Neither Kushner nor Trump felt it was necessary to have invited Palestinians to the January 28, 2020 White House ceremony unveiling the “peace plan.” Only Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who has been criminally charged in Israel for bribery, fraud, and breach of trust, was invited to the White House ceremony. Netanyahu is so close to the Kushner family that he once slept in Jared Kushner’s bed when visiting the Kushner family in New Jersey.

Also present at the White House ceremony was major Trump campaign donor and casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, an individual whose hatred for the Palestinians knows no bounds. Another key player in Trump’s lavish giveaway of the West Bank to the Israelis is David Friedman, Trump’s one-time bankruptcy lawyer and his ambassador to Israel. Friedman is on record advocating Israel’s annexation of the West Bank, which he and other expansionists call “Judea and Samaria,” place names drawn from a set of Biblical books of Hebrew mythology and folklore. Yet Kushner referred to previous serious Middle East peace plans, including the 1991 Madrid Conference and 1993 Oslo Accords as “fairy tales” and “tired old ideas.” In fact, ancient texts justifying slavery, misogyny, and fratricide – otherwise known as the Old Testament – represents true fairy tales and tired old ideas having no place in the 21^st century.

Jared Kushner’s ex-federal convict father, Charles Kushner, has been a lifelong friend of Netanyahu and a key officer in Israel’s political influence machine in the United States. It was therefore not surprising that Jared Kushner’s plan advocates a Palestinian non-contiguous entity on the West Bank subservient to Israel and connected to the open-air ghetto of Gaza by an underground tunnel. It was Adolf Hitler’s National Socialist dogma to equate Jews to rats and mice. Apparently, some of those, like Kushner and Netanyahu, who bemoan the loss of members of their families during the Holocaust, would relegate the Palestinians to human rodents scurrying underground beneath the ground between Gaza and the West Bank “reservations” allotted to the Palestinians.

Israel would annex a third of Palestinian territory, including the entire Jordan River valley, cutting Palestinian enclaves off from a common border with Jordan. The Kushner plan also deprived the Palestinians of a capital city in East Jerusalem. Kushner proposes the Palestinian capital be located in some slums in an eastern suburb of Jerusalem.

The only Arab ambassadors to Washington who were present at Kushner’s West Bank annexation plan for Israel were those from Bahrain – a virtual Saudi Arabian puppet state, Oman – which is still trying to get its diplomatic footing after the death of its leader, Sultan Qabus bin Said, and the United Arab Emirates, which an increasingly doddering Trump referred to in his remarks as the “United Arab Air Mattress.”

The Egyptian Secretary General of the Arab League, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, in condemning Kushner’s contrivance, said it would establish an “apartheid” system and relegate Palestinians to the status of second-class citizens. The Kushner plan came as yet another slap in the face of the Palestinians and Arab countries. Trump recognized Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem and moved the US embassy there from Tel Aviv. Trump then formally recognized Israel’s illegal annexation of Syria’s Golan Heights. Trump further poisoned the water by closing down and expelling the Palestinian diplomatic mission in Washington and halting all US assistance to the United Nations relief agency for Palestine, UNRWA.

Kushner’s hatred for the Palestinian people was on full display in an interview with CNN. He claimed that the Palestinians were “going to screw up another opportunity like they’ve screwed up every opportunity that they’ve ever had in their existence.” Borrowing a page from his father-in-law’s insult manual, Kushner said of Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat: “In my business, when someone tries to do business for 20 years [a reference to Erekat] and fails, he is replaced by someone else.” Kushner’s main “business” has been as an apartment slum lord, relegating his renters in Maryland, New Jersey, and New York to lives of malfunctioning heating and air conditioning systems, rodents and insects, usurious rent hikes, and broken appliances. Kushner, an Orthodox Jew and supporter of the Zionist Chabad Lubavitch movement, apparently has the same slumlord vision in store for the 4.68 million people of the West Bank and Gaza.

Kushner appended his sales pitch to the Palestinians by further insulting them. He said “his vision was 100 percent workable if only the Palestinian leadership would stop being so “hysterical and stupid.” Kushner also said that “Palestinians have never done anything right in their sad, pathetic lives.” Kushner’s statements are those of a Zionist Jewish racist, pure and simple. Unfortunately, few Jewish organizations have been willing to condemn such blatantly racist and xenophobic statements from Mr. Trump’s son-in-law. Kushner is an important cog in a neo-fascist political machine that relegates those of African, Arab, or other nonwhite European heritage to second-class “untermensch” – a favorite term of the Nazis – status.

In a response to Kushner’s “deal of the century” and insulting comments, Erekat tweeted: “If Mr. Kushner says PM Netanyahu is allowed to annex Jerusalem, settlements, Jordan Valley, Dead Sea, have security control west of the Jordan river, control Palestinian airspace, territorial waters, no [harbors], refugees off the table. What is [there] to negotiate?” Indeed, why even invite the Palestinians to the negotiating table. Hitler never invited the Czechoslovakians to the Munich peace conference eve though he and Benito Mussolini, with the acquiescence of the British and French were carving up Czechoslovakia for Hitler’s annexation. Kushner and the Israelis have learned well from the architects of the Holocaust.

Trump, Netanyahu, Kushner and Greenblatt have collectively come up with ‘The Deal of the Century’ made of an economic component and a political component. The ‘Deal’ is presumably a road map for a peaceful settlement of the Palestinian problem. The economic component was the subject of an economic workshop dubbed “Peace to Prosperity” held Bahrain but was subsequently shelved. The political component of the ‘Deal’ will presumably be tabled after the September 17^th Israeli elections; don’t hold your breath.

While the economic component had something meager to offer the Palestinians – a few loaves of bread – does the political component have anything to offer the Palestinians?

In a previous article titled “The Trump ‘Deal’: An Ultimatum and a Setup”, published in Strategic Culture on May 5^th, 2019, covering the economic component of the ‘Deal’, I reflected on the political component of the ‘Deal”, speculating and reading between the lines of what had been published. Now, there is no need to speculate or read between the lines about the content of the political component regarding the Palestinian core issues. A large amount of detail was vocalized in the Security Council and through interviews with Jason Greenblatt, Trump’s Special Representative for International Negotiations who has been speaking about the political component of the ‘Deal’. Having been a contributor in drafting the sixty-some pages ‘Deal’, Greenblatt reflected knowledgeably about the basic components of the ‘Deal’ and spoke authoritatively on behalf of the troika of Netanyahu, Trump and Kushner.

It is noteworthy that the economic component of the ‘Deal’ was dealt with first. One would logically assume that the normal procedure would be to deal with the political component prior to the economic component. The reason for the reverse sequence reflects a Western conception of a presumed Arab trait that an Arab would sell himself for financial gain.

In his presentation at the Security Council and separately through some interviews, Greenblatt indirectly spelled out the central political points in the ‘Deal’, which center around four core issues: 1.) The Settlements, 2.) A Sovereign Palestinian State on the West Bank, 3.) East Jerusalem as the Capital of the Palestinian State and 4.) The Return of the Palestinian Refugees. I highlight below preliminary conclusions from Greenblatt’s Security Council presentation and interviews regarding these core issues.

