Middle East Peace Bribefest Looks Doomed

Anti-Muslim demagogue Donald "Not Exonerated" Trump's long-promised "plan" for Middle East peace between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (a.k.a. the "deal of the century"), with jack-of-all-trades master of none Jared "Mr. Ivanka Trump" Kushner as its figurehead, is about to face its first rude awakening. Of course, few outside of the Kushner-Trump orbit and their Saudi / Emirate enablers thought that aligning ever more closely with Likudnik Bibi "Bomb Bomb" Netanyahu, accepting his permanent settlements on the West Bank, and moving the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem would be seen favorably by the Palestinian Authority.

Apparently, as the first step in his doomed "plan," Trump / Kushner are holding a workshop next month in Bahrain that they've titled "Peace to Prosperity." The concept for the meeting is simple and Trumpian: buy off the Palestinians with "economic incentives" (i.e., bribes) to give up their position in the West Bank and Gaza. It's very similar to the idiotic approach to North Korea's Kim Jong Un that Trump offered: infusions of dollars and resorts along the Sea of Japan for denuclearization. However, it appears that, like Kim, bribery won't bring about an agreement:

"Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian diplomat and negotiator, said: 'All efforts to make the oppressor and the oppressed coexist are doomed to fail … This is not about improving living conditions under occupation but about reaching Palestine’s full potential by ending the Israeli occupation.'

The Palestinian prime minister, Mohammad Shtayyeh, said his government was not informed of the investment conference in advance. 'The cabinet wasn’t consulted about the reported workshop – neither over the content, nor the outcome, nor timing,' he said at a ministerial meeting where reporters were present.

He added: 'We do not submit to blackmail and we don’t trade our political rights for money.'”

You don't submit to blackmail or trade your rights for money? How do you expect to deal with Trump then? Trump and his equally inept son-in-law continue to confuse the sketchy world of New York real estate deals with delicate negotiations between longtime adversaries with lives at stake instead of a vacant lot.