The Shameful “Deal of the Century”.
Much have been said and written
about the so-called “Deal of the Century”, also called by different
names depending on the perspective of different parties. The deal has
been in development for two years and is eventually being unveiled this
week in Manama, Bahrain after long periods of
postponement. It was
headed by Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, with the assistance of Jason Dov Greenblatt and David Melech Friedman.
Kushner is a young real-estate
investor and developer, who was made Trump’s senior advisor. Kushner is
still a young kid, a 38 years old kid maneuvering through adult world.
He is politically inexperienced, and totally ignorant of the history of
the Middle East. One wonders what kind of political experience he has to
be nominated as senior advisor to president Trump. Kushner is an ardent
Zionist Jew, who backs and finances Israeli settlements (colonies) in
occupied West Bank. The Kushner family foundation contributed financial
donations to the Israeli settlement Bet El.
Jason Dov Greenblatt was the personal
lawyer for Donald Trump and The Trump Organization. After becoming
president, Trump appointed Greenblatt as his advisor on Israel and
assistant for international negotiations. Greenblatt is an ardent
Zionist, who is a backer and financer of Israeli settlements (colonies)
in occupied West Bank claiming that these colonies are not obstacles to peace.
David Melech Friedman was a bankruptcy
lawyer and the chairman and president of The Trump Organization, who
was appointed later by president Trump as the US Ambassador to Israel.
Friedman is the son of a rabbi at Temple Hillel in North Woodmere, New
York. He is an ardent Zionist Jew who supports and finances Israeli
settlements (colonies) in occupied West Bank. In an interview with The
New York Times June 8th. Friedman stated that Israel has the right to annex parts of occupied West Bank.
Yet this Zionist Jewish team claims
that it has an economic plan (Deal) to improve the lives of Palestinians
by investing money (Gulf Arab money) to invigorate the Palestinian
economy. They claim that this economic deal would eventually lead to a
political deal that would lead to peace and prosperity. It is worth
noting that this team does not include a Palestinian or even an Arab
member, who would represent the Palestinian side. It is as if this
Zionist team see themselves as “light onto nations” with their solutions
believing that Palestinians are incapable of understanding or planning
an economic plan for themselves.
Kushner’s team is approaching the
issue with the mentality of a business transaction, where money can buy
everything and the price depends on skillful negotiations. During a Reuter’s interview,
whose reporter seems to boringly read questions from an already
prepared transcript, Jared Kushner unveiled portion of his economic
deal. He talked about “a global investment fund” of $50 billion used to
lift the Palestinian and neighboring Arab States’ economies and a $5
billion fund to build a transportation corridor connecting the West Bank
and Gaza.
Kushner explained that $25 billion
would be spent in Palestinian territories over a 10-years period, while
the rest of the money would be split between Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon
to boost their own economies. Some of the projects would be in Egypt’s
Sinai Peninsula, where Palestinians from Gaza Strip could benefit from.
The necessary funds for this plan,
Kushner explained, would come from wealthy Arab Gulf States, nations
from Europe and Asia (but not America), and from private investors. It
is implied here that most if not all of the money would come from Saudi
Arabia and UAE. Kushner explained that the international economic
“workshop” in Bahrain on June 25th and 26th will bring together government and business leaders to launch the plan.
In this “Peace to Prosperity Workshop” or as Kushner called it “The Opportunity of the Century” compared to “The deal of the Century”
Kushner gave a business presentation on developing the West Bank and
Gaza Strip. Stating that Israel is not the problem he blamed the
Palestinians for sabotaging previous political plans to solve the
conflict due to their poor political decisions. Throughout his speech
one detects that he believes that Palestinians are not well educated and
are incapable of having a vision of prosperous future.
Kushner’s plan is built on the bases
that building economy would lead to peace as he kept stressing in all
his media interviews and in his presentation in Bahrain. Yet during his
speech he contradicts this premise many times by sentences like “… if
we have real peace and we don’t have fear of terrorism … then we can
thin the borders and allow for much flow of goods and people”, and “… all these plans could be phased in real time if there is a real seize fire and real peace” and “ … how to make a safe environment so people can invest in the area”
among others. Kushner’s economic plan puts the cart in front of the
horse, for how a country’s economy would be developed if the government
does not know where its political borders are?
The two business men: Mr. Stephen Schwarzman, chairman, CEO and co-founder of Blackstone Group, the world’s largest equity investment firm, and Mr. Mohamed Alabbar,
the Emirati leading developer and chairman of Emaar Properties famous
for building the Burj Khalifa skyscraper in Dubai, speaking as a
panelist stated clearly that safety, security and the rule of law
meaning peace are prerequisite for any investments. An independent
country with secured border and a government are essential prerequisites
for investment and building an economy.