1. The Settlements: These constitute a litmus test for a successful peace process. If dealt with to the satisfaction of the parties, the process can proceed; if not, then dealing with the other three core issues becomes a moot question, an exercise in futility. Greenblatt, in his meeting at the Security Council, made it very clear that the Settlements are not a litmus test. “Let’s stop pretending that the Settlements are what is keeping the sides from a negotiated peaceful solution,” said Greenblatt, adding, it is a ‘farce’. Even the term ‘Settlements’ is not acceptable to him, it is ‘pejorative’ he claims – Settlements are just “neighborhoods and cities”. Indeed, they are neighborhoods and cities, but Greenblatt ignores the fact that these ‘neighborhoods and cities’ are established in occupied Palestinian land in violation of International Law, international consensus, and a multitude of U.N. General Assembly and Security Council resolutions. Furthermore, Greenblatt rejects the term ‘occupied’ describing the West Bank ‘disputed land’. In a recent speech, Netanyahu went the ultimate step when he declared “with God’s help, we will extend Jewish sovereignty to all settlements.” As such, one can reasonably conclude that any further discourse of the political component a mere intellectual exercise.

2. A Sovereign Palestinian State on the West Bank: It appears that just the mere mention of a ‘Palestinian State’ and ‘Two States’, have become anathema and taboo. Kushner has decided to “not say” the words “Two States.” In response to the question posed by Ari Shapiro on NPR’s All Things Considered “…whether the Palestinians deserve to have independence the way Israelis have independence”, Greenblatt responded: “…you can’t summarize such an extraordinarily complex conflict with the word ‘independence.’ You can’t summarize the conflict with the words ‘Two State solution ‘. There are just too many things, too many layers to this conflict to allow one- or three-word slogans or phrases to summarize the conflict.” So ‘independence’ and ‘Two State solution’ which are the core issues and the essence of a political solution are, for Greenblatt, speaking on behalf of Netanyahu, Trump and Kushner troika, mere slogans and phrases.

3. East Jerusalem as the Capital of the Palestinian State: Irrespective of what the political component says about Jerusalem, the subject of East Jerusalem was settled when Trump recognized Jerusalem as the eternal capital of Israel and moved the American embassy to Jerusalem. Netanyahu added, “We are in Jerusalem and we are here to stay.” He further added, “You can only build peace on truth, and that is Jerusalem has been and will always be the capital of the Jewish people, the capital of the Jewish State.” Thus, Jerusalem, united and permanent capital of Israel eliminates the notion of East Jerusalem ever becoming the capital of a potential Palestinian State.

4. The Return of the Palestinian Refugees: This is a follow up to the first three core Palestinian issues. If there is no stoppage of settlement building and expansion, no Palestinian State with East Jerusalem as its capital, the return of the refugees becomes academic; a moot question. Furthermore, the question of the Palestinian refugees has already been settled by Trump – on behalf of Netanyahu – when he defined a Palestinian refugee as one who ‘was alive when Israel was established in 1948’ – an equivalent to 71 years of age; a tiny subset of overall refugees that surely has limited reasons for return.

The Palestinian leaders, starting with Abbas, have already rejected the economic component which offers them, presumably, substantial financial gains. By comparison, the political component, from all indications, denies them everything. As for the Palestinians commitment to Palestine, contrary to the presumed Arab trait that an Arab would sell himself for financial gain, and the expectations in some Arab and Western quarters that Palestinians will sell out, it has been a century plus since the infamous Balfour Declaration and seventy one years since the establishment of Israel and to their credits, the Palestinians have not sold out and are still carrying the torch. But then there is so much suffering the Palestinians can withstand while the international community turns a blind eye.

Mr. Kushner does not have the business acumen to run a New York City sandwich cart, let alone a major foreign policy initiative like a final Middle East peace agreement. Such a concordat has eluded a every US president since the creation of Israel in 1948. Kushner’s real estate bankruptcies are legendary, and they have resulted in him and his father panhandling for loan relief financing from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, and China, among other countries.

In the wake of Kushner’s “Peace to Prosperity” plan unveiled at a workshop in Bahrain in June of this year, government officials around the world reacted with an almost-unanimous thumbs down. The Bahrain conference more resembled a meeting of potential investors in one of Kushner’s real estate scams. The Palestinians, claiming that to present an economic plan for the Palestinian territories prior to a political settlement, boycotted the Bahrain conclave. Under the “Kushner Plan,” Gaza was to become a tourist resort with transport routes through Israel to the West Bank. No mention was made of the crippling Israeli and Egyptian blockades imposed on the densely populated Gaza enclave of 1.8 million people. Kushner displayed his utter ignorance of geo-politics, history, and diplomacy when he said Palestinians would reap a financial whirlwind of real estate development and tourism investment money if “there’s not a fear of people doing terrorism.” Doing terrorism? In Kushner’s pampered rich kid myopic view of the world, “doing terrorism” is like “doing lunch” or “doing a Broadway show.”

Participating in Kushner’s gabfest, US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin claimed that Kushner’s roll-out was like a “hot IPO,” an initial public offering of shares in a company. Seasoned Middle East experts, including diplomats and scholars, were far less enthusiastic, with one likening Kushner’s conference to a Monty Python sketch.

Kushner also lambasted the Palestinian leadership for saying “crazy things.” The son-in-law of the man who, on a daily basis, says and tweets “crazy things” believes that it is “crazy” for Palestinian leaders to condemn Israeli expansion into East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights. In fact, “crazy” was Trump ordering the moving of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, shuttering the US Consulate General in Jerusalem that served as the de facto US mission in Palestine, cutting off all US economic assistance to the Palestinians, closing the Palestinian diplomatic mission in Washington, and recognizing Israeli sovereignty over Syria’s Golan Heights.

Kushner called the Palestinians “stupid and hysterical.” However, nothing exemplifies hysterical and stupid more than Kushner family friend Binyamin Netanyahu, who once stood before the United Nations General Assembly and displayed a cartoon drawing of a bomb to “prove” that Iran was nearing development of a nuclear weapon. Netanyahu’s histrionics before the world assembly was not the first time he resorted to gimmickry and lying in order to tick off a list of favorite Zionist talking points.

Kushner does not appreciate the hyper-hysterical nature of Israel and its supporters, of which he is one. The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction (BDS) movement targeting Israel’s racist and expansionist policies has resulted in hysterical extreme measures aimed at undercutting constitutional and other inherent freedoms of speech in other countries. These anti-free speech actions have been advanced by Kushner’s friends and colleagues and include twenty-eight American states enacting legislation that bans individuals and companies supporting BDS from receiving state government contracts. Israel’s intelligence service, Mossad, is actively working to disrupt the global BDS movement, including the operations of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC).

