July 6, 2019
President Donald Trump’s attempt to sell the Brooklyn Bridge to the Palestinians – using Gulf Arab oil money – has so far been a resounding failure, as was widely predicted.
The so-called ‘Deal of the Century’ turned out to be a shabby swindle.
I watched Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, deliver the first part of his big deal to a bunch of tame Arab oil monarchs and assorted hangers-on. Kushner looked like a nervous sophomore taking a tough oral exam. There were no Palestinians or Israelis present. But Israel’s powerful American backers were watching from the sidelines as their ‘deal’ was enunciated.
Trump’s offer was pure New York City real estate hipper dipper. He would get the rich Gulf Arab states, all of them American protectorates, to offer some $60 billion in payments, credits, loans and other financial inducements to the Palestinian Authority – but nothing to the democratically elected Hamas government in the open-air prison of Gaza that holds two million Palestinian refugees.
The $60 billion would be a payoff to the US-managed Palestinian leadership of Mohammed Abbas, another US pawn, to give up the PLO’s rights to most of the West Bank so Israel can annex it, as Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu just vowed. This follows Israel’s annexation of Syria’s Golan Heights and growing US recognition of Israel’s claim to all of Jerusalem.
In other words, Israel hopes to gain most or all of the West Bank and Jerusalem by getting the rich but dim Gulf Arabs and Saudi Arabia to pay the proposed bribe money. The US and Israel will more or less divvy up the central Mideast. Just this week, the director of Israel’s Mossad said that his spy agency had played a key role in bringing the Arab oil monarchs into alliance with Israel.
Egypt, the leading Arab military power, has been bought off with Saudi money and US protection. The military dictatorship in Cairo is, in fact, acting as a co-jailer of the Palestinians of Gaza.
Turkey, long a supporter of Palestinian rights, has suffered US-backed coup attempts and intense economic warfare orchestrated from Washington that have left it destabilized and weakened.
If the tragicomical ‘Deal of the Century’ were to actually come to pass, what will become of the Palestinians, sold down the river by their Arab oil brothers? The Trump administration has not yet specified the details. The unwritten hope is that the two million Palestinians in the Gaza hellhole will remain there, locked up by Israel and Egypt.
The three million plus Palestinians on the West Bank – which is slated for Israeli occupation – will be `encouraged’ to decamp to other inhospitable Arab countries or simply driven into neighboring Jordan, 60% of whose population are already of Palestinian origin. Israeli rightists are fond of claiming that Jordan is really the true Palestinian state.
But Israel’s Arab neighbors, notably Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, as well as Jordan, already have large numbers of Palestinian refugees and don’t want any more. Kuwait expelled 400,000 Palestinian refugees during the wars of 2001/2003. Israel, which drove the original Palestinian refugees from their homes, insists it will never take back these Arabs.
Meanwhile, no one in Washington seems to have bothered talking to the Palestinians, aside from a few quislings and yes-men. Palestinians totally reject the Trump-Kushner proposal. They have always looked on the Saudis and Gulf Arabs as traitors and back-stabbers. Young Mr. Kushner has not begun to understand these complexities.
This whole ‘peace deal’ is a big smokescreen to cover Israeli land expansion and more ethnic cleansing. Many thoughtful Israelis are dismayed by their far right-wing government’s expansionist plans, seeing nothing but more troubles and violence ahead.
In Trump’s world, almost everything can be bought. What he can’t buy directly, his mentor casino billionaire Adelson can. Trump’s real Mideast mover and shaker is Mr. Greater Israel Adelson, not junior Kushner.
Copyright Eric S. Margolis
The thing that really bothers me is the idea that the US tries t0 portray itself as a mediator…. when they have picked sides in every conflict out there… you can mediate anything when you pick a side
Dear Eric,
The deal of the century, as it’s called, not a deal, it is a maneuver to kill time and bring the Gulf rulers closer under the American wings.
60 billion dollars price of Palestine, that is sooooo cheap, I would buy it for this money.
Giving Jordan 5 billions, Lebanon 5 billions or 6 and so to keep the Palestinians that live on their country and grant them citizenships !
Trump and Koshner must be out their mind or they know precisely that this deal will never see the day of light. They know that, just for example, the house speaker in Lebanon Berri and his family, embezzled over 50 billions of cash money. The youngest son of Berri owns more than 5 billion dollars. Offering Lebanon 5 billions is a joke and everyone laughed at it. It is not that more money will make the deal go!
They knew, whom ever in on it, from first minute that the deal will be rejected. It is not a deal, it is a kill of time and to test the water and bring doubtful Gulf rulers under US wings and maybe, just maybe one of those crazy Palestinian will agree to it!
Great article… and points out a major failing of Western newspapers for not printing the news.
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Dik
I have been telling Muslims they should start a hajj pilgrimage boycott to show their disapproval of what the Saudis are doing, they agree but nothing is harder than uniting the Muslims for their own benefit.
Dear Ben,
Everyone in the middle East knows what the Saudis are doing and what they really are.
Some of the Saudi people agree with the ruling family ( would not call it a government, bunch of head choppers) but many are against. The ones who are against, are helpless and they dare not express their opinions so they do not loose their heads.
The rest of the muslims, are well aware of MBS and family acts, they speak against it but would not take action for one simple reason, If they do, muslims will have to take sides and another big and huge separation of muslims all over the world, and that is not acceptable to any real muslim.
Boycotting Haj, will not affect Saudis, they do not give a s*&^%t about haj, Mecca or any sacred land or site in or out of Suadia arabia, Mecca does not belong to Saudis, it is in their land ( the land is the Arab Peninsula that been there before the Saudi in thousands of years, Saudia Arabia is new and baby country, in term of age) but does not belong to them. It I like the Vatican in Italy, but the Vatican is not Italian.
So boycotting will only hurt the ones who boycott, not the Saudis.
When Canada was called on the carpet for comments about women’s rights… Saudi students (mostly male), studying in Canada, agreed with their government and not Canada. They should have been expelled and deported… but, nothing happened.
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Dik
Excellent commentary. One interesting point is that Kushner’s peace proposal comes at just the same time that the US is ramping up its sanctions against Iran. By effectively cutting off almost all Iranian exports, the US is also boxing in the Palestinians in Gaza and attempting to prevent them from truly rising up against Israel. Of course Kushner would propose something that Israel will accept – he does, after all, belong to an Orthodox Jewish congregation and is certainly pro-Zionist. But, what he has proposed is a nothing more than good recipe for an explosive confrontation, someday, between Israel and all Palestinians and thus will bring about peace for no one.
The Americans did the same thing with Japan, and, the result was Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima and Nagasaki…
Dik