Kushner kept pushing the statement of “help the Palestinian people” when what he really means is “help the Israelis”,
who will eventually control all these projects as what had happened
during all the previous peace agreements. This so-called economic plan
(Deal of the Century) is the same as all previous economic and political
peace agreements between Arab countries and Israel that promised peace
and prosperity to the region. The 1978 Camp David Accords between Israel
and Egypt, the 1994 Wadi Araba Treaty between Israel and Jordan, and
the 1994 Paris Protocol and later 1995 Oslo Accords between Israel and
the PLO allowed Israeli goods through and in Arab countries improving
Israeli economy but not the other way around. The Oslo Accords gave
Israel total control of Palestinian economy; control over customs,
taxes, agriculture, industry and all gates to the world economy.
To prevent Palestinian and Arab
economies from competing with its own economy, Israel had violated all
these treaties and had broken international laws. Israel would take
control of all Kushner’s proposed economic projects built mainly by Arab
Gulf states.
Kushner stated that his plan has two
parts; the economic plan is the initial part followed by political part
hoped to be released next November. Everybody knows that the political
part had already preceded the economic plan when President Trump
declared al-Quds (Jerusalem) as the capital of Israel, closed the PA
office in Washington, withdrew support to UNRWA, recognized Israel’s
annexation of the Golan Heights, and indirectly hinted that Israel
should also annex large parts of the West Bank. This is Trump’s favorite
mafia technique of imposing life threatening pressure in order to
enforce his Deal of the Century.
Other leaked political plans for the
region include forcing Jordan to give the fertile Baqoura area; where
the Yarmouk River flows into the Jordan River, to Israel. In return
Saudi Arabia would give Jordan part of its northern desert. Saudi and
Emirati money would buy Al-Arish area in Sinai Peninsula south of Gaza
Strip as well as Tiran and Sanafir islands at the mouth of Gulf of Aqaba
leading to the Red Sea. According to Kushner’s plan a Saudi oil
refinery and a water desalination plant would be built in al-Arish to
benefit Palestinians living in Gaza. Tiran and Sanafir islands would be
turned to and controlled by Israel, which gives Israel free access to
the Red Sea. This territorial division will be the cause of even more
future conflicts.
This Deal of the Century is similar to
Sikes-Picot agreement, Balfour Declaration and all the other
Arab/Israeli agreements, which in reality are progressive phases of
implementing the Zionist Greater Israel Project. The main goals of this
Deal are the elimination of the Palestinian refugee’s issue and the
establishment and confirmation of the state of Israel as a legitimate
state in the region, who could normalize relationships with some Arab
countries and even become their military and intelligence partner
against outside enemy; namely Iran. This also means the end of the
two-state solution and making the PA an Israeli security apparatus
keeping any Palestinian dissent into check.
The Deal of the Century was faced with
strong rejection since its first inception by Palestinians as a whole
including the PA and all the Palestinians factions. The Palestinian
factions called for mass demonstrations in every city in the West Bank
and in Gaza Strip starting on June 24th and continue until the 26th for the duration of Bahraini conference under banners calling “The Manama Workshop is Treason” and “Palestine is not for sale.”
The Deal was also rejected by all Arab
countries and populations except by the leaderships of Saudi Arabia,
its occupied Bahrain and the UAE. Mass protests have been taken place
throughout the whole Arab world extending from the Persian Gulf all the
way west through north African countries to Morocco on the Atlantic
Ocean. In Bahrain, itself, every house raised the Palestinian flag in
solidarity with Palestinians against Kushner’s economic workshop.
It is not just the Arabs who are
giving the Deal of the Century the cold shoulder. The EU, who has always
supported the two-state solution, had also rejected the Deal.
High-ranking former European politicians; 25 former foreign ministers,
six former prime ministers, and two former NATO secretary generals,
signed a letter to the EU
calling for the rejection of the Deal and the implementation of the
two-state solution with Israel and Palestinian state living side by
side.
This Deal is destined to fail. Even US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo acknowledged that the Deal will fail in a speech to Jewish leaders in New York calling it “a deal that only the Israelis could love” and admitted that the plan is “un-executable”, and “it may be rejected”
The economic conference will serve
only to intensify the Palestinian and in general the Arab’s hatred to
Saudi Arabia and UAE, who claim their goal is to help the Palestinians.
If they really wanted to help they could have done so directly and
without the American pro-Israeli mediation.
The Palestinians have learned the hard
lesson not to depend on Arab leaders. The only method of liberating the
whole Palestine and rebuilding their state is through armed resistance.
They have done so generation after generation throughout the last 71
years. Last generation used stones and knifes, this generation is using
rockets that could reach Tel Aviv.
*
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Dr. Elias Akleh is an
Arab American writer from a Palestinian descent born in the town of Beit
Jala, Palestine. His family was first evicted from Haifa after the
“Nakba” of 1948, then again from Beit Jala after the “Nakseh” of 1967.
He lives now in the US, and publishes his articles on different
websites. He writes mainly about Middle Eastern and Palestinian related
issues.
Featured image is from The Unz Review
The original source of this article is Global Research
Copyright © Dr. Elias Akleh, Global Research, 2019
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