Is there anyone with half a brain who believes President Trump’s 36-year-old son-in-law Jared Kushner can magically draw up a serious peace process when every administration since Jimmy Carter’s Camp David has tried and failed?
This businessman turned foreign policy advisor is not only cozy with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he is a committed Zionist who has donated large sums to illegal Jewish colonies on the West Bank, including Bet El dubbed “The Harvard of Jewish Education in Judea and Samaria” whose ultra-religious residents celebrated the appointment of someone they consider to be one of them. No surprise there!
Bet El which towers over a Palestinian refugee camp from a high vantage point close to Ramallah has recently been expanded and is about to be walled off ostensibly to protect residents from Palestinian attacks. In reality, Palestinian homes, vehicles, olive groves and orchards are regularly destroyed by rioting colonists. Horrific videos circulating on social media show fanatical colonists beating terrified young Palestinian children.
Kushner is ideologically disposed towards the encroachment of Jewish Israelis on Palestinian land, one of the main sticking points to the sealing of a deal. Unless he has experienced an epiphany over recent months and has come to the realisation that the Palestinian sons of the soil deserve to be free from occupation, his intrinsic beliefs should exclude him from any role as mediator.
Whichever way it is dressed-up, Kushner’s recent Middle East tour to hold meetings with Egypt’s President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Netanyahu was just another exercise in going through the motions.
Accompanying him was Jason Greenblatt, the White House’s special representative for negotiations, an orthodox Jew and former yeshiva student who has been quoted saying colonies are no obstacle to peace. According to various Israeli newspapers, they arrived without any framework or plan. Netanyahu relishes a revived peace processes because he knows they are not really meant to go anywhere and as long as the two sides talk, governments and activists that genuinely support two states living side-by-side are kept off his back.
The Palestinians have always hung on hopes, no matter how faint, but this game designed to make Israel look good has gone on for so long that they are reluctant to play. Abbas is in no mood to provide Israel’s right-wing leadership with a fig leaf to cover its expansionist agenda this time around.
Abbas was said to have lost his cool with Kushner during their first encounter in June because the US president’s son-in-law acted as a courier transmitting Netanyahu’s demands. Both he and Greenblatt “sounded like Netanyahu’s advisers and not like fair arbiters” a senior Palestinian official disclosed to Ha’aretz.
This perennial charade has passed its sell-by date. No one involved expects any sort of breakthrough. Indeed, most experts have already labeled the two-state solution as dead in the water because it is premised on land and as each year passes Israel grabs more.
To be fair, Trump’s vehemently pro-Israel mediators aren’t the core problem. If they were substituted by Americans waving Palestinian flags and singing ‘Baladi, Baladi,’ there still would not be a positive outcome as long as Netanyahu is in charge.
Netanyahu has no enthusiasm to offer a single inch of land in exchange for peace. He’s used to Israel being on a permanent war footing and as long as his side is the one with the big guns, what incentive does he have to make concessions?
He does, however, want a compliant Palestinian population subdued by improved economic benefits or, as a last resort, a postage stamp sized demilitarised enclave brandished with the nominal name “Palestinian State” with no control over its borders, shores or air space.
Every new US administration—including those with visible anti-Palestinian leanings such as George W. Bush’s—has engaged in some semblance of a peace process. When in 2003 George W. Bush announced his roadmap in the Rose Garden as a sop to the Arab world angered over his threats to invade Iraq, he looked like he had a bad smell under his nose.
His British side-kick Tony Blair unintentionally revealed his motive saying, “The most important thing we can do is show even-handedness towards the Middle East.”
Even-handedness on the part of the US and its Western allies throughout this interminable conflict has been in extremely short supply. Negotiations have always been skewed in Israel’s favour. When various Palestinian leaderships have refused the crumbs on offer, they are blamed for the collapse of talks.
Isn’t it beyond time that the international community faced up to the sad fact that a Palestinian state has evolved into a mirage that conveniently keeps Palestinian frustrations from boiling over.
Abbas should reject being a bit-player in Trump’s show and do one of two things: dismantle the Palestinian National Authority leaving the occupier responsible for picking up the tab or call for Israelis and Palestinians to live together in one state enjoying equal rights. Both options are guaranteed to give even a political dinosaur like Netanyahu more than a few sleepless nights.
Linda S. Heard is an award-winning British specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She welcomes feedback and can be contacted by email at heardonthegrapevines@yahoo.co.uk.
