Manama, Bahrain (CNN) — In the Trump administration’s vision of the future, Gaza City looks a lot more like Tel Aviv: a bustling metropole with scintillating beaches, beckoning tourists from around the world who have no reason to fear the potential for Israeli airstrikes.
Palestinians — who today face stringent travel restrictions — would be free to travel between the West Bank and Gaza thanks to a $5 billion highway and railway connecting the territories. And major international investors spooked by instability and roadblocks to trade would inject billions of dollars of capital into the Palestinian economy, doubling GDP and cutting the poverty rate in half.
But when President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior White House adviser Jared Kushner takes the stage at the Four Seasons Hotel in Bahrain’s capital on Tuesday to paint that picture, he won’t be addressing the most pressing questions that need answers if that distant dream has any chance of becoming reality. And as of yet, neither he nor Trump have built up enough good will with Palestinians to convince them this vision offers anything more than a financial tradeoff for their aspirations of achieving a sovereign Palestinian state, something they have made clear they will not accept.