From day one the Trump Administration’s approach to Arab-Israeli peace has been to make the Palestinians an offer they can’t refuse, a fait accompli they can either accept or add to their struggles. If MAGA has thrashed America’s brand as leader of NATO, it has obliterated whatever was left of the notion we offer even-handed diplomacy in the Middle East. Trump’s message to Palestinians since inauguration has been “get on board the Bibi train or get run over.” From the needlessly gratuitous relocation of our embassy to Jerusalem to cheerleading West Bank Settlement activity to overtly cruel budget cuts of U.N. Palestinian humanitarian outreach, nothing has proved beyond the pale when it comes to pandering to Fox/AM sensibilities on Israel, the one ally the wretched core doesn’t resent.
The Trump Presidency foists so many insults on America and the world it is a challenge to figure which offer more harm than others. Yet and still, the unprecedented, and shamefully, unchallenged nepotism of this Administration is breathtaking. From the night he was elected, Trump has accorded his daughter and son-in-law top-level access light years out of line with their experience and qualifications. In a White House of under performers on steroids and a full roster of players selected with only their servility in mind, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner stand out for the dearth of contributions they make versus the near constant problems they cause.
Kushner, in particular, embarrasses on a near weekly basis. Assigned a vast portfolio of projects he has made little progress on, Kushner has time and again drawn the worst kind of attention for ethical transgressions only the President and the GOP now beholden to him continue to ignore. This week he rolled out a strategy to capture Palestinian good will and bring them back to the bargaining table. Unimpressive would be a very kind assessment of its impact.
There has been nothing subtle about the Trump Administration’s disdain for a two-state solution of the Palestinian-Israeli dispute. While breathlessly confirming what everyone has accepted for years, that the Golan Heights now belongs to Israel, Trump’s Ambassador to Israel, his former bankruptcy attorney, David Friedman, came right out and declared the Administration is “open” to annexation of parts of the West Bank. In fact, Friedman has equated support of U.N. peace parameters and a two-state solution as treacherous to Israel. So it’s no wonder that Kushner’s “bold” new approach offers nothing in the way of political accommodation, instead enthusing about the creation of Palestinian investment projects.
Kushner unveiled his plan in Bahrain with as much hoopla as could be mustered given that not a single Palestinian or Israeli official was in attendance. None… zero. Yet and still, Kushner got his pom poms out for up to $50 billion in future investments in Palestinian territories, almost all of which is under Israeli authority, as some sort of salve for heretofore Trumpist hostility to occupied populations.
The Palestinian response has been immediate and unequivocal… “is he kidding?” After more than two years of acting like Netanyahu’s enforcer, the US now talks of buying Palestinian acquiescence with phantom investors ready to make sweetheart deals. Empty Trump promises no responsible Palestinian partisan would ever risk a fig on are about the same as Mr. Potter offering George Bailey a cushy salary in It’s A Wonderful Life, acceptance would be complicity and betrayal.
It bears repeating that Likud, from its inception as a political party, has adopted as a central tenet the West Bank – referred to as Judea and Samaria by the party faithful – is holy Jewish land, unavailable for negotiation. This has been the unspoken elephant in the room since Begin was Prime Minister. Gaza, the Sanai Peninsula, even the Golan Heights, all were fair game in a land for peace framework… not so Judea and Samaria. Aggressive West Bank settlement has been a hallmark of Likud regimes, slowed only by American opposition to activity every President since LBJ understood was inimical to the peace process. To condone settlement means admitting the US is no longer interested in being an honest broker for peace. That is where we now are and then some. Only an Administration as unserious and shameless as this one would sanction Kushner’s charade.
A perfect exclamation point to the surreality of the exercise was one Israeli official’s take on Palestinian refusal to afford it any legitimacy. Economy Minister Eli Cohen actually suggested that Bahrain may have closed the door on further diplomacy.”We saw that, even in an economic conference where the Palestinians were meant to come and get money, to come and get tools and inducements, to come and develop their economy, they did not come.” Come and get your payoff for surrender or we have nothing more to talk about! Nice.
Too many in Israel equate annexation with security; nothing could be further from the truth. Whatever fidelity Israelis still possess toward the moral imperative their nation was created to preserve will quickly dissipate in the mire of the national security state West Bank annexation will require. Once land is no longer available to offer, how will anything but endless bloody attrition be possible? Israeli greats like Abba Eban and Shimon Peres understood this. Netanyahu understands but doesn’t care; he is corrupt and morally vacant.
It’s not hyperbole to aver nobody in the White House is equipped with even a basic understanding of the conflict they seem to view as a PR campaign, applying lipstick to the pig that is overt pandering to Likud aspirations. Jared Kushner presenting power points to emirs and shieks looking for value investments is really the perfect image of the Trump Administration’s ruinous incompetence. Palestinians aren’t fools, but even if they were, they wouldn’t be part of this “outreach”. How far have we fallen? Kissinger to Kushner… that’s how far.