The anti-BDS campaign includes Mossad collecting intelligence on BDS operations in foreign countries and placing BDS leaders and supporters on INTERPOL and EUROPOL watch lists. Kushner’s Zionist friends have even spoken of Israel filing lawsuits against BDS organizations and individuals abroad. There was little surprise when Mossad’s anti-BDS activities in the United States were linked to the now-defunct Israeli private intelligence firm PSY-Group and Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

Kushner can whine all day long about Palestinians being “hysterical.” No one is more hysterical and hypocritical than Kushner and his Orthodox Jewish cabal that includes the dodgy Chabad movement – which has been tied into everything from drug and human organ trafficking to tax evasion and money laundering, as well as the 2020 presidential campaign of New Jersey Democratic Senator Cory Booker. No sooner had New England Patriots football owner and Trump Mar-a-Lago club member Robert Kraft beat a criminal charge of soliciting prostitution from a Florida massage parlor employing Chinese indentured employees, he donated his $1 million Genesis Prize – Israel’s version of the Nobel Prize – to the anti-BDS movement. That kind of money would have paid for quite a lot of $57 “sessions” at Kraft’s favorite, but now closed, Florida massage parlor. Even though Kraft was dumb enough to get caught on video tape in a law enforcement sting on illegal prostitution activities, Kushner claims it is the Palestinians who are “stupid.”

Recently, Kushner’s friends in Israel and Germany forced the resignation of Dr. Peter Schäfer, a foremost scholar of Judaic Studies, as director of Berlin’s Jewish Museum. Using Inquisition-like tactics, Schäfer stood accused by Israel supporters of backing the BDS movement by tweeting a link to a letter signed by 240 Jewish and Israeli scholars opposing a bill passed by the German parliament that linked the BDS movement to anti-Semitism. The campaign against Dr. Schäfer was centered on the activities of an Israel-based organization called NGO Monitor. The group, which is nothing more than a cipher for Mossad, targets international non-governmental organizations tagged with being supportive of the Palestinians or the BDS movement.

Under pressure from such anti-democratic forces as NGO Monitor; its Geneva-based companion, UN Watch; the American Jewish Committee; and similar repugnant pressure organizations, the freedom of speech rights of pro-Palestine activists have been severely hampered by actions of the governments of Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Australia, Canada, and other nations.

Mr. Kushner and his friends who gathered in Bahrain for his real estate development (land theft) prospectus seminar would trick the world into believing that it is the Palestinians who are “hysterical.” When international supporters of the Palestinians decide to hit the Israelis where it hurts the most – their wallets – all one can hear from the offices and board rooms of Tel Aviv, West Jerusalem, Haifa, Ashkelon, Eilat, Ramat Gan, New York, and other centers of Israeli commerce and intrigue is loud wailing and promises to “get even.” And Kushner accuses the Palestinians of being “hysterical.”

In fact, the Palestinians have been quite measured in response to Israel’s overt and covert campaigns against them and their inalienable rights. Since Trump and Kushner launched their diplomatic, political, and economic warfare against Palestine, the State of Palestine has been recognized by the International Atomic Energy Agency and Colombia; Italy voted for a UN Security Council for a resolution that opposed the US movement of its embassy to Jerusalem; the UN’s Group of 77 (G77) developing nations invited Palestine to chair the group’s meeting during 2019; Spain’s Josep Borell, who is pro-Palestinian and tough on Israel, was named the next Foreign Affairs Commissioner of the European Union; and former US President Jimmy Carter called on the United States to recognize Palestinian sovereignty. These small but significant advances on behalf of the Palestinians were achieved as a result of Palestine’s commitment to diplomacy, not the hysteria practiced by Kushner and his friends in Israel, as well as by pro-Israel embeds found throughout the Trump administration.

Ms. Trump’s husband failed to impress anyone a week earlier after his long-awaited and overly hyped Middle East “peace plan” was presented at a “workshop” in Manama, Bahrain. Dubbed “Peace to Prosperity,” Kushner’s plan more resembled a real estate development prospectus brochure than a bona fide peace proposal between the Palestinians and Israelis. The Palestinians and some Arab nations were wise to consider Kushner’s plan “dead on arrival.” Kushner’s and Trump’s real estate companies are known mainly for bankruptcies and fraud. In reality, Kushner’s plan foresees the Palestinians selling their land to developers in a get-rich-quick scheme. No where did the plan mention the political status of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem, or the Palestinian diaspora’s right of return.

Kushner’s call for Gulf and other investors to ante up $50 billion over a ten-year time frame for infrastructure development, which includes a $5 billion transport link between the Gaza Strip and West Bank, appeared to be more a get-rich scheme for Kushner, his friends, and Trump’s cronies. The only people who seemed excited about Kushner’s contrivance included former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci, founder of Skybridge Capital, and Stephen Schwarzman, CEO of the Blackstone Group and chairman of Trump’s short-lived Strategic and Policy Forum, both of whom were in Manama to praise Kushner’s initiative. Billionaire US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said of Kushner’s plan, “It’s going to be like a hot IPO [initial public offering].”

Kushner’s plan was rightly panned for being an unrealistic project concocted by someone who counts Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu as a close friend. In concert with orders from Netanyahu and two other Kushner compatriots – former Trump attorneys David Friedman, the US ambassador to Israel, and Jason Greenblatt, Trump’s adviser on Israel – the issue of Palestinian sovereignty was not included in the “peace plan.”

While Kushner failed to impress anyone in Bahrain with his peace plan nonsense, his wife, Ivanka, made an utter fool out of herself and the United States by appearing center stage at the G20 Summit. Rarely was Ms. Trump absent from photographs of the gathered world leaders. A short video link was released by the Élysée Palace in Paris showing Ms. Trump attempting to barge in on a conversation between French President Emmanuel Macron, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde, and British Prime Minister Theresa May. It is clear from the audio that Trump’s daughter was way out of her league and her insertions of babbling nonsense failed to impress the four leaders, three of whom are responsible for major nations and one for an important international organization. Ms. Trump has only been responsible for using her White House position to enrich her portfolio of handbag, clothing, perfume, footwear, and jewelry companies.

Trump’s neo-conservative war hawk national security adviser, John Bolton, did not accompany the president to Panmunjom. North Korea has made no secret of its dislike for Bolton, an opinion that is shared by many other countries and a sizable percentage of Americans. Instead, Bolton was banished to Ulan Bator, Mongolia, where he conducted talks with Mongolian state security secretary Davaasuren Damdinsuren. Bolton’s place in Panmunjom was taken by Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who would not even have a job in the television business had it not been for the fact that his father, Dick Carlson, was a past president of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and director of the Voice of America. Together with Ms. Trump and Kushner, Tucker Carlson made up the US contingent in Panmunjom for the first ever “visit” by a sitting US president to North Korean soil. In fact, two past presidents, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, accomplished much more during their post-presidential visits to North Korea than did Trump for a self-serving “photo op.”

When it comes to the G20 leaders, regardless of politics, it can be safely said that Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Indian Prime Minster Narendra Modi, South Korean President Moon Jae-in, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Indonesian President Joko Widodo, and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa are in a class by themselves when it comes to experienced practitioners of geo-political statecraft.

