Trump's Deal of the Century Serves US/Israeli Interests Exclusively

by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)

The Trump regime's so-called Middle East Peace to Prosperity plan has nothing to do with peace, nothing to do with resolving irreconcilable Israeli/Palestinian differences — everything to do with serving US/Israeli interests at their expense.

The so-called "deal of the century" ignores their fundamental rights, affirmed under international law — what they've been denied since the infamous 1917 Balfour Declaration.

Calling for establishment of a nation for Jews (on stolen Palestinian land) was a high crime against humanity.

Endless conflict, occupation, dispossession, and repression, along with social and cultural fragmentation define conditions for beleaguered Palestinians – over 100 years of suffering, no end of it in sight, the world community dismissive of their rights.

The economic part of Trump's deal of the century was posted on the White House website ahead of the so-called June 25-26 Peace to Prosperity conference in Manama, Bahrain — a fascist dictatorship chosen as the site of the subterfuge.

Countries attending the conference include the US, Israel, Jordan, the Saudis, UAE, some, maybe all other Gulf states, Egypt and Morocco.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman al-Safadi downplayed it, saying "(l)et's not exaggerate the significance of the Bahrain workshop. It's a workshop."

It's a dog and pony PR stunt, subterfuge Palestinians are boycotting. A PLO executive committee statement earlier called on "all Palestinian political movements and factions, national figures, private sector, and civil society" not to attend the Manama meeting, adding:

"Those concerned and want to serve the interest of the Palestinian people should respect this collective position." 

"Palestine's full economic potential can only be achieved by ending the Israeli occupation, respecting international law, and UN resolutions."

The Trump regime "is trying to create solutions outside the realm of international legitimacy that detract from the legitimate national rights of the Palestinian people…"

Former Palestinian Authority prime minister Nabil Sha'ath said "the Manama meeting represents a strategic stage in their efforts to undermine both international law and the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people" — by pretending to offer them "economic prosperity" intended exclusively for US/Israeli corporate interests, along with perhaps a few token Palestinians included.

Palestinian/American academic Rashid Khalidi slammed what he called "the neocolonial arrogance of the Kushner plan," adding:

It's intended to "pave the way to a normalization of never-ending occupation and creeping annexation under conditions of extreme legal discrimination between Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs: a situation resembling nothing so much as apartheid South Africa."

Israeli-installed (illegitimate) PA president Mahmoud Abbas said neither he or other Palestinian officials are attending the Bahrain conference.

"The economic situation should not be discussed before the political one. As long as there is no political solution, we do not deal with any economic solution," he stressed.

Trump's deal of the century ignores fundamental final status issues, including Palestinian self-determination, illegal Israeli occupation, settlements, borders, air and water rights, other resources, the right of diaspora Palestinians to return to their homeland, and East Jerusalem as exclusive Palestinian capital. 

The economic plan to be discussed in Bahrain has nothing to do with aiding millions of long-suffering Palestinians. It includes the following:

A global investment fund of $50 for 179 infrastructure and business projects — benefitting corporate interests exclusively as in the West, neoliberal harshness for ordinary Palestinians.

The Trump regime wants wealthy Arab Gulf states to provide the money.

Around $28 billion is earmarked for the occupied West Bank and Gaza — intending greater exploitation of the Palestinian people, the way the US and other Western states exploit their own people, only worse in mind for Palestinians.

Jordan will receive a $7.5 billion bribe, Egypt $9 billion, and Lebanon $6 billion. 

Around $15 billion to come from grants, $25 billion from subsidized loans, and $11 billion from private capital.

Another $5 billion is for a transportation corridor to connect the West Bank and Gaza — a notion the Netanyahu regime rejects, pursuing a divide and conquer strategy, wanting Gazans kept under a permanent state of suffocation, a atrocity by any standard, the world community failing to end it, dismissive of Palestinian rights.

Trump's deal of the century has nothing to do with jobs creation, nothing about reducing Palestinian unemployment, nothing related to lifting them out of poverty, everything to do with continued exploitation under militarized occupation — while Israel keeps stealing their land, brutalizing their people, and waging wars on them at its discretion.

PLO executive committee member Hanan Ashwari slammed the Trump regime's subterfuge, tweeting:

"First, lift the siege of Gaza, stop the Israeli theft of our land, resources and funds, give us our freedom of movement and control over our borders, airspace, territorial waters etc." 

"Then, watch us build a vibrant prosperous economy as a free and sovereign people" — free from oppressive Israeli occupation.

Hamas official Ismail Rudwan rejected Trump's "deal of the century and all its dimensions," adding:

"The issue of our Palestinian people is a nationalistic issue. It is the issue of a people who are seeking to be free from occupation." 

"Palestine isn't for sale, and it is not an issue for bargaining. Palestine is a sacred land and there is no option for the occupation except to leave."

Oslo in 1993 was a Palestinian Versailles, Arafat capitulating to US/Israeli demands, getting nothing in return but empty promises. 

The accord and what followed solidified Israeli colonization, apartheid, and occupation harshness.

Trump's no-peace/peace plan "deal of the century" is more of the same, leaving Palestinians subjugated under militarized occupation harshness, Israel able to harden apartheid rule.

Settlement construction and land theft will continue unabated under Trump's, Jerusalem to be Israel's exclusive capital, diaspora Palestinians denied their right of return.

Economic incentives to be discussed in Bahrain reflect a neoliberal hoax, Palestinian exploitation to continue unchanged.

Reportedly, Trump's political plan kept under wraps calls for Israeli annexation of settlements.

If happens ahead, it could be the stuff a third intifada is made of, Palestinian anger boiling over.

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