(Bloomberg) -- Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and adviser on Middle East peace, told Arab officials and business executives gathered in Bahrain that if the right economic model is adopted, a political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will follow.
Pushing the Trump administration’s economy-first approach to peacemaking, Kushner told a U.S.-devised investment seminar that “peace can only be achieved if it comes with a pathway for people to improve their lives.”
“Today is not about the political issues,” he said. “We will get to those at the right time.”
Palestinian leaders have spurned Kushner’s proposal as an effort to bribe them into accepting an eventual Trump plan that will favor Israel, and Kushner said they discouraged all but a small contingent of Palestinian entrepreneurs and investors from attending.
With a PowerPoint presentation and a video conjuring up modern buildings sprouting from impoverished desert towns, Kushner gave a pitch reflecting his background -- and Trump’s -- as real estate developers.
“Imagine a bustling commercial and tourist center, in Gaza and the West Bank, where international businesses come together and thrive,” he said. “Imagine the West Bank as a blossoming economy, full of entrepreneurs, engineers, scientists, and business leaders.”
The U.S. goal in Bahrain was to focus on economic development for the Palestinians, which would alleviate poor conditions at a time when the Palestinian Authority is near financial collapse.
The 40-page economic proposal unveiled over the weekend envisions a global investment fund that the U.S. said it hopes will funnel almost $50 billion into the Palestinian territories and neighboring countries to boost infrastructure, governance, encourage business and boost women’s participation in the workforce, among other aims. But the Trump administration hasn’t made a U.S. government financial commitment.
Palestinian leaders largely broke off contact with the Trump administration after Trump’s decision to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and weren’t consulted on Kushner’s plan.
The conference included senior figures such as International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde, Blackstone Group Chief Executive Officer Stephen Schwarzman and Thomas Barrack, the executive chairman of Colony Capital Inc. and a close Trump ally. But only a fraction of the more than 1,000 business leaders invited showed up, according to a personal familiar with the situation.
--With assistance from Vivian Nereim.
To contact the reporter on this story: David Wainer in New York at dwainer3@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael Shepard at mshepard7@bloomberg.net, ;Lin Noueihed at lnoueihed@bloomberg.net, Larry Liebert
©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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