Kushner’s desperate visit to Morocco

US Envoy and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner’s visit to Morocco is indicative of many things, not least that he is busy shoring up regional consensus for the Bahrain conference about Palestine, before unveiling the economic portion of the “deal of the century”. Depending on media revelations — secrecy is part of the deal’s propaganda — the supposed “peace plan” is but a unilateral arrangement to dash Palestinian hopes, re-arrange the geography of Palestine and prepare the Middle East-North Africa (MENA) region for more partitioning and political-economic annexation. Logically, Morocco aligns itself with those who oppose the deal, because supporting it will mean the political demise of Arab countries.

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Israel journalist: ‘The deal of the century is the joke of century’

…… His goal is simple; rehumanising the Palestinians when everything is being done to dehumanise them, he explains. From the occupation to the slow suffocation of their culture, dispossession, demolition, erasing their names, their villages, their society… Levy’s columns speak of daily struggles, give details about people’s stories, name them and give them back their faces, ages and deaths. This includes the story of a Bedouin woman who, in 1986, was forced to give birth at an Israeli checkpoint. Her newborn died because she could not reach hospital in time and had to walk the two kilometres alone with the baby in her arms.

The two-state solution is dead. It’s dead since there are so many settlers and they created an irreversible situation. We have now almost 700,000 settlers and nobody will evacuate them and nobody will ever intend to evacuate them. Without an evacuation, there is no Palestinian state; it’s a joke.

…… “It will just give Israel more years to maintain the occupation and to carry on its crimes. Nobody can take this seriously. It comes from Trump and [his son-in-law and advisor] Kushner, who can take it seriously?… It can’t be serious because it’s not fair. Those people are totally one-sided. How can you even consider listening to them when they so clearly stand with only one side and they are so aggressive towards the other side? What kind of mediators can they be?

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Bahrain’s Workshop: The Palestinian resistance can never be bought

….. One may ask: If the US administration “respects” the dignity of the Palestinian people, why has all its decisions regarding the conflict gone against them? How is cutting support for UNRWA and suggesting – as Grenblatt did – to dismantle it a sign of respect for the Palestinians?

During previous administrations, there were agreed principles that no US president crossed. These principles included the commitment to a two-state solution, support for UNRWA and more. However, under President Trump’s reign, we have witnessed the complete opposite: the move of the US embassy to Jerusalem, the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, the closure of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) office in Washington and the recognition of Israel’s sovereignty over the occupied Syrian Golan Heights.

We also have seen recently the US Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, saying that Israel has the “right” to annex some of the West Bank, all of which indicate bias in the United States’ peace plan....

The everyday challenges that the Palestinians are facing have never changed. The only difference between the past and the present is that today, Palestinians are not only facing the Israeli occupation but instead are also facing additional challenges.

The first is some of the Gulf countries, which for the sake of strengthening ties with Israel have sold out the Palestinians….

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The steal of the century: stolen land, stolen water, stolen images

….. The message, in all its arrogance, was clear: if you don’t take what is on offer, it is going to get a hell of a lot worse. However, we know we have made it impossible for you to take what is on offer, so guess what? The two state solution is well and truly dead; the path to a greater Israel is secured; welcome to the new reality of Palestinian Bantustans in the West Bank and Gaza. And, oh yes, we promise to throw cash at you, $50 billion; that’s a lot of dosh, if you do what is commanded of you. If you don’t, well that money is off the table……

…. There you have it: in the eyes of Kushner, Netanyahu, et al, the path to peace lies through the annexation of what is left of most of the West Bank, including its most valuable agricultural asset, the Jordan Valley. It goes without saying, therefore, that Kushner’s Peace to Prosperity document has something to say about real estate and the settling of land claims. It is right there on page 19: “Project one, Property Ownership Resolution: Enhance court capacity to quickly and effectively resolve property disputes and contested-ownership claims.”

So the game is this: annex as much as possible using the guise of pursuing a peace deal; declare those lands and buildings already annexed as legally belonging to Israel; and then go to court to decide who gets whatever is left over. And, of course, you can guess whose courts and whose judges. Peace to Prosperity doesn’t say anything about it, but I think we know the answer.

Read the document a little further on and it gets worse. There is a whole section devoted to agriculture. It sounds wonderful until you reflect that the most valuable agricultural asset is already off the table. True, there is a water irrigation project to help sustain Palestinian farmers, but guess what? The Israelis already control West Bank aquifers including those in the Jordan Valley where they have drilled deep bores circumventing and cutting off Palestinian wells and requiring the Palestinians to buy their own water back from Israel....

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US-led Bahrain meeting on Palestine: All the latest updates

 

Bahrain has hosted the so-called "Peace to Prosperity" workshop to discuss what the United States has described as the economic part of President Donald Trump's "deal of the century", his proposal for solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Palestinian leadership is boycotting the meeting on June 25 and 26 in Manama, leading critics to question the credibility of the Event.

• Managing director of IMF says peace is missing from economic Workshop
• Kushner accuses Palestinian leadership of failing its People
• UAE says 'give plan a chance'
• PLO reiterates rejection of US plan
• Oman to open embassy in West Bank
• Saudi minister says US plan could succeed
• IMF chief urges 'job intensive' growth

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The architects behind the US plan for Middle East peace

There are at least three things that Jared Kushner, David Friedman and Jason Greenblatt all have in common. One is that they are all Orthodox Jews, and another is that prior to their appointment as officials in the Trump administration, all three men had no prior political or diplomatic experience.
The third is that this triad has connections to Israel, or more specifically, to the illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.

… The event has been criticised by Palestinians across the political spectrum as a plan to buy out Palestinian rights, without addressing core political problems - chiefly the Israeli occupation that has devastated the day-to-day lives of Palestinians for decades.

Al Jazeera takes a closer look at the architects behind the US attempt at Middle East Peace...….

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