Nothing ground shaking will happen on June 25, when the Trump administration's economic "workshop" gets underway in Manama, Bahrain. To tell you the truth, this isn't how things work. Before you announce that you're convening an economic forum that will include the Israelis and the Palestinians, as well as Arab and international leaders, you check to see who is willing to take part. But it's probably that instead of doing that, the Americans made do with Manama agreeing to host the forum, and immediately made public an idea that is, at best, half-baked.
The Palestinians, as expected, rushed to announce that the cart was being put before the horse and that any economic cooperation must be the result of a peace deal, not the opposite. They made it clear they would not be bought, announced they would be boycotting the conference, and asked other Arab countries not to participate. Many of the nations of the region found themselves between a rock and a hard place: under American pressure to send their finance ministers and Palestinian pressure not to take part, which influenced public opinion within their own borders. The solution they came up with was to send low-ranking officials.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter
After Russia and China announced that they would not be attending, and most of the important and wealthy nations said they would not be dispatching their treasury heads, Trump advisor Jared Kushner and his team realized they had a problem. Bahrain got cold feet, too, and asked that Israel send low-ranking officials and leave out its finance minister. Canceling the workshop would be an admission of defeat, and the Americans decided to avoid such a dramatic step. But the explanation that Israel had been asked not to send top-level officials because the conference was not political in nature explains everything.
The story started with the administration's surprising announcement that it would be revealing the economic components of the much-delayed "deal of the century." The people who have been waiting with bated breath for the plan that will bring about regional reconciliation started to show interest. At first, it looked like the plan was based on an economic platform that would be offered to both sides, the Palestinians in particular. Later on, they realized that something had changed: the economic aspects would be separated and presented before the political ideas.
Now it turns out that the forum will be relatively sparsely attended, and the people who will be there are not the decision-makers in their countries. The political part of the plan will have to wait until after Israel's do-over election and will be presented only after a new government is established – assuming we aren't sent to the polls for a third time – and after the next US election. Anyone who was pinning their hopes on a "present" from our American uncle, or was worried about it, can calm down.
An economic workshop attended by economic officials from the region, particularly businesspeople, is simply a conference, and certainly no substitute for a real peace plan. Just like it isn't worth getting our hopes up, it isn't worth protesting. After the administration pulled back from its original intention of holding a major economic summit, it appears to have made peace with the event to all intents and purposes being canceled.
