While many in Israel are trying to play down the importance of the US-led economic peace summit in Bahrain, the capital, Manama, was decked out for the event on Tuesday morning, with festive signs welcoming visitors.
Government envoys in spotless white robes helped visitors navigate the customs and immigration process. Israelis, with passports printed in Hebrew, were given the same royal treatment. The excitement was palpable.
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The route from Israel to Bahrain passed mainly over Saudi Arabia, an ally of Bahrain and the main regional rival to Iran. Saudi Arabia, like Israel, is occasionally the target of Iranian missiles fired by terrorist organizations.
On Tuesday evening, hundreds of business people from all over the world with the common goal of bringing the region a step or two ahead will convene in the main event venue. They will include Israelis and Palestinians, Arabs and Jews, who will put quiet but significant processes that have been taking place for years on the table, in the open.
For years, this is how Israel and moderate states in the region have been maintaining contact, with or without the blessing of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, and it could do good things for the Middle East.
How will it all work? The two-day international meeting, led by US President Donald Trump's son-in-law and advisor, Jared Kushner, has been billed as the first part of Washington's long-delayed broader political blueprint to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, which will be unveiled after the Israeli election in September.
Under the plan, donor nations and investors would contribute about $50 billion over 10 years, with $28 billion going to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip – as well as $7.5 billion to Jordan, $9 billion to Egypt and $6 billion for Lebanon.
Among 179 proposed infrastructure and business projects is a $5 billion transport corridor to connect the West Bank and Gaza.
"I laugh when they attack this as the 'deal of the century,'" Kushner told Reuters, referring to the lofty nickname that Trump's peace plan has assumed over the past two years.
"This is going to be the 'opportunity of the century' if they have the courage to pursue it."
But pushing back against critics who accuse Kushner of trying to forge a strictly "economic peace," he told Reuters last week: "A lot of past attempts have failed. Calm down ... and keep an open mind."
Palestinian leaders have boycotted the workshop, and are refusing to engage with the White House – accusing it of pro-Israel bias after a series of recent Trump decisions. Kushner told Reuters that "some" Palestinian businessmen would be present.
Kushner insists, however, that the economic plan is intended to help draw Palestinians back to the negotiating table by showcasing the benefits a peace deal could bring.
Kushner said that even without the Israeli and Palestinian governments represented, the presence of Israeli business executives and journalists with their Arab counterparts would be significant at a time of rising tensions with Iran.
"People realize that the real threat to that region is Iran and their aggression, and Israel and a lot of the other Arab states have a lot more in common today than they did before, " he said.
