'Don't talk about history': how Jared Kushner crafted his Middle East 'peace' plan

[Uncle Joe]

Tue 28 Jan 2020 02.30 EST

Trump calls his son-in-law’s proposals – which will be presented Tuesday – the ‘ultimate deal’ for Israel and Palestine

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Kushner decided to deal with the problem of history intruding on talks by engineering a proposed settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian crisis without negotiations or even really talking to one of the parties.

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The make up of Kushner’s team was an early clue to where it the process was headed. It included David Friedman, a lawyer with close ties to the Jewish settler movement in the occupied territories who Trump appointed as US ambassador to Israel. Friedman has questioned the need for a Palestinian state and likened members of a liberal US Jewish group to Nazi collaborators for their criticism of the Israeli government’s actions.

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“I said to Jared you’re not going to fix this because the problem is not the United States. You can make it worse but you’re going to have a hard time making it better because what needs to be done can’t be done by the United States. It requires fundamental decisions by the Israelis and Palestinians. Neither side is prepared to make them. They lack leaders who are capable of making them,” he said.

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“I told Jared you’re going to put out a plan that meets the needs or requirements of only one side. And I said that’s a serious problem because American credibility and integrity is also on the table. Not just American politics and re-election of Donald Trump,” he said.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jan/27/jared-kushner-israel-palestine-peace-plan