Kushner peace push undermined by Trump's policies
Jared Kushner’s Middle East peace push is being undermined by a series of administration policy decisions that have alienated both the Palestinian leadership and people.
WASHINGTON — In a rare interview with the Palestinian media, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner implored the Palestinian people to pressure their leadership to give his Middle East peace efforts a chance.
“Show your leadership that you support efforts to achieve peace,” Kushner told Al Quds newspaper in a June 23 interview, a transcript of which was sent to reporters by the White House.
“Let them know your priorities and give them the courage to keep an open mind toward achieving them,” said Kushner, who was on the final stop of a six-nation trip to the region with Jason Greenblatt, Trump’s envoy for international negotiations. “Don’t let your leadership reject a plan they haven’t even seen," Kushner added.
But a cascading series of controversial Trump administration decisions, beginning with moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem last month, and threats to cut off US assistance to the Palestinians have deeply alienated both the Palestinian leadership and its people and set back already minimal prospects for advancing an Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Indeed, several veteran peace process diplomats and experts express concern that, far from advancing a peace process, if the Trump administration actually unveils its peace plan in the coming months as Kushner suggested he might do, it could instead spark a new round of violence.
