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‘Trump’s $50-billion Middle East plan is a win-win for Israel & a loss for Palestine’
Israel could solve the Palestinian problem in its favor if it makes friends with the Arab states in wake of the new multibillion US investment plan, and before the political solution is even offered, a West Bank professor told RT.
The so-called “opportunity of the century,” which US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, presented to media on Saturday, is entitled to create a million jobs in the West Bank and Gaza, while doubling Palestine’s GDP in 10 years. It would be achieved through donors, mainly the Gulf States, pouring $50 billion into the West Bank and Gaza as well as into Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon where several million Palestinian refugees are staying.
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There’s, however, nothing new about such a plan, Saad Nimr, professor of political science at Birzeit University, told RT.
“During Shimon Peres as a Prime Minister in Israel (1995-96), he tried that approach of talking economic ease to the Palestinians instead of talking about a political solution,” but no results were achieved.
Nimr reminded of a World Bank report, which said that Palestine would earn $5.5 billion extra every year if it had access to the Mediterranean and Dead Sea, which is now blocked by Israel.
“The whole issue is a political issue. Give us our freedom and we are able to live equally, normally and in prosperity in Palestine.”
The Palestinians are rejecting the US plan because “the only purpose for the Americans is Israel’s prosperity,” the professor said.
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For years, the Arab countries were saying that they will only normalize relations with Israel after it withdraws from all land occupied in 1967, including the West bank, Gaza Strip, Golan Heights and Jerusalem, he said.
Trump and his team want to start with normalization and only then talk about the political solution for the Palestinians. But, at the end of the day, [this approach] will leave us only with Israel and everyone will start pressurizing us to give up our own rights, like the right of return, the right of a state within the 1967 borders and the right that our capital will be Jerusalem.
Improving relations with the Arab states, especially those in the Gulf, had been Israel’s goal for a long time. “They have a huge potential economically from the Israeli point of view. Now, the Israelis can imagine a huge market for their products; the investment; the money coming into Israel. All that would make Israel absolutely prosperous, while ending the issue of Palestine. It’s a win-win for Israel, absolutely,” Nimr said.
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