At the other end of the spectrum, where inexperienced and outright stupid novices roam, is found Trump and Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro. During a joint press conference in Osaka, Trump was asked about President Putin’s belief that “western liberalism” was on the political ropes. Trump, obviously unfamiliar with the concept advanced during the Age of Enlightenment by such 17^th and 18^th century figures as John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, and Baron Montesquieu – it should be firmly stated that anyone who ever took a college political science or history course is familiar with the refrain “Hobbes, Locke, and Montesquieu” – began blathering about liberal Democratic cities in California, specifically mentioning Los Angeles and San Francisco. In a cringeworthy moment, Trump incredulously said, “I guess you look at what’s happening in Los Angeles, where it’s so sad to look, and what’s happening in San Francisco, and a couple other cities which are run by an extraordinary group of liberal people.”

It is of little wonder why Trump only seems to bond with Bolsonaro, an admirer of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. Bolsonaro is a disciple of the Richmond, Virginia-based Brazilian polemicist, Olavo de Carvalho. A fierce opponent of former Brazilian Presidents Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff, Carvalho rejects Copernican, Newtonian, and Einsteinian physics, choosing to believe that the Earth does not revolve around the sun; that the concept of infinite numbers, as well as manmade climate change, are hoaxes; that there was no such thing as the Spanish Inquisition; that vaccinations kill people or make them crazy; and that Pepsi sweetened its drinks with aborted human fetuses. Carvalho has also said that there is insufficient evidence to prove whether the Earth is flat or a sphere. No wonder Trump and Bolsonaro admire one another. They have become the antithesis of the Age of Enlightenment. They represent a modern “Age of Stupidity.”

One could easily dismiss those like Carvalho as lunatic gadflies. However they have powerful admirers and cohorts, as witnessed in March 2019 at the Trump International Hotel in Washington. Former Trump adviser and campaign strategist Steve Bannon co-hosted a screening of a complementary film about Carvalho. Present was President Bolsonaro’s son, Eduardo Bolsonaro, a representative for South America of Bannon’s global fascist “Movement.” Following the screening of the film, Carvalho declared that all journalists are drug addicts. While many journalists do enjoy their adult beverage of choice, such a Trump-like statement by the political guru of Bannon and Bolsonaro provides further evidence that our world has entered the Age of Stupidity, where up is no longer down, facts are considered false, and imbeciles like Trump and Bolsonaro, along with their corrupt families, now govern major nation-states.

The sales pitch made at a conference in Bahrain amounted to a $50Bn bribe dangled at the Palestinians to accept permanent illegal occupation of their ancestral lands in exchange for foreign investment. Kushner rebranded it as the “opportunity of the century”.

He claimed that political peace depends on a viable economic plan. Others would see that formulation as back-to-front: economic development and prosperity depends on a political solution to decades of injustice against Palestinians.

American diplomacy has been an utter failure for decades with regard to settling this bitter dispute. It would therefore be impossibly naive to expect the Trump administration to succeed. More likely, its blundering and bias will only make this historic problem a whole lot worse.

That’s no doubt why so many regional players decided to give the Bahrain event this week a clunking big miss.

Like his father-in-law in the White House, Kushner comes from a real estate background before Trump appointed him as his top aide on the Palestinian-Israeli issue. For the past two years, Kushner has been working on a “master plan” to end the eight-decade-old conflict. That conflict has been at the center of most other disputes and tensions in the region. Trump has billed his son-in-law’s peace plan as the “deal of the century”.

In Bahrain, the Trump administration gave the first-ever preview of its peace plans. Skeptics of Kushner’s ability to deliver a realistic, workable framework were not to be surprised. The boyish-looking Kushner looked way out of his depth as he presented his vision of business and investment as the supposed key to peace. He invited the audience to “imagine” Palestinian territories in the West Bank and Gaza bustling with enterprise and trade. That entrepreneurial “promised land” would arrive if the Palestinians accepted Kushner’s vision of a $50Bn foreign investor fund.

What that boils down to is Palestinians accepting the present status quo of illegal occupation by Israel and in effect surrendering their historic claims for sovereign statehood. Moreover, the $5oBn in investments that Kushner was swooning about are not existing funds. They are only promises of potential investment, which may never actually be delivered.

Nowhere in the Trump administration’s “deal of the century” is there any attempt to redress historical violations of Palestinian national rights. There is no mention of the right of return of millions of Palestinians displaced by the 1948 war that established the sate of Israel. Nor of returning land annexed during the 1967 war. Illegal occupation is merely a fact on the ground that needs to be officially recognized as Israeli territory, according to the Trump administration. In the same way that Trump earlier this year officially recognized the occupied Syrian Golan Heights as part of Israel.

Kushner’s bias in a supposedly peace mediator role is flagrant. He is Jewish and a family friend of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Kushner’s wife, Ivanka, Trump’s daughter, is a convert to Judaism. Last year, she personally unveiled the controversial new American embassy in Jerusalem, which Trump had promised to Netanyahu on his election in 2016 in recognition of the city as the capital of Israel. That move was seen by Palestinians as a betrayal of their historic claim to East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.

During the past two years, the Trump administration has cut off development aid and diplomatic links with Palestinian authorities. Respected Palestinian negotiators like veteran envoy Hanan Ashrawi have been denied travel visas to the US. The consultation conducted by Kushner with the Palestinian side in formulating his peace plan has been minimal.

During a recent interview in the US, Kushner revealed his colonial-type mindset when he asserted that the “Palestinians were not ready yet for self-government”. In other words, in this supposed mediator’s view, he is saying that there will be no foreseeable state of Palestine. That is, the Palestinians must accept their inferior status as an occupied people while the state of Israel is permitted to continue annexing more and more of their ancestral land. Indeed, Kushner is believed to have personal business investments in the construction of new Israeli settlements in the occupied territories.

It’s no wonder then than his so-called “deal of the century” amounts to a shallow business plan bereft of any deep historical, political issues. Palestinians are expected to shut up and surrender their historic rights for statehood by accepting a quixotic vision of economic wonders descending on them while living under permanent marginalization and deprivation. A UN report last year found that Gaza will no longer be habitable in a few years due to water and power shortages.

The Trump-Kushner proposal is the sort of con job that real estate agents excel at. Everything is reduced to the value of money while prospects are talked up with the most ludicrous glamor. Unscrupulous real estate agents would have the temerity to sell a cardboard box as if it were a penthouse suite. Trump and his son-in-law would seem to be of that same wheeler-dealer ilk.

After two years of bragging about its big Middle East “vision”, what people saw this week was little more than a glossy brochure of hype over historical realities. Indeed, it would seem that the purpose of the hype is to bury the hard historical problems that underly the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The excessive emphasis on billions of dollars of investment by Kushner is an attempt to seduce Palestinians into relinquishing their political and moral rights.

This week, however, while the Trump administration was making its sales pitch in Bahrain, it was notable that there was no Palestinian delegation present. All across the West Bank and Gaza, Palestinians shut their businesses in protest and took to the streets to burn effigies of the “deal of the century”.

Israeli government representatives were also not in attendance. That was only after the White House belatedly pulled their invitations in the weeks before the Bahrain conference took place. No doubt that hasty move by the White House was meant to minimize the embarrassing spectacle of a Palestinian boycott by also not having an official Israeli delegation.

Russia and China also gave the Kushner presentation a miss. Some Arab countries, such as Iraq and Lebanon, did not attend either. Iran, a major regional player and supporter of the Palestinian cause, was not represented. The European Union sent only technical-level officials; EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini was not present.

