President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, faced plenty of skepticism heading into a two-day conference last week in Bahrain focused on transforming the Palestinian economy. The gathering was a precursor of and complement to the Trump administration’s much-awaited peace plan, which seems to have been postponed in light of a new round of Israeli elections in September.

The Palestinian Authority boycotted the Bahrain conference, charging that Kushner’s economic plan would seek to buy off Palestinian political aspirations by financial means. Given the circumstances, the Arab states in attendance thought it was not wise to invite Israeli government officials. Some Arab countries, in a sign of their ambivalence, did not send their finance ministers, relying instead on deputies.

Kushner and his team deserve credit for identifying the important issue of the Palestinian economy and presenting a long list of specific projects. Beyond the specialists who would be vital to the projects’ success, the team found constituencies including potential investors from the Persian Gulf and even parts of corporate America.

Read the full article at Washington Post.