MembersTrump Deal Demonstrates Waning Arab Interest in Palestinian Cause

Last monght’s Bahrain gathering where US President Donald Trump’s so-called “Deal of the Century” was finally unveiled might not have been the major peace summit for which some had hoped, but it did mark a significant shift in Middle East peacemaking.

The Palestinian Authority rejected the deal before even reading its contents, and refused to participate in the conference. Some Palestinian businessmen did travel to Bahrain, but found themselves in hot water after returning home for the crime of meeting with the Israeli representatives present there.

The Palestinian leadership no doubt hoped that its hard-line position would obligate, or at least pressure the rest of the Arab states to stay home and leave the Trump Administration looking foolish. It didn’t work.

That the rest of the Arab Middle East did show up was an indication of growing impatience with and lack of interest in the Palestinian issue. The survival of their own regimes in an increasingly tumultuous region is of at least as much importance to these...