White House adviser Jared Kushner listens as President Donald Trump speaks during a White House press briefing, April 2, 2020. (AP/Alex Brandon, File)
President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and former adviser said Israel’s hopes of regional integration under the Abraham Accords are tied to the conditions of Palestinians living Judea, Samaria, and Gaza.
By World Israel News Staff
President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, confidant, and former aide Jared Kushner warned that Israel must work to improve the conditions of Palestinians in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza if the Jewish state is to ever achieve broad integration into the Middle East.
Kushner and White House Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff spoke with CBS on 60 Minutes in an interview aired on Sunday, discussing the shaky truce in Gaza, efforts to achieve a lasting peace between Israel and the coastal enclave, and the administration’s plans to expand the Abraham Accords.
Declaring the war in Gaza to be “over,” Kushner – one of the architects of the 2020 Abraham Accords agreements between Israel and moderate Arab states – said that the Trump administration is now lobbying Israel to “help the Palestinian people thrive.”
“The biggest message that we’ve tried to convey to the Israeli leadership now is that, now that the war is over, if you want to integrate Israel with the broader Middle East, you have to find a way to help the Palestinian people thrive and do better,” Kushner said.
He added that the administration is “just getting started” to press Israel to take steps to help Palestinians.
The 44-year-old businessman-turned-presidential adviser, who still has the president’s ear more than four years since he last served in an official administration capacity, hinted at the possibility of backing Palestinian statehood.
The Trump administration, Kushner continued, is “focused on creating a situation for joint security and economic opportunity for Israelis and Palestinians so that they can live side by side in a durable way.”
“What you end up calling it over time, we’ll allow the Palestinians to determine that themselves,” he said.
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