Kushner’s crusade

The Americans still don’t get it: For the Palestinians, economic prosperity is no pathway to peace (“Jared Kushner: Economic prosperity pathway to peace,” June 26), because it is not and has never been where they are heading.

They are committed to the destruction of Israel and, while they are waiting, position themselves as the poor victim, whom the world is morally obligated to help whose “narrative” is the only truth and whose “historic claims” are non-negotiable. They have gained sympathy and are supported by many nations and institutions such as the UN. Therefore, I think that the real “deal of the century” would be a negotiated international agreement that would force the Palestinians to abandon their victim status, renounce aggression, recognize Israel and build their own nation. URI THEMAL Kiryat Tivon

Thanks to Herb Keinon for bringing us the saga of the economic conference (called workshop) on Palestine (including Israel) and its littoral states, Jordan and Egypt.

The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) claim that a political perspective must precede the economic development and prosperity of millions of Palestinian Arabs is truly nonsensical.

As a retired US Foreign Service officer who worked for 30 years on economic development programs for mostly Arab and Muslim countries, I am witness to the facts. The international donor community has already provided billions upon billions of economic aid dollars to and through the PNA over decades. America alone has contributed hundreds of millions annually in economic assistance. For most of this time, there was a political perspective called “two states for two peoples” on the table. This still remains the case, for better or worse.

If the current proposed economic program, “The Opportunity of the Century,” is a “bribe,” as the PNA now claims, than it has been taking such bribe for decades. There is only one major reason for its policy shift today. It is the PNA’s life-and-death struggle with Hamas all over the Palestinian Arab territories, not just with regard to Gaza. Hamas is the joker in this deadly game because it realizes that if you give people a better future, you reduce their propensity to commit suicide. The PNA refuses to have Palestine itself commit suicide. Israel does not want to have to dispose of the corpse. US President Donald Trump is proposing resurrection.

Destroying Hamas and its deathline to Iran is thus the surest way to achieve PNA cooperation to bring peace and prosperity to all in the region – and to its own people in particular. AARON BRAUNSTEIN Jerusalem

I just finished Seth Frantzman’s article “Five takeaways from Trump’s ‘Peace to Prosperity’ plan” (June 26). As with all plans, large or small, the devil is in the details. Even US President Donald Trump, the real-estate mogul, will admit that all projects start with the first shovel full of dirt.

So instead of waiting for the bureaucrats and politicians to evaluate the plan, why not move forward immediately with some (literally) concrete plans to help the people of Gaza help themselves? They can start tomorrow. Assuming that the 2012 statistic from UNICEF is correct, the 51% of Gazans under the age of 18 have surely grown in the last nine years. It seems to me that people are the most abundant “natural resource” available. Instead of protesting at the fence line, launching rockets and incendiary balloons and building tunnels, these young people need to be moved into productive trades.

For those who have the aptitude, send them to tech college to learn plumbing, masonry, electrical engineering, computers, food service, etc. Then may I humbly suggest three projects that could be started immediately. Either build new or convert the Gaza power plant to natural gas; build a state-of-the-art water desalination plant; and lastly, build a state-of-the-art waste-water treatment plant. Good for the general health and hygiene of the people, good for the workers’ bank accounts, good for Israel.

I realize that this is easier said than done; however, the first shovel of dirt needs to be moved somewhere. Speaking of old sayings, how do you eat an elephant? One small bite at a time. Furthermore, beware of teaching a man how to fish. Even if you do so, he may just sit in his boat and drink beer all day. RICH HACKER Mukwonago, WI