Senior White House adviser Jared Kushner speaking at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in DC, June 19, 2017 (Photo/ JTA-Getty Images-Chip Somodevilla)
Jared Kushner speaking at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in DC, June 19, 2017 (Photo/JTA-Getty Images-Chip Somodevilla)

If Jared Kushner is the only person who can deliver Middle East peace — as his father-in-law Donald Trump said — he comes off as a reluctant savior.

In a July 31 speech to a group of congressional interns and leaked to the media, Kushner expounded on the Trump administration’s efforts to achieve Israeli-Palestinian peace. What emerged was an outlook that was at once resolutely pro-Israel and skeptical of the chances of success.

“So what do we offer that’s unique? I don’t know,” Kushner said in his seven-minute answer to an intern’s question in a recording obtained by Wired magazine. “And we’re trying to work with the parties very quietly to see if there’s a solution. And there may be no solution, but it’s one of the problem sets that the president asked us to focus on.”

Kushner traveled to the region in June along with President Trump’s chief negotiator, Jason Greenblatt, to meet with Israeli and Palestinian stakeholders and suss out the chances of reaching a peace deal. It’s among a bevy of issues that Kushner has taken on as a senior adviser to his father-in-law, including criminal justice reform, streamlining the federal government, stemming the opioid addiction crisis and more.

In his speech, Kushner sounds unenthused to be handling the peace process. He opens by saying “this is one of the ones I was asked to take on,” and becomes more pessimistic from there, criticizing Israeli and Palestinian leaders for being mired in history and unable to let go of minor provocations.

He also made some questionable claims. Kushner said that “not a whole lot has been accomplished over the last 40 or 50 years we’ve been doing this,” apparently dismissing Israeli peace pacts with Egypt and Jordan, the Israeli-Palestinian Oslo Accords and Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza.

Then he said, “the variables haven’t been changed much”— something that both Israeli and Palestinian officials would fiercely dispute. Israelis charge that their withdrawals from territory have been met only with terror and incitement, while the Palestinians claim growing Israeli settlements are making a Palestinian state near impossible.

Aaron David Miller, who worked on the peace process in Republican and Democratic administrations, said he appreciated Kushner’s skepticism while adding that his dismissal of history is misguided.

“If you want to have any chance of doing anything on this issue, you have to see the world the way it is, not just the way you want it to be,” said Miller. “You do need a history lesson, big time, because if you don’t know where you’ve been, you don’t have a chance of figuring out where you’re going.”

Kushner did boast how the Trump administration mediated an agreement to provide Palestinians with an increase of 32 million cubic meters of fresh water. He also praised his team for helping resolve the recent Temple Mount crisis that erupted when three Arab-Israeli gunmen killed two Israeli police officers, and escalated when Israel set up metal detectors at the holy site revered by the Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary.

In describing recent events, Kushner displayed a pro-Israel stance, which is unsurprising given that he was raised in pro-Israel Jewish day schools and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once slept in his childhood bed.

Kushner did not speak of the two-state solution in his answer to the intern’s question. He defended Israel’s decision to erect metal detectors as “not an irrational thing to do,” although Palestinians decried the move and said the security measures made them feel like suspects at their own holy site. He criticized a Palestinian imam for forbidding worshippers from passing through the detectors.

And in recounting fatalities during the weekend of violence that followed the detectors’ placement, Kushner listed only the Israeli victims — including three members of an Israeli family stabbed to death in their home by a Palestinian terrorist — and did not mention the Palestinians.

Miller said that while Kushner is clearly pro-Israel, he is not the first American negotiator who is partial to Israel’s interests due to longtime associations with the country.

“It’s clear that emotionally, by virtue of his background and his association with Israel and the prime minister, there’s a high degree of sensitivity” toward Israel, Miller said. “That’s hardly new in the wonderful world of peacemaking. You could have said that about any number of individuals who participated in this process over the past 20 years.”

Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts have been largely stalled for well over a decade. Four years ago, then-Secretary of State John Kerry poured his energy into starting negotiations that ultimately went nowhere. The same goes for negotiators under the George W. Bush and Clinton administrations, including Bill Clinton himself. The Oslo Accords, however, were signed during his presidency.

