Kushner in Bahrain: Easy to criticize, harder to present detailed plan

MESOPOTAMIA NEWS TODAYS COMMENTARY BY JERUSALEM POST

“When people criticize, the question I would ask them is what is your idea, what ideas are you putting forward,” he told reporters.

By Herb Keinon June 26, 2019 21:31 – JERUSALEM POST – MANAMA, BAHRAIN – It is easy to be against things, and much more difficult to state what your are for, and then detail it, US top official Jared Kushner said to his critics Wednesday at the end of the “Peace to Prosperity” workshop here.

“When people criticize, the question I would ask them is what is your idea, what ideas are you putting forward,” he told reporters in a briefing after a day of sessions devoted to how to invest in the Palestinian territories and in the region.

“It is easy to be against things, but that is not going to help the Palestinian people, it is not going to help the region,” Kushner said. “But what we’ve tried to do is take the harder task of being for something. And we’ve put out 140 pages of details.”

Kushner said that in politics people don’t like putting out detail, because detail invites criticism. “We are actually seeking constructive feedback, and then we are going to modify it and move forward.”

Kushner said that the administration had no intention of “punishing” the Palestinian leadership for boycotting the conference.“This isn’t about punishing the Palestinian people one way or the other, we are trying to help the Palestinian people,” he said. He added that much of the criticism has come from people who have been involved with the issue for a very long time and “can get very jumpy” when things are not done their way.

“The ways of the past have not worked, and we are going to keep doing it in a way that is a logical framework.,” he added.The Palestinians, he said, “don’t have a great track record in getting a deal done.”

Kushner said that the conference was specifically designed to invite foreign ministers – the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar were on hand – rather than foreign ministers because the “traditional policy community” is “stuck” on the issue and seems unable to bring it forward.He said that those who drew up the administration’s economic plan “ were not aware of what is in the political plan,” which will be rolled out at a still yet to be determined date.“We’ll get to the political plan when we are ready to get to the political plan,” he said.

The last session of the conference included the finance ministers of Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.The UAE Minister of State for Financial Affairs Obaid al-Tayer Minister gently chided the Palestian Authority leadership for not showing up at the conference.

“We need to provide prosperity to the Palestinians, and they have to aspire for a better future,” he said. “If this is initiative on the table, and what is being discussed , we should give it a chance.”

Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheikh Khaled Bin Ahmed Al-Khalifa also indicated in an interview with Channel 13 that the Palestinians made a mistake not participating in the conference.”It is always a mistake to miss a n opportunity to achieve peace,” he said. “Yes this has nothing to do with the [political] peace plan the US will propose. But this was an opportunity that we wanted to see them here, but they chose not to come.”

Asked what his message was to the Israeli public, Khalifa said, “Yes, you do have peace with Egypt and Jordan, and some kind of understanding with the Palestinians. But this is not the limit of the scope of where you belong. Israel is a country in the Middle East. It is part of the heritage of this region. The Jewish people have a place among us. So communication needs to be a prerequisite for solving all the dispute. We should talk.”

In an interview with Kan News, Khalifa said”this is an opportunity not to be missed.” He likened it to the Camp David accords that brought peace between Egypt and Israel, which he said was a “game changer.”

“I think if we take this matter [the conference] seriously, it could be a very important game changer,” he said. The one Palestinian businessman who spoke at the conference, Ashraf Jabari from Hebron, said that the Palestinian Authority leadership did not boycott the conference , because they were not invited. “It is a conference for business people,” he said.

Jabari was one of about a dozen Palestinian business people who bucked the Palestinian AUthority pressure and showed up at the event.   Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, asked by Kushner at one of the sessions on Wednesday what he would do were he the head of the PA, said that he learned two lessons in politics: think creatively about your situation, and always engage.