White House Unveils Palestine ‘Peace to Prosperity,’ but It’s Far from LaRouche ‘Oasis Plan’

June 24, 2019 (EIRNS)—The White House published an outline of its long-advertised “Peace to Prosperity” plan for Palestine on June 22. It should not be dismissed outright merely because it was designed by Jared Kushner; President Donald Trump’s son-in-law has conducted serious and successful Congressional negotiations on criminal justice reform legislation, for example, and he has also negotiated with Mexico over border issues, with limited success. But it is fundamentally a large-scale economic infrastructure development plan (Kushner has called it “the opportunity of the century” and made some Marshall Plan comparisons) to be carried out by private investors and large Wall Street funds. This, other problems aside, is sufficient to guarantee it will never work—in fact, will not happen at all.

The plan, which never mentions “State of Palestine” or even “Palestinian Authority,” clearly demands “economic reforms” of the Palestinians without allowing any sovereignty for them. Deregulatory “reforms” can allow real estate speculation, hotel development, etc. to occur. But none of the promised rail corridors, roads, water and other infrastructure can be built by private capital. And under conditions of great political instability and violence, and with Israel sure to block approval for a new West Bank-to-Gaza transportation corridor, for example, private capital will not even try.

It is being reported that June 25-26 Manama, Bahrain conference on the “Peace to Prosperity” is not drawing much in the way of international capital investors beyond Wall Street’s BlackRock, which is a designer of the plan with Kushner. Arab sheikhdoms and kingdoms are expected to put up funds to create an investment vehicle.

Palestine and its leadership is boycotting the conference, demanding that a “political solution” must precede an economic one. This was not true, as Lyndon LaRouche insisted, of his groundbreaking July 20, 1990 “Oasis Plan” proposal, which was to be carried out by nations. It is unfortunately true of this plan, however.

If “Peace to Prosperity” is taken by Iran’s leaders as an indication of President Trump’s intended “better deal” to replace the JCPOA, it will not be conducive for negotiations. It could also be a bad sign for Korean Peninsula—although there the involvement of the regional powers China, Russia, South Korea, Japan and the integration of the BRI make all the difference.