Toxic fallout

Ever since United States President Donald Trump tasked his boy genius, Jared Kushner, with bringing peace to the Middle East, he has been a man on a mission – or perhaps more accurately, a man-boy on a mission impossible.

Whenever he has not been busy reinventing the US government, overseeing its major trade agreements, supervising Trump's presidential campaign, and fighting the coronavirus epidemic, Kushner has focused on resolving the century-old conflict in Palestine.

With little time and little interest in the complicated diplomacy needed to reach a fair solution, he has instead imposed his own preferred solution - or more accurately – that of his mentor, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which will certainly deepen the apartheid regime in Palestine.

But Kushner has dismissed the notion of apartheid just as he has dismissed the coronavirus as "more about public psychology" than an actual reality. No wonder then, the ridiculously dubbed "deal of the century" (DoC) has been losing steam and momentum.

But Kushner remains adamant. He has been leveraging US power to co-opt Arab leaders or coerce them into supporting his "peace scam" and embracing Israel, despite its occupation of Palestine.

However, with mounting regional crises, falling oil prices, and a persistent Israeli political deadlock, after three elections within a year, can the sedulous Kushner save the deal in a US election year?

Aside from being investigated for benefitting financially from relations with Gulf countries, Kushner has been promising US support to Arab leaders in return for meeting with Netanyahu and supporting the DoC. Although such quid pro quo practices in the White House have gained notoriety and in fact, Congress impeached Trump over one such incident, they remain a fixture in US Middle East policy.

The Trump administration has reportedly shown readiness to side with Egypt in its dispute with Ethiopia over the Renaissance dam being built on the Nile River in return for President Abdelfattah el-Sisi's support for the DoC. Kushner has also enticed Sisi promising some $9bn out of the proposed $50bn dedicated to luring, not to say bribing, Egyptian, Jordanian, Palestinian and Lebanese leaders into supporting his scam of a plan.

As Trump's "favourite dictator", Sisi has welcomed the plan and "appreciated" the US effort, while also assuring the Palestinians of Egypt's continued support, just in rhetoric. This has alienated Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, an evangelical Christian ally, who reluctantly accepted US mediation.

A similar approach was tried on the new rulers of Sudan, who have been desperate to rid themselves of international sanctions, which were imposed on the previous regime of Omar al-Bashir.

To that end, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, Sudan's de facto leader and chairman of the Transitional Military Council, was encouraged by Washington and Abu Dhabi to meet Netanyahu and "set the stage for the normalisation of ties" in order to "protect the national security of Sudan".

Excerpted from: 'The toxic fallout of the 'deal of the century'.

AlJazeera.com