Jared Kushner’s Mideast Peace Push Is Going Nowhere. That’s Why Israelis Love It.
Jared Kushner’s Mideast Peace Push Is Going Nowhere. That’s Why Israelis Love It.
‘Past administrations jumped into the peace process pool,’ says an Israeli official, praising Team Trump’s go-slow approach. ‘There’s no water in this pool, no reason to jump in.’
Jared Kushner's second visit to the Mideast is widely perceived as a Seinfeld-like show about nothing—and the Israelis love it.
Seeking President Trump’s “ultimate deal”—peace between Israelis and Palestinians— Kushner arrived in Jerusalem and Ramallah this week, where few could point to any progress made in promoting a deal between the parties. White House officials say they're keeping mum on progress by design, but commentators in the Israeli and Palestinian press claim there is little substance behind the first son-in-law’s diplomacy.
And that's just fine by Israeli government officials, who quietly express hope that Kushner's latest trip , and perhaps future ones as well, will yield no earth-shaking results.
“Past American administrations jumped into the peace process pool before checking if there’s any water in it; we jumped after them and cracked our heads,” Dani Dayan, Israel’s consul general in New York, told The Daily Beast. He commended Kushner’s go-slow approach, saying, “Perhaps he’ll realize there’s no water in this pool, and so there's no reason to jump in.”
Publicly, after meeting with Kushner, Jerusalem and Ramallah officials made statements that were remarkably similar, using words diplomats have long employed to obscure content. Privately, however, several Israeli officials say they expect no progress. Further, they're grateful the Trump administration, unlike previous ones, exerts no pressure on them to make major concessions.
Political conditions are far from optimal for a meaningful peace process. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under unprecedented pressure, as investigations of various alleged wrongdoings mount against him. The Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas , is unpopular and weak.
While Kushner and international negotiator Jason Greenblatt do their best not to discuss the substance of their talks—saying they would rather conduct quiet diplomacy—critics note that not too long ago Kushner told White House interns, in a conversation that was leaked to the press, that there may be “no solution” to the Israeli Palestinian problem.
Tags
Who is online
242 visitors
"In a recent State Department briefing, spokeswoman Heather Nauert declined to endorse the two state solution, a formula expressed by three prior administrations that calls for the creation of a peaceful, democratic Palestinian state next to the Jewish state of Israel. “We are not going to state what the outcome has to be,” Nauert said, adding, “It has to be workable to both sides.”
Palestinians were outraged. Even as Kushner met for several hours with Abbas in Ramallah Thursday, demonstrators, said to be organized by Abbas’ own lieutenants, gathered outside the presidential headquarters, known as the Muqata, with some reportedly carrying anti-Trump signs, including one depicting the president as being led on a leash by daughter Ivanka, who is married to Kushner.
A White House official close to the negotiations noted however that Abbas has threatened—as he’s often done in the past—to resign and dissolve the Palestinian Authority if Kushner declined to push hard on the peace process. But then, the official said, "Abbas didn’t pull out,” which indicates that the talks are substantial after all."
‘There’s no water in this pool, no reason to jump in.’
If you'd like a little sliver of perspective on the Israeli mindset, try this:
From your link, why Abbas will not stop funding the terrorist prisoners in Israeli jails and the families of the "martyrs" who have murdered innocent women and children in their beds:
"The political prisoners are in effect the victims of the occupation, not the creators of the occupation,"
And they will continue to murder innocent Jewish women and children until the Jews are pushed into the sea.
IMO the biggest mistake Trump made was to not move the Embassy to Jerusalem immediately. The Arabs only respect strength, and Trump showed them that he is a wimp. They now know they need not make ANY concessions for peace.
Comment removed for CoC violation. jwc2blue
Thus far, the only competence shown by anyone in the Trump Administration is for rolling back whatever Obama did. Why anyone would imagine that a diplomacy neophyte like Kushner could accomplish anything in a complex context is incomprehensible.
I think it's safe to assume that there was never any intent to accomplish anything.
What difference does it make anyway? The Palestinians never made even one concession in their demands over all the years of "negotiations", and they never intend to. Israel gave up land for peace, put a moratorium on settlement building, released I don't know how many terrorist prisoners with blood on their hands - for what purpose? As I said, Trump had the opertunity to cow the Palestinians by moving the embassy and he's too chicken to do it so the Arabs now know he has no balls and so that's the end of the opportunity to prove to the Palestinians that they had better come with their hats in their hands or they're going to miss the boat forever.
I think it's safe to assume that there was never any intent to accomplish anything.
I believe that an appropriate amount of effort and resource is being applied to the issue.
Previous Administrations have pulled out all the stops, sending top negotiators and the Secretary of State on numerous occasions, expending incredible quantities of energy. And for what? Palestinian recalcitrance. There will be absolutely no difference in the result, whether you send Kushner or Kissinger.
I agree.
It seems that American Presidents simply cannot accept the idea that none of the participants in the ME festivities actually gives a flying fuçk what America says.
At least the designation of Jared Kushner tells everyone that nothing serious is going to happen any time soon. That's better that pretending that the US is "going to force peace down their throats"!