Hindsight is unfair – but it might tell the truth. First, Donald Trump proclaims Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, thus depriving the Palestinians of their capital in the east of the city. The Palestinians are appalled. Mahmoud Abbas says he will no longer talk to the United States. So Trump rages that “we pay the Palestinians hundreds of millions of dollars a year and get no appreciation or respect.” It was only a tweet, but he means it. Those ungrateful Palestinian wretches! And he cuts $300m from America’s aid to the refugees, giving the oppressed and besieged and dispossessed Palestinians a mere $60m.

Already the United Nations Relief and Works Agency – recipients of international aid for 5.3 million Palestinian refugees – is having to get rid of its employees, 113 of them in Gaza alone last week. Unrwa has been caring for the Palestinians since 1949, and already has a current deficit of $49m. Its 30,000 Palestinian doctors, nurses, teachers and other staff face unemployment. Starvation thus threatens even more of the tired, poor and huddled masses of Gaza. One 53-year-old father of six has just been told he’s got no job after 32 years working for Unwra.

But wait. Help is at hand. For did not Jared Kushner, son-in-law of the aforesaid Trump and giver of a future peace “deal of the century” to Palestinians and Israelis alike, promise a better life for the losing side?

Why, he did indeed. Just a month ago. Let me quote: “I believe that Palestinian people are less invested in the politicians’ talking points that they are in seeing how a deal will give them and their future generations new opportunities, more and better paying jobs and prospects for a better life.” I’ve remarked before that this is cash for peace instead of land for peace – dollars instead of a Palestinian capital in Jerusalem, an end to Jewish colonisation, a “right of return”, and so on. A truly Trumpian solution.

But the playback of chronological events makes the “deal” even more cynical. First Trump gives Jerusalem to the Israelis. Then, when the Palestinians dare to complain, he cuts their humanitarian aid and drives them to despair. Then, courtesy of young Jared, Trump offers to shower them with money in the “ultimate deal” if they will just stop making these exorbitant, irrational, antisemitic, Nazi-like and racist demands for statehood, dignity and an end to colonisation.

Their hearts may thus be empty but their stomachs shall be filled. Their hopes may be dead but their bank accounts will be in the black. Instead of all the gloom and violence fostered by their corrupt political leaders who can neither pay nor feed their people, the Palestinians can walk tall with “new opportunities… better-paying jobs and prospects for a better life”. Yes, do watch the “prospects” bit.

Ahed Tamimi: Teenage Palestinian protester released from Israeli prison

And with that much lolly floating around, there won’t be any need for Unwra, will there? Because there will be no more poverty-stricken refugees. For the refugees will be well-off, if not rich, with all those better-paying jobs and “prospects”. Goodbye the middens of Gaza. Goodbye all threats to Israel. And since the same financial salvation will be available to the Palestinians of the West Bank, why should its inhabitants care any more about the campaign of Israeli land theft which engulfs them? Just remember the dog-day destitution of the summer of 2018 when even Unwra could no longer relieve their oppression.

The equation is impossible to conceal. When the Palestinians objected to the destruction of their political aspirations – refused to “talk peace” in the obscene semantics of the Americans and Israelis – they would be quite deliberately impoverished. “With the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace,” Trump said, “why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?”

More than half of Gaza’s 2 million population, with a 44 per cent unemployment rate, are dependent on Unwra. The Palestinian cause, in other words – and one Unwra staffer put it like this – must be replaced with a humanitarian cause. Peace will therefore be economic, rather than political.

The Saudis and Emiratis and Egyptians are being hustled to share in this new Levantine bonanza. Electricity stations paid for by Abu Dhabi, Egyptian duty free shops in Raffah, Saudi shares in Palestinian firms; dreams, perhaps, but suitable for the masses.

Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Show all 22 1 /22 Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Supporters of Difa-e-Pakistan Council a coalition of right wing Islamic parties, burn an effigy of US President Donald Trump, during a protest in Quetta, Pakistan EPA Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Israeli police scuffle with a Palestinian protester outside Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's Old City Getty Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Palestinian protesters burn pictures of Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu following Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, in Gaza City AFP/Getty Images Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Israeli forces disperse Palestinian protesters outside Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's Old City on 7 December 2017 AFP/Getty Images Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Supporters of the Difa-e-Pakistan Council (DPC), an Islamic organization, chant slogans as they burn Israeli and US flags during a protest against Donald Trump in Peshawar REUTERS Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Palestinians paint an 'X' over the face of a picture of US president Donald J. Trump which was painted on the Israeli separation wall in Bethlehem EPA Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Palestinian protestors burn the Israeli flag and a poster of US President Donald Trump in Gaza City AFP/Getty Images Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Supporters of a Pakistani religious party rally against Donald Trump in Lahore AP Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Palestinian protesters burn the US and Israeli flags in Gaza City AFP/Getty Images Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital A poster depicting U.S. President Donald Trump is burnt during a protest against Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, in the West Bank city of Ramallah REUTERS Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Israeli forces detain a Palestinian protester during clashes that followed protests against US President Donald Trump recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, in Hebron AFP/Getty Images Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Palestinian protesters burn an effigy of U.S. President Donald Trump AP Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Palestinian protesters shout slogans against Donald Trump EPA Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital A Palestinian protester wears a Guy Fawkes mask used by the anonymous movement during clashes with Israeli troops in Hebron AFP/Getty Images Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Palestinian demonstrators clash with Isralei troops during protests AFP/Getty Images Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Supporters of a Pakistani religious party chant anti-American slogans during a rally in Islamabad, Pakistan AP Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Pakistanis burn a representation of the U.S. flag during a protest rally in Hyderabad AP Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Young Palestinian women look on as smoke billows from burning tyres as fellow Palestinian demonstrators clash with Isralei troops AFP/Getty Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Protesters burn a picture of U.S. President Donald Trump at a protest in Islamabad REUTERS Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Protestors shouts slogans against US President Donald Trump as they hold Palestinian and Turkish flags during a protest near the US Embassy in Ankara, Turkey EPA Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Palestinian protestors put their feet over a picture of US president Donald Trump during a protest in the West Bank City of Nablus EPA Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Pakistani protesters burn tires at an anti-Donald Trump rally in Multan AP

In some ways, it’s back to the old fantasy of a Dubai in the West Bank, a Singapore in Gaza, which Shimon Peres used to espouse and which even the lamentable John Kerry suggested. For who now remembers the forgotten Secretary of State’s $4bn economic “plan for Palestine” which he proposed at the World Economic Forum more than five years ago? The same old Abbas was then, too, being told he “must” restart negotiations with Israel, as Kerry waffled on about a “ground-breaking plan to develop a healthy, sustainable, private sector-led Palestinian economy ... bigger, bolder and more ambitious than anything proposed since Oslo more than 20 years ago.” But then at least Kerry was offering a Palestinian state in return for Abbas’s compliance.