Dubbed "Peace to Prosperity," the Manama economic workshop was off to a rocky start. Palestinians are boycotting the conference, and say it fails to address the core political issues, the key to ending the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Meanwhile, the Israeli side has been snubbed by the White House as government officials didn't get an invitation to the event. So, what progress can be made without either the Palestinians or Israelis at the table?
Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard Law Professor Emeritus, thinks the Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh is simply distorting the purpose of the plan. "The Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity," Dershowitz said, adding that the Manama economic workshop is the first step towards mediating the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the occupation issues would be dealt with in the second stage.
Dershowitz criticized Palestinians' rejection. "There is no reason why the Palestinians shouldn't come and listen. If they have something to offer, they can come to this conference without any kind of commitment," Dershowitz asserted. "The Palestinians will never get a state unless they sit down, negotiate, and make painful compromises along with Israel."
He pointed out that this is "the first time the winners have petitioned for peace and losers wanted unconditional surrender."
Bernard Avishai, a professor of political economy at Dartmouth College and a regular contributor to the New Yorker magazine, believes political issues are fundamental to economic progress.
When Prime Minister Shtayyeh talks about the problem of occupation, he is talking about the obstacles to economic progress, said Avishai. "If we are going to have a two-state solution, it's going to look it more confederal," he added.
He thinks the Manama economic conference's plan is just a wish list and ignores all the obstacles to making an economic reality possible.
White House senior adviser Jared Kushner gives a speech at the opening of the "Peace to Prosperity" workshop in Manama, Bahraini, June 25, 2016. /VCG Photo
"Palestine doesn't lack money. Palestine lacks an entrepreneurial environment," Avishai argued.
Reacting to Avishai's comments, Dershowitz said there is no occupation in Ramallah, which is a model for what a Palestinian state can look like. "You can't have the political come before the economic right now. There is no Israeli government. [It] will only be formed after the new election in September," he argued.
But Avishai pointed out that Palestinians never said no to the agreement. Furthermore, Ramallah is a city in the middle of a business ecosystem. Ramallah has a great deal of investment in construction, but there's also much difficulty even in setting up a supermarket because of the constraints on Palestinians' movement and freedom.
Moien Odeh, an attorney focusing on human rights and international law, said that it seems Dershowitz has never visited Ramallah because there are lots of Israeli checkpoints to control the entrances of the city.
In his opinion, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a political conflict rather than an economic one. Trying to find an economic solution to a political problem will never be a success. "The Deal of the century" is what U.S. President Donald Trump's way of showing Americans that he did what other presidents never tried to do.
Odeh also observed that most Palestinians do not trust the Palestinian Authority (PA). But in the case of the Manama workshop, all the Palestinians are standing together against the deal because this plan doesn't recognize the Palestinians' needs.
Khalil Jahshan, the executive director of the Arab Center in Washington D.C., considered said the source of the 50 billion to 60 billion U.S. dollars promised by Jared Kushner, Trump's senior adviser, is doubtful.
"There is no preparation to raise that amount in a short period of time, and you don't have much time!" Jahshan contended. "It is a wishful thought on the part of those who devised it without doing their homework appropriately."
"Why ignore again many years of development work in Palestine by the IMF, the World Bank and the USAID? Jared Kushner destroyed these funds and programs and wants us to ignore all that past and believe him that he can rebuild the Palestinian economy," Jahshan added.
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