The glaring absences reflect the lack of international credibility of this White House’s peace efforts for the Middle East. The “deal of the century” is more seen as the “con of the century”.

In other words, it is the economic facts on the ground that are intended shape the political outcome — an attenuated political landscape that anyway has been minimised by Trump’s pre-emptive removal of key pieces of any Palestinian negotiating leverage.

The financial squeeze on the Palestinians is well attested. On the one hand, the Palestinian Authority (historically dependent on Saudi subvention) is gently slipping into bankruptcy; whilst Gaza is held in virtual abject dependency through the drip-feed of subventions channelled into Gaza by Qatar, with Israeli permission — the size of this latter monthly ‘lifeline’ subvention being carefully adjusted by Israel according to what it judges to be the norms of (generally Hamas) ‘good conduct’.

So, on the one hand there is the financial siege that is intended to make the Palestinians pliant to the ‘quality of life package’ which the ‘deal’ is supposed to bring — the Bahrain summit later this month being its shopfront. But there is another less well recognised side to the Deal which is summarised in the title to a McClatchy article entitled, White House sees Egyptian energy forum as a ‘roadmap to Middle East peace’.

In a later piece, McClatchy publishes the newly declassified map of the US East Mediterranean energy ‘roadmap’. And here the fuller picture becomes clear: the US sponsored ‘gas forum’, “according to three senior administration officials, that map [the] declassified one, obtained by McClatchy – has motivated members of the [US] National Security Council to prioritize the formation of a gas forum in the Eastern Mediterranean that would simultaneously boost and entangle the economies of several countries that have been at odds for decades”.

Well, let’s translate that little euphemism: ‘boost and entangle’. What that formula translates into is — the means to integrate Israel into the economic regional sphere is firstly, through energy. Yet, it is not intended to integrate Israel alone into this Egyptian economic sphere, but also to make Jordan, the PA (and maybe even Lebanon), too, partially dependent on Israeli energy – alongside putative partners, Italy, Greece, and (the Greek-linked part) of Cyprus — with the US offering to help flesh out the structure of the ‘gas forum’ with U.S. expertise.

This is the heart of ‘the deal’. Not just political normalisation for Israel into the region, but the making of economic dependency of the Egyptians, Palestinians, Jordanians (and possibly – but not so likely – Lebanon) on the US East-Med gas ‘hub’.

Source: McClatchy

And, inevitably there is a sub-plot to all this, (as McClatchy notes):

“On this front, the administration enjoys support from unlikely allies. Eliot Engel, the Democratic chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee … said the Mediterranean gas forum project was a strategic opportunity for the U.S. to stymie Russian influence efforts over local energy resources. “I think that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and Russia can’t and should not be able to control the situation,” Engel stated”.

So, the US Administration is pursuing two bipartisan congressional efforts to ‘stymie’ Russia in the region: One is a bill promoting energy partnerships in the Eastern Mediterranean; and a parallel bill which threatens to sanction European firms supporting the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline taking Russian gas into Germany.

There are however, two obvious big ‘catches’ to this notion of both ‘stymying’ Russia, whilst simultaneously normalising Israel economically into the region. The first, as Simon Henderson of the Washington Institute notes, [is the notion that] the area’s underlying geology could help Europe offset, or even replace, its dependence on Russian gas “seems farfetched at the present level of discoveries. Several more giant fields like Leviathan or Egypt’s Zohr would have to be found before this reality changes”:

“The idea that East Mediterranean energy could impact on the European energy balance in such a way as to dent Russian market share is a fantasy – Europe’s thirst for gas is so huge, and Russia’s ability to provide that gas is so great, that it’s a wild dream to even hope we can achieve it given the limited reserves discovered thus far,” Henderson said. “Hoping you can find gas is not the same as finding gas”.

In short, an Egyptian ‘hub’ serving exports, might only ‘work’, as matters stand, through patching some of the smaller East-Med discoveries – together with a large Israeli contribution – through pipelines into the two Egyptian gas liquefying plants near Port Said and Alexandria. But LNG availability globally is high, prices are hugely competitive, and it is by no means certain that ‘the hub’ can be commercially viable.

And here is the main catch: Geo-politics. Anything aimed at integrating Israel into the region is bound to be sensitive. So, whilst US officials are optimistic about Egypt’s leadership of their ‘gas forum’ in the wake of President Sisi’s April meeting with Trump – Egypt – a mainstay to the separate US Iran confrontation plan – shortly afterward the visit, rather notably withdrew from the strategic military alliance the Trump administration was trying to build to confront Iran: The Middle East Strategic Alliance (MESA), to the consternation of US officials.

When it comes to energy deals, however, even having a treaty with Israel does not put an end to public sensitivities about rapprochement with Israel, Henderson notes. Notwithstanding any ‘peace treaty’, many Jordanians still oppose the prospect of using (Israeli) Leviathan gas to provide for large-scale electricity generation, beginning early next year. Amman has tried to deflect such anger by calling the supplies “northern gas” or “American gas”, emphasizing Noble’s role in producing it.

But here is the other side to the issue: Clearly, Egypt does not want to be a part of any anti-Iranian US-led alliance (MESA). But equally, why should Egypt – or Jordan, or for that matter, or any other member of the ‘gas forum’ – wish to be tightly aligned with an US anti-Russian strategy for the region? Egypt may have signed up to the US ‘gas hub’ project. But at the very same time, Egypt also was signing a $2 billion contract to buy more than twenty Russian Sukhoi SU-35 fighter aircraft. Do ‘hub’ members really judge an Egyptian ‘hub’ to be a rival to Russian gas in Europe?

Probably not: For ultimately, the idea that a putative energy hub can ‘stymie Russia’ indeed is fantasy. Europe’s thirst for gas indeed is so huge, and Russia’s ability to provide that gas so great, that it is a wild dream to even think it. The EU shows, for example, no particular interest in the US supported $7 billion mooted pipeline linking the eastern Mediterranean through Cyprus, to Greece. The undersea terrain is too problematic, and the cost too high.

Israel too, hopes to find more gas (of course). But the deadline for bids on nineteen of its offshore blocks has been pushed back to mid-August – seemingly reflecting a lack of investor interest. For now, the oil majors seem more tempted by the Cypriot blocks – up for bid.

But politics again: being a part of America’s ‘gas forum’ in which the Nicosia (i.e. the Greek-linked) government is a key member, explicitly places the forum and its members on a potential collision course with Turkey, who will not readily yield on its ambitious claims on the East Med basin (it has just announced that it will establish naval and air bases in Northern Cyprus). Nor will Lebanon, either. Sisi and Erdogan share a mutual, personal dislike, but will the others wish to be drawn into that quarrel?

Russia anyway, seems not greatly interested in the production possibilities of the Mediterranean Middle East. Rather it is focused on a pipeline corridor stretching from Iran and Iraq to Europe via Turkey or (eventually) Syria.

In sum then, the Kushner – Trump ‘Deal’, in respect to the integration of Israel into the regional energy economy seems destined to draw the same skepticism and distrust, as does the ‘Deal’s’ other parts.

