May 23, 2019--Jared Kushner's "Deal of the Century"

More than two years after Trump designated his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, as responsible for "fixing the Middle East," to bring about, in Trump's words, the "Deal of the Century," that fix, that deal is slowly emerging from the shadows.

It appears, though, that it is already dead on arrival. 

Hold off with the Nobel Peace Prizes.

Here's what's happening. Actually, what's not happening.

The Kushner plan has two parts--the first is economic--what Trump is promising will happen if all parties agree to the fix. The second part is the political deal--what the various parties will need to agree to in order to reap the economic benefits.

To move the process along Trump-Kushner are inviting Arab economic leaders to a meeting in Bahrain where they will learn about the billions of dollars that will supposedly come their way if they agree to go along with the political agenda.

The problem is that Kushner has not told anyone what's in the political package--what is expected of the Palestinians (likely a lot) and what's expected of Israel (likely very little).

Since they are very smart (especially when it comes to someone attempting to take advantage of them) most of the Palestinian business types who are being invited to the meeting are feeling insulted and for the most part are planning not to attend.

To quote one, Zahi W. Khuri, a Palestinian-America who owns the Coca-Cola franchise in the West Bank and Gaza Strip--

He called it "offensive" to talk about investment in the Palestinian economy before addressing the people's "national aspirations."

"Putting this first is a blatant payoff. You insult the people by talking about their quality of life when you keep them locked up under the Israeli occupation. In nation-building you start with dignity and freedom. You don't start by bribing and buying people."

This approach, putting bribery first and the political deal last--in other words starting with the money--tells us more about Kushner and Trump than the Palestinians.

This is how they think--because Kushner is Jewish that's all the experience he needs to make a deal. But at the heart of the matter it's all about money. For Trump-Kushner that's always been the case and so they cynically assume it is for everyone else.

It could be that they're in for a rude awakening.

November 27, 2013--Fajr and Sijil

At times, the tragic and the absurd merge to become indistinguishable. I can think of no better sad example than the recent case of the lion cubs of Palestine.

Last week two were born in, of all places, the Gaza Strip. Hamas proclaimed this blessed event as evidence that life goes on quite well in even this godforsaken and embattled place.

And, of course, they gave credit to themselves for creating the political and cultural environment that enabled this to occur. Sort of like what the Soviets used to do with Olympic athletes--shoot them full of hormones so that they would win dozens of gold medals and then cite that as proof of the superiority of their system.

But then the cubs, Fajr and Sijil, "dawn" and "stones of clay" in Arabic, proclaimed by Hamas to be symbols of "resistance, beauty, power, and strength," died.

Ignoring the craziness of attempting to breed and raise wild animals in such a forbidding environment, Hamas blamed, who else, Israel for the cubs demise.

Never mind that raising lions in captivity requires sophisticated zoological facilities and expert veterinary care (the mother lion, which is not unusual for animals in zoos, refused to feed the cubs) and they need to be monitored at all times (the lioness last Tuesday stepped on and killed the cubs), it was still all Israel's fault.

Hamas claimed this was because an Israeli warplane dropped three bombs on a Jihad training camp in northern Gaza not far from the zoo and this spooked the lioness who then . . .

Aware of the emotion surrounding the birth and untimely death of the two cubs, Israel quickly let it be known that the bombing was in retaliation for attacks on them earlier in the day, by rockets Hamas calls fajr.

There are a dozen so-called zoos in the Gaza Strip. According to the New York Times, at one, workers painted stripes on two donkeys and passed them off as zebras; at another, Hamas zookeepers stuffed dead animals and put them on display. I assume a similar fate awaits Fajr and Sijil.