“The plan seeks to curb the expansion of the settlements, to allow the feasibility of a Palestinian state,” Kushner said during the interview as quoted by Kan news.
By World Israel News Staff
In an interview aired over the weekend by Egyptian TV, White House senior adviser Jared Kushner said that the U.S. Mideast peace plan’s primary goal is to enable the establishment of a Palestinian state and to keep in check Israeli settlement expansion in Judea and Samaria.
“The plan seeks to curb the expansion of the settlements, to allow the feasibility of a Palestinian state,” Kushner said during the interview as quoted by Kan news.
Kushner also said that the peace plan territorial map is not set in stone, but rather to be used as a framework to start negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians.
“The map attached to the plan is not a scientific map. If the Palestinians don’t like where the line is drawn, they should come and tell us where they want to draw it,” he said.
The president’s son-in-law expressed his disappointment with the Palestinian Authority who has completely dismissed the plan outright instead of keeping an open mind towards it.
“A 20-year record of missed opportunities. In my business, when someone tries to do business for 20 years and fails, he is replaced by someone else,” he said.
This is not the first time Kushner criticized the PA for rejecting the peace plan so fast.
“A pathway to a state, a contiguous territory, and [have the] conditions where they can earn their way to their independence, their dignity, all these different things along with a $50 billion economic plan that could make them a very, very thriving state in the future,” Kushner said during an interview with CNN last week.
Meanwhile, Channel 12 reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to gain support to annex some part of Judea and Samaria as a “symbolic move” before the upcoming elections to help appease his right-wing base.
The report did not specify which part of Judea and Samaria the prime minister intends to annex but did suggest that it most likely would be one of the large settlements or blocs near Jerusalem.