Hoping for a June 25-26 meeting on Mideast peace in the Gulf State of Bahrain, 38-year-old senior presidential adviser Jared Kushner faces a uphill battle to get a key players to buy in. Palestinians broke off ties with the U.S. after 72-year-old President Donald Trump recognized Dec. 6, 2017 Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Running counter to Palestinian demands for a two-state solution, 83-year-old Mahmoud Abbas, head of the Palestine Liberation Organization and Palestinian Authority, broke off ties with Washington. When Abbas continued to thumb his nose at the White House, Trump cut $200 million Aug. 24, 2018 in financial aid to his West Bank government. Palestinians have been divided between the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip since June 7, 2007 and Abbas’ Ramallah-based government. Hamas has been at war with Israel since blind, quadriplegic Sheikh Ahmed Yassin founded the group in 1987.
Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital prompted 18-months of violent protests on the Israeli border. At least 183 Palestinians have died breaching Israel’s border fence, subjected to Israeli Defense Forces live fire to drive protesters away from Israel’s border fence. Kushner wants the Bahrain conference to deal with economic development in the Palestinian territories, not Palestinian political issues related to the right-of-return, status of Jerusalem or fate of Palestinian refugees. With stops planned in Morocco, Jordan, Israel and Europe, Trump hopes to get U.S. Mideast allies to buy in on a Mideast peace plan. With Hamas still at war with Israel, it’s going to be difficult to bargain for peace, when Palestinians demand that Israel comply with past U.N. resolution requiring Israel to return to pre-1967 Six Day War borders. Israel has said old U.N. resolutions are no longer relevant.
Palestinians refuse to attend any U.S.-brokered peace plan, believing the U.S. is no longer an impartial peace broker. Recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, Trump tried to motivate Palestinians to come to the peace table. Over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s objections, the U.S. was willing to cede East Jerusalem to Palestinians for their capital. Trump’s 2017 move on Jerusalem so inflamed Palestinians, it precluded future peace talks. Going to the U.S.-friendly Gulf States isn’t enough to enlist Palestinians back in the process. With Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi the only Arab leader with a peace treaty with Israel, it’s not easy to convince Egyptians to back the U.S. peace plan. White House officials hope that wealthy Gulf State donors can jump on the peace-making bandwagon, though it’s doubtful it will bring Palestinians back to the table.
Since seizing Gaza from the PLO in 2007, Hamas has shown no signs of seeking peace with Israel. Gaza residents are told routinely that Hamas will one day conquer Israel, telling residents to go to the Israeli border to breach the security fence to reclaim land lost to their ancestors in Israel’s 1948 war of independence. “The deal of the century or the deal of shame will go to hell, with God’s will, and the economic project they are working on next month will go to hell too,” said Abbas yesterday. With Abbas seen as a more flexible peace partner than Hamas, it’s hard to imagine Kushner will get any reception for his plan. “Whoever wants to solve the Palestinian issue must start with the political issues, not by selling the illusion of billions [of dollars],” rejecting, out of hand, any attempt by Kushner to advance an economic agenda. Kushner knows that Palestinian political threats won’t work with Israel.
When Israeli won the 1967 Six Day War, Palestinians worked feverishly with the U.N. to return land seized by Israel as spoils of war. Palestinians, led by PLO founder Yasser Arafat, promised land-for-peace, demanding Israel return to the pre-1967 borders. Former President Jimmy Carter worked feverishly to get peace treaty with Egypt, known as the 1979 Camp David Accords, never to get Israel to return to the pre.1967 borders. Carter subscribed to U.N. Resolution 242, demanding Israel return to the pre-War borders, only to have his demands ignored. Faced with constant suicide attacks from Hamas and other Islamic groups, Israel simply couldn’t honor U.N. Resolution 242 without threatening Israel’s national security. Abbas hasn’t faced the reality that he won’t win an armed conflict with Israel, now or ever. Hamas continues to lie to Gaza residents about conquering Israel.
Abbas and Gaza’s Hamas ruler Ismail Haniyeh haven’t faced the fact that rich Arab Gulf States have grown weary of Palestinians armed struggle against Israel. “The Palestinians should negotiate hard, and then take what they can to secure a nation state for future generations,” Faisal Abbas wrote in the Arab News. “There is nothing to be gained from a refusal to come to the negotiating table,” showing the Gulf State’s growing frustration with Palestinians. Every time Hamas wages war with Israel, it costs Gulf States billions to clean up the mess. Hamas and the PLO face more insolvency, spending precious cash on building tunnels, stockpiling arms and rockets. “There will be no economic prosperity in Palestine without the end of the occupation,” said senior Palestinian diplomat Saeb Erekat. Erekat exposes the fallacy of Mideast peace-making that Israel must vacate all Palestinian land before peace. Giving up land, like Israel did in Gaza, has never brought about peace.
