The Trump administration unveiled Sunday its first significant move in a plan to forge peace between Palestinians and Israelis. It will lead a two-day “economic workshop” conference in Bahrain next month where U.S. officials will reveal more of their plan to resolve the decades-long impasse between Israelis and Palestinians, while raising tens of billions of dollars in investment for the occupied territories. Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and the White House’s designated lead on brokering peace, appears to believe that working to improve Palestinian livelihoods and cultivating Palestinian businesses should take precedence over political solutions.

That may make sense, given the political abyss into which the prospects for a viable independent Palestinian state have fallen.