US President Donald Trump's economic vision as part of the wider plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was met with contempt, repudiation and exasperation by Palestinians and many in the Arab world, even as some in the Gulf called for it to be given a chance.
The $50 billion "peace to prosperity" plan, set to be presented by Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner at a conference in Bahrain on Tuesday and Wednesday, envisions a global investment fund to lift the Palestinian and neighboring Arab states' economies.
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But the lack of a political solution, which Washington has said would be unveiled later, prompted rejection not only from Palestinians but also in Arab countries which Israel would seek normal relations with.
"The plan cannot pass because it ends the Palestinian cause," Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Saturday. "We are not going to attend this workshop, the reason is that the economic situation should not be discussed before a political situation, so long as there is no political situation, we do not deal with any economic situation."
Senior Palestine Liberation Organization official Hanan Ashrawi said on Saturday that Kushner's plans were "all abstract promises" and said only a political solution would solve the conflict.
Speaking to Reuters, she said: "If they really care about the Palestinian economy they should start by lifting the siege of Gaza, stopping Israel [from] stealing our money and our resources and our land and opening up our territorial waters, our airspace, and our borders so we can freely export and import."
She said the Trump administration's stance was an "entirely wrong approach," adding: "They can end the occupation, which is the most basic requirement for prosperity. There can be no prosperity under occupation."
Hamas, the Islamist terrorist group that controls Gaza, was blunter, saying: "Palestine isn't for sale."
"We reject the 'deal of the century' and all its dimensions, the economic, the political and the security dimensions," Hamas official Ismail Rudwan told Reuters.
"The issue of our Palestinian people is a nationalistic issue; it is the issue of a people who are seeking to be free from occupation. Palestine isn't for sale and it is not an issue for bargaining. Palestine is a sacred land and there is no option for the occupation except to leave," he said.
From Sudan to Kuwait, prominent commentators and ordinary citizens denounced Kushner's proposals in strikingly similar terms: "colossal waste of time," "nonstarter," "dead on arrival."
"Homelands cannot be sold, even for all the money in the world," Egyptian analyst Gamal Fahmy said. "This plan is the brainchild of real estate brokers, not politicians. Even Arab states that are described as moderate are not able to openly express support for it."
Commentator Sarkis Naoum at Lebanon's An-Nahar newspaper said, "This economic plan, like others, won't succeed because it has no political foundation."
While the precise outline of the political plan has been shrouded in secrecy, officials briefed on it say Kushner has jettisoned the two-state solution – the long-standing worldwide formula that envisages an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel in the West Bank, east Jerusalem, and Gaza.
The PLO has dismissed Kushner's plans as "all abstract promises," insisting that only a political solution will solve the problem. It said they were an attempt to bribe the Palestinians into accepting Israeli "occupation."
Jawad al-Anani, a former senior Jordanian politician, described widespread suspicion after Trump's decisions to move the US embassy to Jerusalem and recognize Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights.
"This is an unbalanced approach: It assumes the Palestinians are the more vulnerable side and they are the ones who can succumb to pressure more easily," he said. "This is a major setback for the whole region."
Azzam Huneidi, deputy head of Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood, the country's main opposition said: "The economic plan is the sale of Palestine under the banner of prosperity in return for peace and with no land being returned ... and with the bulk of the funds shouldered by Gulf Arab states ... A deal with Arab money."
The Palestinian Authority is boycotting the Bahrain workshop and the White House did not invite Israeli government officials.
US-allied Gulf Arab states, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, will take part along with officials from Egypt, Jordan, and Morocco. Lebanon and Iraq will not attend.
Lebanon's Iranian-backed Shiite terrorist group Hezbollah, which wields significant influence over the government, has previously called the plan a "historic crime" that must be stopped.
In recent years, Iran's bitter rivalry with a bloc led by Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia has increasingly pushed the Arab-Israeli struggle into the background.
While Riyadh and its allies have welcomed Trump's harder line against Tehran, which has cast itself as the guardian of the Palestinian cause, critics accuse Saudi Arabia, the custodian of Islam's holiest places, of abandoning the Palestinians.
Amid fears that it would push them to accept a US plan that favors Israel, Saudi Arabia has assured Arab allies it would not endorse anything that fails to meet key Palestinian demands.
Ali Shihabi, who heads the Arabia Foundation which supports Saudi policies, said the Palestinian Authority was wrong to reject the plan out of hand.
"It should accept it and work on delivering the benefits to its people and then move forward aggressively with non-violent work ... to seek political rights," he tweeted.
Prominent Emirati businessman Khalaf Ahmad al-Habtoor has also criticized the Palestinians' refusal to go to Bahrain, calling it "short-sighted at best, self-defeating at worst."
"There is no harm in listening to what will be placed on the table," he wrote last month.
Yet even in the Gulf, backing for Kushner's plan is limited.
Majed al-Ansari, a political sociology professor at Qatar University, called it laughable and unrealistic.
"The idea of moving from land-for-peace to money-for-peace is insulting to the Palestinian cause," he said. "It is very clear that Kushner's idea is about paying for Palestinian approval of Israel taking over all their land and basically giving no concessions to the Palestinians."
Kuwaiti researcher Maitham al-Shakhs predicted Washington would be unable to implement the plan through diplomacy and might have to impose it by force.
Emirati political scientist Abdulkhaleq Abdulla said the Palestinians are entitled to reject Kushner's plan because it does not meet their minimum aspirations.
"The plan is not even palatable to the wider audience in the region. It will be a sell-off of a just cause," he said.
"The Gulf states will have a hard time to force it on the Palestinians. They will have a hard time convincing the Palestinians. … It's not what people expect after years of conflict and struggle."
