W hen you’re a real estate man everything takes the form of a potential deal to be closed even the Middle East. From his executive’s chair in the Oval Office Donald Trump sees the conflicted region through the eyes of a businessman and an entrepreneur. In his view the Arab-Israeli conflict is just another sort of real estate deal to be negotiated — admittedly more complicated and challenging than any of the previous deals of his career but basically a matter of real estate. And Trump is a man whose personal lexicon doesn’t include the word “failure.” According to his worldview his delegates will have to find a way to reallocate parcels of land dividing them between the Israelis and the Palestinians in such a way as to satisfy both sides more or less and if they aren’t satisfied they’ll just have to be convinced by some means or other to accept the terms of the deal. And of course you don’t need to be a prophet to guess who will end up making the biggest and most painful concessions. Cash on the barrelhead naturally.
And we’re already paying. The Israeli right has slowly been disabused of its euphoric fantasy that with a new man in the White House Israel could build towns all over Judea and Samaria at last. For all intents and purposes there is no difference between Trump’s recent statements and the policy of the Obama administration regarding the settlements. There may be a distinct difference in tone but the letdown comes with the same bump. And what about the solemn promise to move the American embassy to Jerusalem? The White House is “looking into it.” In other words the embassy move will probably have to wait for the next president’s promises.
To see how President Trump views the Arab-Israeli conflict as a real estate problem you need look no further than toward the man he chose to try to pull the negotiations out of the mud. Jason Greenblatt has served as Trump’s faithful attorney for some 20 years. An Orthodox Jew (which could put him at a certain disadvantage for this task) Greenblatt has put through many successful real estate deals for his boss. Now if what we’re looking at really is just a real estate deal albeit on a grand scale then President Trump has chosen the right person for the job.
But what we know is that the plan is doomed from the outset despite his success rate until now. Trump though doesn’t know this and how should he? Although given his pride and his strong determination that he can bring peace to the Middle East where all his predecessors have failed he is headed for a hard fall if he continues in this impetuous style.
