White House senior adviser Jared Kushner is to formally unveil the first part of his Middle East peace plan during a Bahrain conference next week, outlining a path for development of the fragile economies of the Palestinian territories and three neighboring Arab countries.

Voices in the Arab world sharply rejected the Trump administration plan unveiled Saturday that would see $50 billion in economic benefits for the Palestinians as part of a larger proposal for regional peace.

Other elements of the plan suggest an embrace of Palestinian national identity, which could also be a hard sell to Israeli hardliners, and even to Netanyahu’s Likud Party. “A new flagship liberal arts and sciences university in the West Bank and Gaza” is tagged at $500 million; Palestinian universities have over the decades nurtured the Palestinian national identity and have at times been the nexus of protest at Israel’s occupation. Israeli authorities over the years have repeatedly shuttered the universities during periods of unrest.

In an effort to keep the deal from being rejected, “The US and Egypt agreed to cancel the naturalization and land-exchange clause stipulating that part of the northern Sinai would be given to the Palestinians,” he said. Hassan added that Egypt’s attendance could create a political impasse with both the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Palestinian people. He said that boiling down the Palestinian cause to an economic crisis deals a blow to its political goal, and said Egypt should have joined the international boycott of the conference, especially when the United States is increasing its attempts at imposing a fait accompli for Israel.

Sam Bahour writes, “I honestly don’t know whether to laugh or cry, so instead of doing either, I thought it would be best to share my thoughts by way of the following open letter to Jared Kushner, the architect of the plan, and President Trump’s son-in-law.”

Robi Damelin writes, “Now comes the most cynical and cruel abuse of these two people and their organization. Jared Kushner is using them as a pawn by displaying their pictures to illustrate and unveil his “Economy First” plan for Mideast peace. He did not ask their permission, which would not have been granted. We as an organization have nothing to do with this plan and resent the use of our pictures.”

More than two years after Mr Trump declared his ambition to seal “the ultimate deal” of peace between Israelis and Palestinians, the US has so far failed to even get the two sides into the same room, let alone seriously negotiating. The American effort, spearheaded by Mr Kushner, appears to be unravelling before it even begins in Bahrain, with few in Jerusalem, Washington, or Ramallah giving it any real chance of succeeding.

Lebanese parties have long held that Palestinian refugees cannot be permanently settled in the country, which is widely believed in Lebanon to be a goal of the Kushner plan.

Netanyahu made the statement while touring the Jordan Valley – the part of the West Bank that borders Jordan – with visiting U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton.

Approximately 10 Palestinians from the business world will attend the US-led economic workshop in Bahrain later this week, according to an Israeli-American businessman who said he will participate in the conference as an adviser to the delegation…Tawil told The Times of Israel on Sunday said that all the Palestinian businesspeople participating in the summit hold ties to Hebron-area businessman Ashraf Jabari. Jabari, a former member of the Palestinian Authority security forces who maintains ties with settlers in the West Bank and to US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, is one of two Palestinian businessmen to publicly state he will attend the conference. He is often derided as outside the mainstream of Palestinian society.

The State Prosecutor’s Office reversed Sunday its decision to close an investigation against Breaking the Silence spokesman, saying an incident he described in which he beat a Palestinian detainee in Hebron had indeed occurred, in a case seen as a test of the anti-occupation group’s credibility.

However, a source in the Palestinian government told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, “The news spreading in Israeli media that we decided to stop paying [our electricity bills] is not accurate. And no one in the PA could venture to issue a decision to the local councils not to pay the price of electricity to Israel. Everyone knows that nonpayment would mean cutting off electricity from Palestinian cities.”

Police on Monday opened an investigation into an apparent hate crime targeting a Palestinian village in the central West Bank, where 12 cars were found with their tires slashed and Hebrew hate slogans were spray-painted on walls.

Ben White writes, “By not attending, the PA certainly undermined the event’s credibility, but a refusal to participate is very different from a proactive counterstrategy. Such a distinction is all the more critical in light of the fact that the Trump administration is implementing its ‘plan’ in practice, with or without a formal launch.”

The US embassy in Israel on Friday issued a travel warning due to concerns over expected anti-American demonstrations in the West Bank and Gaza against the upcoming Bahrain summit. It also barred employees and their family members from the West Bank June 24-26.

McDonald’s Israel overcame objections by settlers and right-wing politicians on Sunday to win a high-profile contract to operate restaurants at Ben-Gurion International Airport.