Arab Leaders Talk “Safety Net” for Palestinians while Kushner Convenes Economic “Workshop”

Observers from the outside viewing developments in the Middle East would no doubt find “bizarre” a reasonable starting point for describing events. One day before the long-awaited first act of the Kushner Caravan kicks-into gear, an international conference pointedly called an “economic workshop” rather than summit, conference, parley or convention, that boasts the goal of amassing a $50 billion war chest that will be shared by the Palestinians, Jordanians, Lebanese and Egyptians in the first giant step toward regional peace, Arab finance ministers met in Cairo in an attempt to activate the promised economic net. The Arab brain trust blames the fiscal crisis on Israel’s seizing five per cent of the money it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority because as a non-state it cannot collect the funds. Israel’s seizure of the funds is said to compensate for stipends paid to Palestinians who are imprisoned for attacking Israelis or for the families of those who died committing acts of violence. The American-Bahraini confab is akin to making a wedding and collecting the gifts even though the bride didn’t show up and the groom was held back. While it seeks to amass $50 billion with neither Palestinians nor Israelis present, the Arab ministers sought to activate the safety net to the tune of only $100 million – an exercise that is of the “been there, done that” sort. Meanwhile, PA President Mahmoud Abbas is both refusing to accept any of the Israel-collected revenue demanding “all or nothing.” He as so far passed up some $200 million earmarked for the PA’s treasury.