Even before Donald Trump’s special adviser Jared Kushner had spoken at the opening session of the “Peace to Prosperity Workshop” in Bahrain on Tuesday, the event, his brainchild, was being labelled a failure.

“Imagine a new reality in the Middle East. Imagine a bustling tourism and commercial centre in Gaza and the West Bank,” Mr Kushner exhorted the participants from 39 countries.

But the words sounded hollow in the absence of any official Palestinian or Israeli representatives.

The Palestinians were boycotting the event over the lack of a political plan and President Trump’s decision a year and a half ago to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

The Israelis had not been invited so as not to embarrass some of the Arab participants who are still unwilling to “normalise” relations with Israel in public.

Businesspeople who had never visited the West Bank or Gaza, or at the most had spent a few days there, and were obviously not acquainted with conditions on the ground. One panelist observed that from his visit “people there seem to like sports and music.”