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Kushner’s Middle East peace efforts evoke yawns
Posted on August 30, 2017 by Linda S. Heard
Is there anyone with half a brain who believes President Trump’s 36-year-old son-in-law Jared Kushner can magically draw up a serious peace process when every administration since Jimmy Carter’s Camp David has tried and failed?
This businessman turned foreign policy advisor is not only cozy with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he is a committed Zionist who has donated large sums to illegal Jewish colonies on the West Bank, including Bet El dubbed “The Harvard of Jewish Education in Judea and Samaria” whose ultra-religious residents celebrated the appointment of someone they consider to be one of them. No surprise there!
Bet El which towers over a Palestinian refugee camp from a high vantage point close to Ramallah has recently been expanded and is about to be walled off ostensibly to protect residents from Palestinian attacks. In reality, Palestinian homes, vehicles, olive groves and orchards are regularly destroyed by rioting colonists. Horrific videos circulating on social media show fanatical colonists beating terrified young Palestinian children.
Kushner is ideologically disposed towards the encroachment of Jewish Israelis on Palestinian land, one of the main sticking points to the sealing of a deal. Unless he has experienced an epiphany over recent months and has come to the realisation that the Palestinian sons of the soil deserve to be free from occupation, his intrinsic beliefs should exclude him from any role as mediator.
Whichever way it is dressed-up, Kushner’s recent Middle East tour to hold meetings with Egypt’s President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Netanyahu was just another exercise in going through the motions.
Accompanying him was Jason Greenblatt, the White House’s special representative for negotiations, an orthodox Jew and former yeshiva student who has been quoted saying colonies are no obstacle to peace. According to various Israeli newspapers, they arrived without any framework or plan. Netanyahu relishes a revived peace processes because he knows they are not really meant to go anywhere and as long as the two sides talk, governments and activists that genuinely support two states living side-by-side are kept off his back.
The Palestinians have always hung on hopes, no matter how faint, but this game designed to make Israel look good has gone on for so long that they are reluctant to play. Abbas is in no mood to provide Israel’s right-wing leadership with a fig leaf to cover its expansionist agenda this time around.
Abbas was said to have lost his cool with Kushner during their first encounter in June because the US president’s son-in-law acted as a courier transmitting Netanyahu’s demands. Both he and Greenblatt “sounded like Netanyahu’s advisers and not like fair arbiters” a senior Palestinian official disclosed to Ha’aretz.
This perennial charade has passed its sell-by date. No one involved expects any sort of breakthrough. Indeed, most experts have already labeled the two-state solution as dead in the water because it is premised on land and as each year passes Israel grabs more.
To be fair, Trump’s vehemently pro-Israel mediators aren’t the core problem. If they were substituted by Americans waving Palestinian flags and singing ‘Baladi, Baladi,’ there still would not be a positive outcome as long as Netanyahu is in charge.
Netanyahu has no enthusiasm to offer a single inch of land in exchange for peace. He’s used to Israel being on a permanent war footing and as long as his side is the one with the big guns, what incentive does he have to make concessions?
He does, however, want a compliant Palestinian population subdued by improved economic benefits or, as a last resort, a postage stamp sized demilitarised enclave brandished with the nominal name “Palestinian State” with no control over its borders, shores or air space.
Every new US administration—including those with visible anti-Palestinian leanings such as George W. Bush’s—has engaged in some semblance of a peace process. When in 2003 George W. Bush announced his roadmap in the Rose Garden as a sop to the Arab world angered over his threats to invade Iraq, he looked like he had a bad smell under his nose.
His British side-kick Tony Blair unintentionally revealed his motive saying, “The most important thing we can do is show even-handedness towards the Middle East.”
Even-handedness on the part of the US and its Western allies throughout this interminable conflict has been in extremely short supply. Negotiations have always been skewed in Israel’s favour. When various Palestinian leaderships have refused the crumbs on offer, they are blamed for the collapse of talks.
Isn’t it beyond time that the international community faced up to the sad fact that a Palestinian state has evolved into a mirage that conveniently keeps Palestinian frustrations from boiling over.
Abbas should reject being a bit-player in Trump’s show and do one of two things: dismantle the Palestinian National Authority leaving the occupier responsible for picking up the tab or call for Israelis and Palestinians to live together in one state enjoying equal rights. Both options are guaranteed to give even a political dinosaur like Netanyahu more than a few sleepless nights.
Linda S. Heard is an award-winning British specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She welcomes feedback and can be contacted by email at heardonthegrapevines@yahoo.co.uk.