This will be Berkowitz's first visit to Israel since stepping in for Jason Greenblatt, who resigned as US President Donald Trump's emissary in November.

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The visit signals that Washington is still interested in pushing the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, despite all but shelving its long-awaited peace plan since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to form a government after Israel's April 9 election.

During his stay in Israel, Berkowitz is expected to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US Ambassador David Friedman and other senior officials.

The White House has stated in the past that Trump's "deal of the century" has been completed, saying that it will be presented only when both the Israelis and the Palestinians are ready for it.

The prolonged political stalemate has pushed the release of the plan, as the Trump administration, which was preparing to release the peace plan in the spring of 2019, has said it will do so only after a new government is formed, meaning following the March 2 elections.

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The White House kicked off its bid for Israeli-Palestinian peace with the ambitious economic conference in Bahrain which it hopes will pave the way for a political resolution to the decades-long conflict.

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The event and proposal, however, have been met with lukewarm reception, with critics noting that the business-minded plan fails to address the most sensitive disputes at the core of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"We changed the conversation," Greenblatt told i24NEWS, shrugging off criticism. "Nobody can create a situation that doesn't include an economic package. What we heard from the investors is 'we can make this happen. This is an investable type of project if the political solution is there.'"

The envoy emphasized the need for Israelis to be involved in any peace deal, insisting that in order to create a successful Palestinian economy, there "needs to be a connection with the Israeli economy. And we think that can happen quickly now that we've released the economic portion."

Still, Greenblatt said the administration does not have a final timeline for the release of the political side of the US peace proposal, citing a "wrinkle" in its roll-out after a second Israeli election was called for September.

Palestinians with whom Greenblatt has been tasked with making peace have clashed often with the envoy, with senior Palestine Liberation Official Hanan Ashrawi labeling Greenblatt a "self-appointed advocate/apologist for Israel."

Calling the plan "dead on arrival," Palestinians have slammed the forthcoming US proposal as blatantly biased toward Israel, citing the transfer of the US Embassy to Jerusalem and the slashing of funds for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees as evidence that the plan will not meet their demands.

Speaking at the conference, US President Donald Trump's senior adviser Jared Kushner said that the White House did not intend to punish the Palestinians for their decision to boycott the Manama summit.

In an interview with Channel 13 and the Axios news site on Wednesday, Bahrain's Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa said the Palestinians had made a mistake by boycotting the economic conference in Manama.

In what was the first interview by a Gulf official with an Israeli media outlet, the king said he hoped that by sitting down with an Israeli journalist, he hoped to ease Middle East tensions by talking directly to the Israeli public.

"Israel is part of this heritage of this whole region historically. So the Jewish people have a place amongst us. So communication needs to be a prerequisite for solving all of the dispute. We should talk."

Of the Palestinians decision to skip the conference, he said, "It is always a mistake to miss an opportunity to achieve peace. … This was an opportunity that we wanted to see them here, but they chose not to come."

In a message to Ramallah, he added, "It will not be a good idea to shun the role of the US in the peace process."

Turning to Iran, the king called the Shiite Republic "a major threat to the security and stability of the region." He said Tehran was exacerbating the Middle East conflict by providing resources to its proxies there and emphasized that Israel had the right to act against Iranian forces inside Syria.

As for the recent spike in tensions between the US and Iran, he said Tehran was pushing for war with its recent attacks on oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman and drone attacks from Yemen, among other provocations.

"This regime only survives with aggression. Only survives with exporting the Revolution. Only survives by taking control. So I think the restraint of the US is very wise," he said.

Wrapping up the economic conference, Kushner said he was cautiously optimistic about the potential for the economic aspect of the plan to succeed.

Kushner said that many people he spoke with during the conference believe the US plan could be implemented if the conditions are right. He said ideas for moving forward on economic development would be examined in the coming days.

In fact, Arab finance ministers interviewed at the conference voiced support for the plan.

Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed al-Jadaan said Riyadh would support "anything that brings prosperity to the region" and that he was "very optimistic" about the prospects of the plan.

Noting Saudi Arabia's support for the Palestinians, he said the conference had shown them there was an international commitment to bringing prosperity to the Palestinians.

The United Arab Emirates' finance minister, Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, was more direct in his assessment.

"We need to give this initiative a chance. In order for it to succeed, we need international institutions. If this is the only initiative on the table, we need to give it a chance. We supported the Palestinians over the past 15 years, in order to keep the issue on the table. But now we need to move forward," he said.

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The "Peace to Prosperity" workshop will focus on economic programs to complement the political component of the peace plan, which will be unveiled at a later stage.

"It's difficult to understand why the Palestinian Authority would reject a workshop designed to discuss a vision with the potential to radically transform lives and put people on a path toward a brighter future," Greenblatt told Israel Hayom.

Greenblatt has been entrusted with the peace efforts along with senior adviser to the president, Jared Kushner, and U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman.

He continued, "By encouraging Palestinians to reject the workshop, the PA is shamefully trying to block their path toward a better future. History will judge the Palestinian Authority harshly for passing up any opportunity that could give the Palestinians something so very different, and something so very positive, compared to what they have today."

PA President Mahmoud Abbas and his spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, lambasted the administration on Sunday and warned that the peace efforts would lead to failure.

"Any economic plan without political horizons will lead nowhere," Abu Rudeineh said. "Palestinians will not accept any proposals which do not include a Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital."

