The economic conference set to open June 25 in Bahrain is supposed to deal with the economic ramifications of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The only problem is no Israeli or Palestinian representative will attend. The Palestinian Authority (PA) is angrily boycotting the event and, at the last minute, Israel was pushed outside. The dramatic, festive launching of the United States' “deal of the century” was downgraded at the last minute.

The nadir was reached when the White House announced June 17 Israel would not be formally represented at the conference; even the name of the conference was changed to the “Economic Workshop.” The reason for the change, according to official American sources, is because they want to focus on business and not inject politics. Unofficially, however, this is additional proof that while Donald Trump and his administration understand business, they remain neophytes when it comes to Middle East politics.

High-level Israeli sources confirmed to Al-Monitor that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas vetoed Israeli participation. Despite the fact that Abbas himself is boycotting the event, he succeeded in swaying several important Arab states to his point of view. These key states informed the American administration that if Israel will be officially represented in the conference, they will boycott it or sharply lower the ranks of their participants. The Americans are hoping for a double-digit number of Arab finance ministers at the conference. They didn’t want to end up with a handful of junior officials and thus endure public humiliation. At this stage, US envoys Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt had to make a decision: They decided to cut their losses and take Israel out of the picture. They opted to try and recoup American pride via ensuring a respectable and inclusive Arab representation in Bahrain.

Originally, Israel was supposed to be the central participant in the event, the jewel in the crown. That would have provided excellent photo-op opportunities for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, just in time for the September elections. Afterward, someone got cold feet and the invitations went out to all the capital cities in the Middle East — except for Jerusalem. In the next stage, there was talk of lowering the Israeli profile in general and the ranks of the participants in specific. On June 16, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz still said Israel would be attending the conference, albeit at a lower rank. Two days later, it was made clear Israel would not officially participate at all.