Time to Test Drive Kushner's Middle East Peace Plan

Ahmed Charai

Security, Middle East

America remains the only power that can secure a peace plan between Israelis and Palestinians.

Jared Kushner’s approach to Middle East peace deserves a closer look.

The political process, which began in Madrid and continued in Oslo has been stalled since 2001. Meanwhile, the conflict has intensified, positions have hardened, and the possibility of an agreement remains elusive. More of the same will not produce different results.

So, Kushner decided to start with economics, not politics. He seeks to improve the economic lives of the people of the region, not just among Palestinians, but also young Jordanians and Egyptians. People need hope and progress before debating where to draw border lines. No one has tried this promising approach before.

Kushner’s Bahrain conference got far less attention in Western media than it deserved. While some noted the absence of Palestinian Authority officials and some missing Arab government representatives, almost none noticed that Kushner won real funding commitments to build infrastructure and fund local reforms to speed job creation and jump start Arab economies.

This has the benefit of transforming Middle East peace’s biggest stumbling block—a growing, restive army of unemployed youth—into a driver of cooperation. Prosperity thins the number of protestors while promoting peace.

Right now, the United States is consumed with impeachment and the Arab world with Iran. Yet, deep-rooted trends, revealed in the recent elections in Israel, show that Arabs and Jews are now seeking reconciliation for the first time in decades.

From a balance-sheet perspective, Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu should have won the recent election easily. Under his government, the United States and other nations moved their embassies to Jerusalem, legally recognized the annexation of the Golan Heights and the extension of the West Bank settlements. These items have been on the Israeli wishlist for decades. At the same time, the Israeli economy is booming. Tel Aviv is home to more than twenty “unicorns,” start-ups valued at more than $1 billion, and its tech sector has more jobs open than candidates available. All the lights are green. And yet Israeli youth voted massively against him. Why? The Netanyahu style is considered too aggressive, according to exit polls. Young Israelis say they want peaceful relations with Palestinians and neighboring Arabs and doubt Netanyahu can deliver.