The “Kosher Quartet” of Kushner, Greenblatt, Friedman, and Berkowitz, all Orthodox Jews who support Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and the far-right elements of the Likud Party and its allies, have designed a plan that will see Israel’s satellites in the Gulf – Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain – as well as Egypt, Jordan, and Morocco ante up billions of dollars for “economic development” of the West Bank that will see a virtual Israeli annexation of the territory by paying Palestinians for their land and infrastructure.

Trump’s “deal of the century” is for a new Palestinian diaspora, one that will see Hebron, Ramallah, Jericho, Nablus, Bethlehem, Qalqiliya, Tulkarm, Jenin and other cities depopulated by Palestinians, who will be offered asylum in the Gulf states and a Saudi-planned $500 billion supercity in northwestern Saudi Arabia, Jordan, southern Israel, and Sinai called “NEOM.” With their “exit wealth” and college degrees, the Palestinians are viewed by MbS and Kushner as optimal residents of NEOM, planned to be 30 times larger than New York City. As for the West Bank, the plan is for it to be repopulated by Jews from Israel proper, illegal Israeli settlements already in the West Bank, and abroad.

The Kosher Quartet’s “deal of the century” would not have been possible, nor would have the “peace conference” in Manama, were it not for the culpability of Israel’s allies in the Gulf, particularly, Kushner’s good friend, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS), and United Arab Emirates Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahayan (MbZ).

Even US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo downplayed the success of the “peace plan” as “un-executable.” He told the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations that Kushner’s plan “may be rejected.” Pompeo later walked back his comments while accompanying Kushner to the British state dinner for Trump in London. On the way to London from the Middle East, Kushner and Pompeo stopped off in Montreux, Switzerland to attend the secretive annual conclave of the Bilderberg Group.

Pompeo’s comments came at about the same time Kushner, in a rare interview with the press, said the Palestinians are not capable of governing themselves, which really means that his plan sees continued Israeli subjugation over Palestinians who do not accept the sale of their birthright in exchange for Gulf money. Kushner’s plan is nothing more than what might be expected from the son of one of New Jersey’s and New York’s shadiest real estate tycoons and “slum lords,” Charles Kushner, a federal ex-convict who served a nearly two-year prison term for illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion, and witness tampering.

Kushner also said that it was not his role in brokering a peace agreement for the Palestinians to trust him. That may have been the only truthful thing Kushner said in the interview with Axios. The Palestinians have absolutely no reason to trust Kushner after the Trump administration took several steps to marginalize the Palestinian Authority, including the closure of the US consulate general in Jerusalem, the moving of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, cutting off millions of dollars in direct assistance to Palestinians and via the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), and Friedman claiming that Israel is “on the side of God.” Trump’s recognition of Israel’s sovereignty over Syria’s Golan Heights did nothing to assuage the concerns of the Palestinians, who saw it as a possible prelude to Israel’s re-annexation of the Gaza Strip, Israel’s very own “Warsaw Ghetto” for Palestinians subject to blockades, sanctions, and Israeli military aggression.

Kushner told Axios that he sees a stark difference between the Palestinian leadership and the Palestinian people. In fact, the State of Palestine, which is governed by the Palestinian National Authority, is recognized by 137 members of the United Nations and holds non-member observer status in the UN.

While the stance of the lavishly pro-Israeli Trump administration on Palestinian self-determination is no surprise, those of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Bahrain point to Israel’s growing influence in the Gulf as the Israeli-Gulf Arab alliance against Iran becomes more militant. The Saudis and Emiratis are now close intelligence partners of the Israelis, even relying on Israeli surveillance software to track opponents of their regimes at home and abroad. Israeli, American, Saudi, Emirati, and Jordanian military officers regularly meet in joint war rooms to carry out static military operations against Iran. One such war room is said to be in Eilat, Israel and another, across the border, in Aqaba, Jordan. Among the exercises performed is the disabling of Saudi air defenses to allow Israeli aircraft to pass through Saudi airspace in an attack on Iran. UAE military officers have participated in air training exercises with Israeli pilots in Greece and Israel.

Saudi officials directly responsible for the grisly murder and dismemberment of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a US permanent resident, in the Saudi consulate-general in Istanbul reportedly met secretly with Israeli intelligence officials. Jared Kushner also reportedly expressed no opposition to MbS’s plan to eliminate Khashoggi, a frequent critic of Saudi policies, including its cooperation with Israel against the interests of the Palestinians.

Joining the Saudis and Emiratis in selling out the Palestinians to the Israelis has been Bahrain, a virtual puppet state of Saudi Arabia that also hosts the headquarters of the US Fifth Fleet. Bahrain’s Shi’a Muslim majority, long oppressed by the Wahhabi Sunni Al Khalifa monarchy, was brutally suppressed in 2011 with the assistance of Saudi military forces. Manama has reportedly welcomed Israeli government visitors. The Bahraini Nonoo family, of Iraqi Jewish descent, has seen its members appointed to key Bahraini government positions, including ambassador to the United States and to a seat in parliament.

Two Gulf nations opposed to the Saudi-Emirati-Israeli alliance are Qatar and Oman. Qatar has withstood a brutal Saudi and Emirati economic and diplomatic blockade, supported by the Trump administration, Israel, and Egypt. The Saudis and Emiratis subjected Qatar to a massive cyber-attack and fake news campaign. The anti-Qatar campaign was also assisted by veterans of the Israeli and American signals intelligence and cyber-warfare agencies, Unit 8200 and the National Security Agency (NSA), respectively. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was, in part, fired by Trump over Tillerson’s refusal to agree to Jared Kushner’s tough line against Qatar. Kushner’s attitude was influenced by Qatar’s rejection of a request by Kushner’s father to the head of the Qatar Investment Authority for it to financially bail out the Kushners’ failing building at 666 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Qatar’s good relations with Iran, as well as its contacts with the Houthis in Yemen and Hamas in Gaza made it target number one for the Israelis and their friends in the Gulf and in Washington.

Oman also maintains good relations with Iran and its stance resulted in a 2018 highly-publicized trip to Muscat by Netanyahu for a meeting with ailing Sultan Qaboos bin Said. Oman refused Netanyahu’s demand that it change its policy toward Iran. Neither Qatar nor Oman are favorable to the Kushner “peace plan” for the Palestinians.

One can imagine the outrage from the likes of Kushner and other members of the powerful Israeli lobby in the United States if a future Democratic president appointed the following four US Representatives: Palestinian-American Rashida Tlaib, Somali-American Ilhan Omar, Syrian-American Justin Amash, and Lebanese-American Donna Shalala to be in charge of negotiating a Palestinian-Israeli peace agreement. The “usual suspects” would cry foul. Where are those cries now with the perfidy now at play with the Manama conference and Trump’s “Kosher Quartet?”

The ‘Deal’, presumably a road map for peacefully settling the Palestinian problem, was drawn up, ironically, by a small group of American Zionists responsible for the formulation of American foreign policy. The group is led by Jared Kushner, Trump’s son in law and senior presidential adviser, with help from John Bolton, national security advisor, Mike Pompeo, Secretary of State and David Friedman, American ambassador in Israel. Anecdotally, it should be noted that Netanyahu is a close friend of the Kushner family and used to visit the family while in the US and stay overnight, at times in Jared’s bedroom; perhaps making Jared an unregistered foreign agent serving Israeli interests. With such strong pro-Israeli input in drawing up the ‘Deal’, what does one expect the ‘Deal’ to be except a right-wing, Likudist plan to establish a Great Israel from the River to the Sea.