One by one, additional officials in Ramallah claimed that the PA was determined not to embrace the plan that was put forward by Washington. Nabil Shaath, a close adviser of Abbas, said the Palestinian people "will not take part in any initiative that ignores the national interests and the rights of the Palestinian people."

According to Shaath, "because this 'deal of the century' does not further the Palestinian people's national aspirations to establish an independent state along the 1967 borders whose capital is east Jerusalem, along with the removal of settlements and a solution to the right of return for refugees – we are not looking forward to the plan and we have nothing to discuss."

Meanwhile, a news agency in Kuwait published an interview with former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who said that "the peace plan will not succeed. The Palestinians are not interested in cooperating, and even Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not interested in a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that requires Israel to return territories that would be part of an independent Palestinian state."

On Sunday, The New York Times unveiled some new details of the "deal of the century." According to discussions held with White House officials, diplomats and lawmakers, the Trump administration is looking to raise close to $68 billion dollars through the plan. This number, which is not the final amount that the administration is expected to raise, will fund regional projects to help implement the peace plan, according to the paper.

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The speeches by U.S. envoy for international negotiations Jason Greenblatt and top Palestinian diplomat Riad Malki at an informal Security Council meeting ended up focusing on much broader issues than the chosen topic – Israeli settlements at the "core" of the "obstruction of peace."

Greenblatt said it was "surprising and unfair" that Indonesia, Kuwait and South Africa organized the council meeting and condemned Israel's behavior when it "was not even invited to speak at this session." He added that it was "inspiring" to see Israel celebrate the 71st anniversary of its independence on Thursday, calling it "a small brave country" that grew to a "thriving, diverse economically vibrant democracy," the only one in the Mideast.

He called the council's "obsessive" focus on Israeli settlements a "farce," saying settlements aren't keeping Israel and the Palestinians from negotiating peace, and said the council should instead condemn Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad for recently firing hundreds of rockets into Israel from Gaza.

The council should also focus on the Palestinian practice of paying the families of terrorists rather than on how the United States could support the Palestinian Authority's budget, Greenblatt said. The Trump administration has drastically cut its support for the Palestinians to try to spur their return to negotiations.

The Palestinians pre-emptively rejected any peace proposal floated by the Trump administration amid concerns it would fall far below their hopes for an independent state in the West Bank, east Jerusalem – which they want as their capital – and Gaza. Their demand for a two-state solution is supported by the U.N. and almost all of its 193 member-states.

Malki told the council that after U.S. President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel "in blatant violation of international law, it is not possible to have faith" in the peace plan, which was crafted over two years by a team led by Greenblatt and the president's senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner.

"Every decision the U.S. administration has taken since has simply confirmed its disregard for Palestinian lives, for Palestinian rights" and for the two-state solution, he said.

"We cannot afford not to engage with any peace efforts but the U.S. efforts cannot be characterized nor can qualify as peace efforts, unfortunately," Malki said. "All indicates this far that this is not a peace plan, but rather conditions for surrender – and there is no amount of money can make it acceptable."

Greenblatt and Kushner have been tight-lipped about the peace plan's contents.

Last week, Kushner said the blueprint attempts to ensure security for Israel and provide economic opportunity to improve the lives of Palestinians. The plan won't be released before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan ends during the first week of June, and perhaps not even then.

Greenblatt told the Security Council "the vision for peace that we will soon put forward will be realistic and implementable" and "lay out the core issues of the conflict in enough detail that everyone will be able to imagine what peace could look like."

"This is the right package of compromises for both sides to take in order to leave the past behind and start a new chapter, where there could be tremendous hope and opportunity in the region," he added.

Greenblatt called on council members "to support the parties to get together to get behind this opportunity."

In the meantime, he said, "we will continue to speak the truth even when it is not welcome," starting with the U.N.'s failure to condemn the "vicious, cynical, unprovoked attack" from Gaza a few days ago "that was intended to terrify, kill and maim Israelis."

Malki, who spoke before Greenblatt, told reporters afterward that the U.S. envoy's remarks gave him no hope for the U.S. peace plan.

"I thought I was listening to an Israeli speaker ... rather than an American official," he said. "It seems that the American position has been totally taken by the Israeli position and right now the U.S. administration has no independent position."

Malki said Greenblatt "attacked the Palestinians and nothing else" and called Israel the only Mideast democracy while forgetting that Israel is the "only occupying power ... in the world."

"It's very clear that his thinking, his mind, is well set to be exclusively anti-Palestinian, anti-peace and anti-logic, and anti-international law," Malki said.

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"Jared [Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law] & I sincerely appreciate all of the interest in our peace efforts over the past 2 yrs. But, we're not going to reveal details of the plan ahead of time. [Continued] speculation doesn't help anyone & harms the effort. We kindly suggest a stop to the guessing games," Greenblatt said on Twitter.

The administration, meanwhile, also updated its official international maps to include for the first time the Golan Heights as part of Israel.

"Welcome to the newest addition of our international maps system after @POTUS issued a proclamation recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights," Greenblatt tweeted.

Several weeks ago, Trump signed a proclamation recognizing Israeli sovereignty of the Golan Heights, which was liberated by Israel from Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War. Israel annexed the Golan Heights in 1981, in a move that has never been recognized by the international community.

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