loans, and $11bn from private capital
$5bn transportation corridor to connect the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip
The United States has revealed a proposal to create a $50bn global investment fund for the Palestinians and neighbouring Arab states, designed to be the economic engine of the long-awaited US Middle East peace plan.
The plan was posted on the White House website on Saturday, two days before a US-led workshop in Bahrain where the economic portion of the so-called "deal of the century" is set to be discussed.
The Manama conference is taking place despite opposition from the Palestinians, who will not attend.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday rejected the economic plan and the US peace effort, which is led by President Donald Trump's senior adviser Jared Kushner.
"The economic situation should not be discussed before the political one," Abbas said on Saturday. "As long as there is no political solution, we do not deal with any economic solution."
'Less controversial'
Speaking to Reuters news agency, Kushner, who is also Trump's son-in-law, said the economy-first approach was "necessary" to break away from the political side, as it would be "less controversial".
"Let's let people study it, give feedback," he said. "Let's try to finalise if we can all agree on what that could look like in the event of a peace agreement."
Fundamental political issues such as the occupation of Palestinian territories, the right of return for refugees and their descendants (of which roughly five million live in refugee camps in neighbouring Arab countries) and border sovereignty were not mentioned in the plan.
Instead, the economic scheme included 179 infrastructure and business projects, a billion-dollar investment to build up the Palestinians' tourism sector, and a $5bn transportation corridor to connect the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
More than half of the $50bn would be spent in the economically troubled Palestinian territories over 10 years, while the rest would be split between Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan, according to the plan.
Some of the projects would take place in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, where investments could benefit Palestinians living in adjacent Gaza, a crowded and impoverished coastal enclave blockaded by Israel and Egypt for 12 years.
According to Kushner, the 10-year plan "would create a million jobs in the West Bank and Gaza".
"It would take their unemployment rate from about 30 percent to the single digits," he said. "It would reduce their poverty rate by half, if it's implemented correctly."
His comments drew the ire of Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) executive committee.
"First, lift the siege of Gaza, stop the Israeli theft of our land, resources and funds, give us our freedom of movement and control over our borders, airspace, territorial waters etc," she said in a post on Twitter.
"Then, watch us build a vibrant prosperous economy as a free and sovereign people."
[ this really worked for the American Indians - arclein ]
Ali Abunimah, a cofounder of Electronic Intifada, told Al Jazeera Kushner's plan is "an effort to buy Palestine for peanuts and give Palestinians nothing in exchange".
[ all the land in Palistine is worth peanuts now and your point? arclein ]
"The basic issue of Israeli military occupation, colonisation and apartheid is really the elephant in the room," Abunimah said.
"The Trump administration and other US officials in charge of this so-called peace process actively support all the things that destroy the Palestinian economy, that plunge millions of Palestinians in poverty and prevent Palestinians from thriving."
"According to the World Bank, Israeli military restrictions on Palestinian businesses and agriculture reduce Palestinian economy by 35 percent," Abunimah continued. "Palestinians don't need Jared Kushner's charity. What they need is liberation."
In Gaza, Hamas official Ismail Rudwan also rejected Kushner's proposals.
"We reject the 'deal of the century' and all its dimensions, the economic, the political and the security dimensions," Rudwan told Reuters.
"The issue of our Palestinian people is a nationalistic issue, it is the issue of a people who are seeking to be free from occupation. Palestine isn't for sale, and it is not an issue for bargaining. Palestine is a sacred land and there is no option for the occupation, except to leave," he said.
Regional tensions
Several Gulf Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, will also participate in the Bahrain workshop. Their presence, some US officials say privately, appears intended in part to curry favour with Trump as he takes a hard line against Iran, those countries' regional rival.
The Trump administration also hopes that the wealthy Gulf states and private investors would foot much of the bill.
The White House said it decided against inviting the Israeli government because the Palestinian Authority would not be there, making do instead with a small Israeli business delegation.
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