A central question to this ‘Deal’ is, what does Trump have left in his pocket to offer the Palestinians? Historically, Palestinian maximum demand was the liberation of mandated Palestine. With the passage of time the Palestinians have lowered their demands to the minimum of three elements. First, a Palestinian state on the West Bank, (which David Friedman, the American ambassador no less, refers to it as Judea and Samaria). Second, East Jerusalem as its capital. Third, the return of the refugees. Trump has already given away or eliminated these three quintessential elements necessary for resolving the Palestinian problem peacefully. Trump has recognized united Jerusalem to be the eternal capital of Israel and moved the American embassy there. He has also acquiesced to Netanyahu’s declaration that he will annex the Israeli settlements in the West Bank and probably an eventual annexation of the entire West Bank. As to the Palestinian refugees, for Trump a Palestinian refugee is one who was alive when Israel was created in 1948, that is seventy one years old or more, which makes it very difficult to find many Palestinians still alive who qualify as refugees based on the criteria set by Trump. He furthermore severed political relations with the Palestinians when he ordered the closure of the PLO offices in Washington and imposed economic sanctions on the Palestinians when he stopped economic support to UNRWA.

Bearing in mind the fact that the ‘Deal’ was drawn up by Zionists in the Trump administration, it is only appropriate to expect that the ‘Deal’ will be everything Israel wants. Thus, a peaceful resolution of the Palestinian problem, in all probability, has become null and void in the foreseeable future; the ‘Deal’ offers nothing to the Palestinians and some prominent Palestinian officials have said so. Nabil Shaath, advisor to Mahmoud Abbas, noted that Trump’s ‘Deal of the Century’ will not bring peace to Palestine. Riyad Maliki, Palestinian Foreign Minister, said that the ‘Deal of the Century’ which seeks to find the ultimate solution for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict will bring bad news to the Middle East. Saeb Erekat, chief Palestinian negotiator, elaborated further, noting that “Trump and Netanyahu are planning to terminate the Palestinian cause by removing Jerusalem from any solution, annexing major settlements and finding a capital for us on the outskirts of Jerusalem.” In view of the foregoing, Mahmoud Abbas has no choice but to reject the ‘Deal’, with the consequence of being condemned for sabotaging the peace process and for Netanyahu reverting to his mantra that there are no Palestinians to negotiate with.

Although the ‘Deal of the Century’, by all indications, deals exclusively with resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict peacefully, it nevertheless has a Syrian dimension which has escaped notice and has not been dealt with in the published speculations and analysis so far. During the 1990’s, after the Madrid peace conference, there were Syrian-Israeli peace negotiations. The negotiations, both official and Track Two negotiations, in which I participated, dealt with the four central issues: Israeli withdrawal, security arrangements, timeframe for withdrawal and normalization of relations. These four issues were theoretically surmountable. A fifth issue, peace agreement between Syria and Israel had to be within the framework of a comprehensive and just peace, was insurmountable. It was very unlikely for Syria to sign a separate, unilateral peace with Israel without progress on the Palestinian-Israeli track; as Sadat did in 1979. I used to tell Palestinians, when they ask for the return of the refugees, they should reciprocate Syria’s loyalty, and ask for a double return: return of the refugees and return of the Golan. A crucial question for the Palestinian leadership is, if the Trump ‘Deal’, in the highly unlikely event, were to offer the Palestinians an acceptable ‘Deal’, meeting their minimum demands, will they sell out Syria, forget the Golan which was lost in the Palestinian cause and sign a separate peace with Israel? Only time will tell.

In conclusion, Miko Peled, an author and human rights activist born in Jerusalem, writes: “Though the ‘Deal’ of the century will try to eliminate the Palestinian issue for good, what the architects of the “Deal” in their arrogance fail to see is that this so-called “Deal” is nothing more than an irresponsible, impractical and precarious plan that will fail just as soon as it is raised”.

The Mueller Special Counsel inquiry is far from over even though a final report on its findings has been issued. Although the investigation had a mandate to explore all aspects of the alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US election, from the start the focus was on the possibility that some members of the Trump campaign had colluded with the Kremlin to influence the outcome of the election to favor the GOP candidate. Even though that could not be demonstrated, many prominent Trump critics, to include Laurence Tribe of the Harvard Law School, are demanding that the investigation continue until Congress has discovered “the full facts of Russia’s interference [to include] the ways in which that interference is continuing in anticipation of 2020, and the full story of how the president and his team welcomed, benefited from, repaid, and obstructed lawful investigation into that interference and the president’s cooperation with it.”

Tribe should perhaps read the report more carefully. While it does indeed confirm some Russian meddling, it does not demonstrate that anyone in the Trump circle benefited from it or cooperated with it. The objective currently being promoted by dedicated Trump critics like Tribe is to make a case to impeach the president based on the alleged enormity of the Russian activity, which is not borne out by the facts: the Russian role was intermittent, small scale and basically ineffective.

One interesting aspect of the Mueller inquiry and the ongoing Russophobia that it has generated is the essential hypocrisy of the Washington Establishment. It is generally agreed that whatever Russia actually did, it did not affect the outcome of the election. That the Kremlin was using intelligence resources to act against Hillary Clinton should surprise no one as she described Russian President Vladimir Putin as Hitler and also made clear that she would be taking a very hard line against Moscow.

The anti-Russia frenzy in Washington generated by the vengeful Democrats and an Establishment fearful of a loss of privilege and entitlement claimed a number of victims. Among them was Russian citizen Maria Butina, who has a court date and will very likely be sentenced tomorrow.

Regarding Butina, the United States Department of Justice would apparently have you believe that the Kremlin sought to subvert the five-million-member strong National Rifle Association (NRA) by having a Russian citizen take out a life membership in the organization with the intention of corrupting it and turning it into an instrument for subverting American democracy. Maria Butina has, by the way, a long and well documented history as an advocate for gun ownership and was a co-founder in Russia of Right to Bear Arms, which is not an intelligence front organization of some kind. It is rather a genuine lobbying group with an active membership and agenda. Contrary to what has been reported in the mainstream media, Russians can own guns but the licensing and registration procedures are long and complicated, which Right to Bear Arms, modeling itself on the NRA, is seeking to change.

Butina, a graduate student at American University, is now in a federal prison, having been charged with collusion and failure to register as an agent of the Russian Federation. She was arrested on July 15, 2018. It is decidedly unusual to arrest and confine someone who has failed to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 (FARA), but she has not been granted bail because, as a Russian citizen, she is considered to be a “flight risk,” likely to try to flee the US and return home.

FARA requires all individuals and organizations acting on behalf of foreign governments to registered with the Department of Justice and to report their sources of income and contacts. Federal prosecutors have claimed that Butina was reporting back to a Russian official while deliberating cultivating influential figures in the United States as potential resources to advance Russian interests, a process that is described in intelligence circles as “spotting and assessing.”

