The first stage of President Donald Trump’s so-called “deal of the century” was launched this morning, a two-day “economic workshop” which Washington officials told TV7 ‘aims to create a necessary foundation that will ultimately see the international community at large, and the region in particular, “fiscally invested in Mideast peace.”‘
According to President Trump’s senior Adviser Jared Kushner, who heads the initiative, the plan’s goal is to invest about 50 billion U.S. dollars in the region. According to the White House Senior Adviser: “the plan would invest about $50-billion in the region. It would create a million jobs in the West Bank and Gaza. It would take their unemployment rate from about 30 percent to single digits. It would reduce their poverty rate by half, if it’s implemented correctly. It’s a ten year plan. It would double their GDP. We’ve had it peer reviewed now by about a dozen economists in a dozen countries and we’re very excited to put it forward.”
Kushner, who made these remarks in an exclusive interview with the international news agency Reuters, underlined that while half of the funds are allocated will be earmarked for the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the regional approach was necessary to improve the quality of life that will hopefully bring about “more peace along with it.” Kushner added that “more than half goes to the West Bank and Gaza and then what we also want to do is is stimulate Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon because if you can get that whole region starting to lift, and Israel’s economy is already doing phenomenally well, but if you integrate everything, and you’re able to get, you know, quicker flow of goods, quicker flow of people, and then people are able to invest in education and infrastructure, and all of the different areas that are necessary in industry instead of, you know, bullets and munitions and war, then I think that will really lead to a big increase in investment in the area and more jobs and better quality of life, and hopefully more peace along with it.”
TV7 continues to monitor the two-day conference in Bahrain and will provide additional relevant details as it progresses.