On June 25-26, Jared Kushner orchestrated the \u201cPeace to Prosperity\u201d economic workshop in Bahrain. Kushner is President Donald Trump\u2019s son-in-law and his senior adviser on \u00adnegotiating a Middle East peace. The White House plan closely follows a strategy proposed by the late Israeli President Shimon Peres. Peres assumed integration of the Middle East through widescale economic development would induce all parties to successfully tackle more difficult final status \u00adissues of borders, territory and refugees at a later time.<\/p>\n
Palestinian government officials have broken off contact with the Trump administration since its December 2017 recognition of Jerusalem as Israel\u2019s capital and relocation of the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. They did not attend the conference, but some Palestinian businesspeople did.<\/p>\n
While the \u201cPeace to Prosperity\u201d plan mentions the West Bank and Gaza, it makes no reference to Jerusalem. The \u00adfinancing for \u201cPeace to Prosperity\u201d is extremely speculative with no firm guarantees that any funding would materialize even if the Palestinians accepted.<\/p>\n
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It is unlikely the Trump administration\u2019s upcoming \u201cPolitical Plan\u201d\u2014which has been written but not released\u2014will recognize the Palestinian right to return or establish a Palestinian state within pre-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as the capital. The U.S. negotiating team members are essentially Israeli hardliners in all but domicile. Special Envoy for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt recently referred to illegal \u00adIsraeli West Bank settlements as \u201cneighborhoods and cities\u201d that are not an obstacle to peace.<\/p>\n
To gauge U.S. public opinion about the \u201cPeace to Prosperity\u201d plan, IRmep put a national sample of American adults in the shoes of Palestinian refugees, notably the 750,000 forcibly expelled during Israel\u2019s creation and their descendants living in Gaza, West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. When asked the purposefully ambiguous question, \u201cIf you were expelled & resettled into a resource restricted area, would you fight to return or forfeit legal claims for a new life under a promised economic development plan?\u201d a solid 68 percent of Americans said they would fight to return.<\/p>\n
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<\/a>IRmep Poll: If you were expelled & resettled into a resource restricted area, would you fight to return or forfeit legal claims for a new life under a promised economic development plan? SOURCE: IRmep representative poll of 1,450 American adults fielded through Google Surveys on July 11-21, 2019.<\/i><\/p><\/div>See other stories from the 2019 August-September Washington Report on Middle East Affairs<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n