A rocky start for “the deal of the century”

• Critics underrate the realism of the Trump administration’s peace plan for the Middle East
• The Manama workshop was intended to show investors a new approach may work
• Whether it does depends on how Palestinian public opinion swings on the West Bank

President Donald Trump’s administration unveiled the economic part of its proposed solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Manama, the capital of Bahrain, at the“Peace to Prosperity” economic workshop on June 25-26.  

Finance ministers and business executives from around the world were invited to contribute to a $50 billion investment program to provide better conditions to the Palestinians and help the economies of neighboring Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon. The idea was to induce more Palestinian flexibility in future negotiations on the political aspects of the plan, to be unveiled at a later date – in all likelihood this autumn, after Israeli holds a new round of parliamentary elections in November.