The White House announced the first phase of the Mideast peace plan on Sunday, an economic blueprint which will be the subject of a summit in Manama, Bahrain on June 25 and 26.
Finance ministers and business leaders from the region will be invited to participate in the “economic workshop,” said administration officials, in an attempt to present the details and get feedback on the proposal before engaging on the political issues. “It’s tough to digest both the economic and political proposals at once, since they’re both very detailed proposals,” an administration official told CNN.
The White House said that the political part of the plan, which deals with the core issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, will be presented to the two sides “very soon.”
“The Palestinian people, along with all people in the Middle East, deserve a future with dignity and the opportunity to better their lives,” Jared Kushner said in a statement.
Kushner added in a statement to CNN, “People are letting their grandfathers’ conflict destroy their children’s futures. This will present an exciting, realistic and viable pathway forward that does not currently exist.”
According to Haaretz, Israeli Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon is expected to head the Israeli delegation to the summit.
“Releasing an economic vision for government ‘investors’ without specifying the political structures that support it is like selling apartments in a skyscraper for which there are as yet no architectural plans,” Tamara Cofman Wittes, a senior fellow in the Center for Middle East Policy at Brooking, tells Jewish Insider.
Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro said on Sunday that the success of the upcoming summit will depend on several aspects that remain unanswered. “Are any invitees briefed on the political plan? Will those who are not briefed on the political plan show up? Will Israeli officials be welcome? Will Palestinians attend?” Shapiro asked on Twitter.
Dore Gold, former Director General of Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, emails us: “Without knowing yet all the specifics, the Arab side has to know that the plan will first and foremost produce an entirely new economic situation in the Middle East. For example, the West Bank can emerge as a conduit for connecting the eastern Mediterranean to Jordan and then to Iraq and Saudi Arabia.”
“The old peace process is not enough. The Arab states need to see that they have a real stake in the new vision being proposed. Rather than fear the Trump plan, Arab states could become its greatest advocates. That is the only way to obtain a breakthrough which has defied most diplomats in the past.”
Content retrieved from: http://jewishinsider.com/2019/05/kushner-on-peace-plan-rollout-people-are-letting-their-grandfathers-conflict-destroy-their-childrens-futures/.