Trump’s plan will not make the Palestinians’ lives well again, however it could help take apart the ruinous Oslo order.
January 28, US president reveals the much awaited Middle East peace plan to negotiate “peace” among people of Israel and Palestine.
The Middle East plan is a visions to make better the lives of the Palestinian and Israeli people, the plan states to “unleash the economic potential of the Palestinians through investment, improved education, healthcare and utilities, and enhanced governance”.
The plan assures wide range economic projects, comprising free trade pact with the United States, a new port in Gaza, a Dead Sea resort in Palestine under Israeli control, and others.
The visions includes compensation for Palestinians refugees who opt to surrender right of return.
The proposal includes broader procedure of economic normalization and large scale integration, necessitates open borders for investments and capitals and allows trade across the “Palestinian state” with considerable investment in Gulf States. This economic vision is to be realized through investment mostly by wealthy Gulf States and private firms.
Actually, the trumps’ proposal is to acknowledge Zionist objectives and establish Jewish states based on these goals, whereas Palestinians would be given wealth of economic opportunities at the expense of their basic rights and dignity.
The notion of “peace dividends” was the basis of Oslo process headed by Clinton administration. It assured the new age of opulence where Gaza would be changed into the “Singapore of the Middle East”, of course, the passage of the trump plan makes reference to the Singapore multiple times.
The “roadmap for peace” put forth in 2003 by bush government also focused on economic growth and prosperity as main recipe for peace.
Like the peace plan by trump, the peace plan by barrack Obama offered four billion to strengthen the economy up to 50 percent to help “transform the fortunes of a future Palestinian state”.
All of these plans have attempted to use economic incentives as a means to appeasement of Palestinians, intending to restate the socioeconomic conditions of Palestinians to makes sure political submission by them.
The economic prosperity is assured while interrupting the political process. The peace plan is expected to lead to assuaging impact on the Palestinians and at the last lack of political radicalization.
Early on, this approach was adopted by Israel following 1967 war, as an attempt to control the Palestinian. The policy of “open bridges” was designed to endorse economic modernization by defense minister Moshe Dayan. Dayan stated “the objective was to make the ‘occupation invisible’”.
The foreign minister Shimon Peres in 1990s extended his plan of “New Middle East” which offered regional economic integration to bring Arabs and Israeli’s to common marketplace.
In recent times, this approach adopted shape of “economic peace strategy” led by Benjamin Netanyahu in 2009 as a means to exploit intra-Palestine issue of 2007 as a result of occupation of Gaza and the –Palestinian authority by Hamas on the west bank. This strategy was called “West Bank first” to restrict movement of Palestinians across the west bank so Palestinians desire economic prosperity.
One thing is common in all these tactics. More or less, all of these plans failed to hold back force of Palestinians for independence and full rights. The Palestinians stalwartly remain adherent to their dignity and national rights.
There is high poverty and unemployment rates and the Palestinians economy remain underdeveloped despite of investments in billions of dollars. Further investment of fifty billion is less likely to make a difference as Israel controls all of the land and resources.
The economic pacification is a smart move which can create a complex system of financial interests and connect the political elites and restrain their capacity for political planning.
Undoubtedly, the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas’s reaction was more symbolic and has no considerable impact on trumps; policy. The Palestinian president is not willing to be substantive in the future either. On the other hand, the PA security coordination tends to prevent mass protests and conflicts with Israeli soldiers, as reported.
Other than PA’s muffled response, many Arab states supported the peace plan, which was unimaginable in the past when the Arab rulers were scared of the reactions by Arab public. Some Arab regimes go far to negate the Palestinian rights on mainstream media.
However, none of these initiatives can impose unfair solutions as long as Palestinians are firm in their vision. In this regard, Trump’s plan may have positive aspects: it could facilitate Palestinians in disregarding the Oslo order, and move forward in order to shift paradigm towards equal rights for all.–Worldwide News