The difference is that those negotiators all at least sounded optimistic as they were beginning their quests. Kushner, at least in this would-be private briefing, sounded at times like he was already close to giving up hope.

“You have some people who don’t want to see and achieve an outcome of peace,” he said. “And other people sometimes thrive in the chaos … And that’s not new to politics, and it’s not new to that conflict. It’s just the way it is.”

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Ben Sales is news editor of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

32 replies on “Jared Kushner: ‘There may be no solution’ to Mideast conflict”

        1. Forcing Jews to convert to Islam under the threat of death, isn’t peaceful or
          civilised in any way ,shape or form,paying Dhimni taxes to Islam certainly
          isn’t peaceful ,so I don’t know where this ” peaceful religion ” nonsense
          comes from .

          1. I don’t know where this ” peaceful religion ” nonsense comes from .

            Perhaps Sue will also read this:

            It comes from islam’s world view.
            While the Jews world view is tikkun olam, islam’s is far, far different.

            Islam sees the world divided into the world of islam (dar al islam) and the world of war (dar al harb), where islam has not yet become dominant, and conflict with the
            ‘unbeliever’ is in full tilt.

            Once the entire world becomes islamic, goes islam’s word view,
            the world will experience ‘islamic peace’

            I think we already have a good idea of what that involves, eh?

      2. Islam has never been a peaceful religion ,not now in August 2017 and not in 1400
        years ,even Arab Christians ought to know this as they’ve been the victims more
        often than not ,like in Bethlehem the past 40 years where the Arab Muslim PLO/
        Fatah has forced them to leave in huge numbers .

        1. I suspect doudi might have been sarcastic.

          I agree. Islam was born in violence when Mohammed kill the pagans to steal that pagan Mecca rock and use it for his invented religion, and it has never ceased being violent.

      3. islam is based on….what??????????
        Apparently J doesn’t want me to say what……

        Until we do,the problem will be unresolved, as Jared indicates, eh???????

  3. If I may be so bold so as to please ask everyone to view the “tour” through ARIEL, Israel, which a few of us have worked on? https://disqus.com/home/discussion/channel-beautifulwonders/_ariel_the_city_of_the_lion_of_g_d/ <– CLICK HERE

    Personally, I had been unaware (due to universities misleading, and the media providing only fake news), that the Shomron, that is, Samaria, was always Jewish. I'm very sorry for being so ignorant, but slowly I'm learning. This is why I encourage everyone to view the little presentation we did (link above).

    Why did I post this? Well, it goes perfectly with this article. The "Palestinians" are no such people. Their grandparents, parents, great-grandparents, are (to a great degree) from JORDAN, EGYPT, SYRIA, IRAQ, LEBANON, LIBYA, etc. The #1 hero of "Palestinians" was Arafat, an Egyptian who claimed to be "Palestinian." The blatant and disgusting illegitimacy of these people, and the shocking lie of them pretending that they are indigenous to the land of Israel (which they are NOT, in any way, shape, or form!!!) shocks me to the core.

    Even those who had begun to move to Israel in the 20s from Jordan and Egypt, etc. because they were aware that Westerners were far more civilized that Muslims, were not indigenous. Not only were they not indigenous, but they also LEFT when the Arab countries ganged up on Israel to murder each and every Jew and pirate away the land. They left to protect their hides, hoping that, once all Jews were dead, they could steal everything they had.

    Therefore, I find it so important (it is to me, anyway), that we focus on what exactly is that land where there are settlements, and find out whose land it is, and in every conceivable fashion, that land is JEWISH.

    So again, please visit our link, and click "follow" and "recommend." Thank you very much.
    https://disqus.com/home/discussion/channel-beautifulwonders/_ariel_the_city_of_the_lion_of_g_d/ <– CLICK HERE

  7. …. while the Palestinians claim growing Israeli settlements are making a Palestinian state near impossible.

    Note they do not deny their terror and incitement

  8. efforts to achieve Israeli-Palestinian peace.

    It can NEVER happen due to the nature of islam.
    And due to the internet, anyone can educate themselves about islam, eh?

  9. , Kushner expounded on the Trump administration’s efforts to achieve Israeli-Palestinian peace.

    This morning, NPR reported that the issue was between “Israel and ‘palestine'”
    They are not aware there is no such country, eh?

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