Kushner: PA made ‘strategic mistake’ by boycotting Manama summit

The Palestinian leadership “made a strategic mistake by not engaging” in last week’s US-led economic workshop in Bahrain, senior White House official Jared Kushner says.

“They looked very foolish by trying to fight this,” he tells reporters on a conference call, noting that he’s “not quite sure what they’re selling,” but Palestinian leaders’ reaction to the conference was “hysterical and erratic and not terribly constructive.”

Kushner says that many Palestinians are “starting to see” that it’s not the Israelis but their own leadership that is responsible for their economic woes.

A document published online describing the White House’s economic peace plan, which was unveiled at the Manama summit and proposes some $50 billion in investments in Palestinian areas and the wider Middle East after a peace deal is reached, was downloaded more than a million times, he says, exceeding his expectations.

— Raphael Ahren