Maria eventually pleaded guilty of not registering under FARA to mitigate any punishment, hoping that she would be allowed to return to Russia after a few months in prison on top of the nine months she has already served. She has reportedly fully cooperated the US authorities, turning over documents, answering questions and undergoing hours of interrogation by federal investigators before and after her guilty plea.

Maria Butina basically did nothing that damaged US security and it is difficult to see where her behavior was even criminal, but the prosecution is asking for 18 months in prison for her in addition to the time served. She would be, in fact, one of only a handful of individuals ever to be imprisoned over FARA, and they all come from countries that Washington considers to be unfriendly, to include Cuba, Saddam’s Iraq and Russia. Normally the failure to comply with FARA is handled with a fine and compulsory registration.

Butina was essentially convicted of the crime of being Russian at the wrong time and in the wrong place and she is paying for it with prison. Selective enforcement of FARA was, ironically, revealed through evidence collected and included in the Mueller Report relating to the only foreign country that actually sought to obtain favors from the incoming Trump Administration. That country was Israel and the individual who drove the process and should have been fined and required to register with FARA was President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. As Kushner also had considerable “flight risk” to Israel, which has no extradition treaty with the United States, he should also have been imprisoned.

Kushner reportedly aggressively pressured members of the Trump transition team to contact foreign ambassadors at the United Nations to convince them to vote against or abstain from voting on the December 2016 United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 condemning Israeli settlements. The resolution passed when the US, acting under direction of President Barack Obama, abstained, but incoming National Security Adviser Michael Flynn did indeed contact the Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak twice and asked for Moscow’s cooperation, which was refused. Kushner, who is so close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the latter has slept at the Kushner apartment in New York City, was clearly acting in response to direction coming from the Israeli government.

Another interesting tidbit revealed by Mueller relates to Trump foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos’s ties to Israel over an oil development scheme. Mueller “ultimately determined that the evidence was not sufficient to obtain or sustain a conviction” that Papadopoulos “committed a crime or crimes by acting as an unregistered agent of the Israeli government.” Mueller went looking for a Russian connection but found only Israel and decided to do nothing about it.

As so often is the case, inquiries that begin by looking for foreign interference in American politics start by focusing on Washington’s adversaries but then comes up with Israel. Noam Chomsky described it best “First of all, if you’re interested in foreign interference in our elections, whatever the Russians may have done barely counts or weighs in the balance as compared with what another state does, openly, brazenly and with enormous support. Netanyahu goes directly to Congress, without even informing the president, and speaks to Congress, with overwhelming applause, to try to undermine the president’s policies—what happened with Obama and Netanyahu in 2015. Did Putin come to give an address to the joint sessions of Congress trying to—calling on them to reverse US policy, without even informing the president? And that’s just a tiny bit of this overwhelming influence.”

Maria Butina is in jail for doing nothing while Jared Kushner, who needed a godfathered security clearance due to his close Israeli ties, struts through the White House as senior advisor to the president in spite of the fact that he used his nepotistically obtained access to openly promote the interests of a foreign government. Mueller knows all about it but recommended nothing, as if it didn’t happen. The media is silent. Congress will do nothing. As Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi put it “We in Congress stand by Israel. In Congress, we speak with one voice on the subject of Israel.” Indeed.

The House of Representatives’ Committee on Oversight and Reform has issued a report on a plot to make billions of dollars by selling Saudi Arabia sensitive American nuclear technology that could allow the Kingdom to develop nuclear weapons. The scheme required breaking US law, which forbids technology transfers that might allow nuclear proliferation.

The plot was pushed by a “company” formed for this express purpose called IP3 International, which doesn’t seem to have actually existed except as a sort of shell for lobbying the Trump administration. IP3 was, according to the committee, helmed by “General Keith Alexander, General Jack Keane, Mr. Bud McFarlane, and Rear Admiral Michael Hewitt, as well as the chief executives of six companies— Exelon Corporation, Toshiba America Energy Systems, Bechtel Corporation, Centrus Energy Corporation, GE Energy Infra structure, and Siemens USA—“ All “signed a letter to Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The letter presented ‘the Iron Bridge Program as a 21st Century Marshall Plan for the Middle East.’”

Bud McFarlane? That is Ronald Reagan’s National Security Advisor who was up to his elbows selling arms to Khomeini in the Iran-Contra scandal, and thought up the idea of sending Ayatollah Khomeini a cake shaped like a key and a Bible (along with a few T.O.W. anti-tank emplacements)! Like Elliot Abrams, he was pardoned by George H. W. Bush, who seems to have created a factory for 21st century further scandals.

The point man for the plot was General Mike Flynn, who called for Hillary Clinton to be locked up at the Republican National Conference in late summer of 2016 and glommed on to Trump, becoming his first National Security Adviser. Flynn had visited Saudi Arabia in connection with the IP3 plot to transfer nuclear technology to that country that could help Riyadh make a bomb if the royal family felt they needed to do so to remain safe (e.g. if Iran went in that direction or if relations with nuclear-armed Israel tanked). The cover story was that the US corporate front would just make 6 nuclear reactors for electricity generation.

Remember, all these retired generals and CEOs and Republican bigwigs were calling for Iran to be bombed back to the stone age on the pretext that it had a civilian nuclear enrichment program that was potentially dual use and could maybe someday perhaps lead to an Iranian Bomb (the Iranians never decided to go in that direction and in 2015 mothballed 80% of their program). Apparently what the US economic elite really minded was not so much possible Iranian proliferation but that they would not get a few billion dollars as a payday for being the ones to supply the technology.

IP3 was not in a position to do an end run around the Atomic Energy Act, the law preventing an administration from handing over top nuclear secrets to another country without congressional approval. But the National Security Council could be a vehicle for secretly making such a deal.

The Congressional report says that the IP3 plot was closed down at one point but that NSC whistleblowers are afraid that some Trump administration personnel in the NSC and elsewhere may still be working on the illegal technology transfer.

Note that it might actually have been possible for Trump to get the scheme through the Republican House and Senate before last November but that the current legislators are unlikely to want to sell Saudi Arabia nuclear-bomb-making technology.

Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, appears to have picked up the scheme once Flynn was fired for having lied to the FBI over his contacts late in 2016 with the Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. The committee report says that whistleblowers allege that in March, 2017, a meeting was held…

“Also present was a career NSC staffer who later informed colleagues that Mr. Harvey was again trying to promote the IP 3 plan “so that Jared Kushner can present it to the President for approval.”

For all we know, the plan to give the Saudis a nuke is still in play, with hundreds of billions of dollars at stake. This scheme is the ultimate in criminality, where US government resources (remember the Manhattan project?) are given away to another government by the white collar criminals now running the US government so that they can scoop up private massive fortunes rivaling those of the richest persons in the world such as Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates.

One thing you may be assured of is that Iran is going through this Congressional report with a fine-tooth comb. If there is one thing that really could crash the 2015 Iranian non-proliferation nuclear deal, it is the prospect of a Saudi Bomb. That people would try to destroy that deal on the one hand and slip Riyadh world-destroying secrets for personal enrichment boggles the mind.

truthdig.com