The comment ' Big dreams , but divorced from reality' is an expression of criticism generally much more appropriate to most of the things the NYT Editorial Board writes , then to anything else .
In this case , here is a man ( Kushner ) trying a whole new and different approach to an issue that has been unresolved for over a century ; that has led to wars and to countless skirmishes ; and that has cost tens of thousands of lives .
In the end , it may not work . But this initiative has just started , so give Kushner credit for thinking out of the box , and give him a chance .
I suspect that when John Adams said that the Colonies should separate from England , there was some journalist in Boston who said : " Big dreams , but divorced from reality...."
I actually say : BRAVO KUSHNER !!
35
What is lacking is sincere interest in the Palestinians as a people, not just an opportunity for investment.
88
Nonsense. Novelty has no inherent value, and we should stop all buying into the play-acting routine the media adopts with regards to this Administration’s foreign policy. Every time a new foreign policy initiative is wheeled out by this Administration it is obviously incompetent and at best doomed to failure; at worst seriously damaging to the US’s global standing and world security. Even the NYT feels obliged to play the will-he-won’t-he bring world peace game every time there’s a fatuous new tweet, just because the only format that sells papers is the “fair and balanced” one that treats these people with more seriousness than they deserve.
Anyone who has even read the Wikipedia page on this conflict could tell you that a peace process initiated by ultra-Orthodox and Evangelical Americans, bankrolled by Israel-aligned Gulf States, boycotted by one of the parties, refusing to even acknowledge the primary grievance of the Palestinians, and ‘managed’ by a real estate hustler who bribed his way into Harvard was doomed. Putting Jared Kushner in charge of this was as likely to work as making me the chief engineer for NASA’s next moon mission.
No one deserves a participation trophy for “trying something new” - People’s lives are at stake and all Kushner is doing is cosplaying diplomacy in the White House’s corrupt version of take-your-child-to-work day. It’s disgraceful.
169
This has nothing to do with business reality, or mideast solutions. Kushner needs to produce something for Trump, so that he can claim progress for the 2020 election. It’s all part of the show, and only has to survive for 18 months.
Perhaps a new Trump University campus?
155
Kushner's plan reflects a dream of many Israelis and American Jews -- that they could engineer a new kind of human race, one which loves subservience, obedience and self-debasement. This marvel race will be called "Palestinian."
24
Go go go . Way to go . This will bring peace to our region by economic interdependence, whether the people want to accept it or not
20
Oh well, DAB. Since when did the people matter?
51
Capitalism will not provide a foundation for a political solution for the Palestinian people. Israel must make an ethical choice to eliminate the apartheid that they have created.
28
How much of this proposed billion dollars of investments would actually make it into Palestinian households? Because there is no state of Palestine just occupied 'territories'. So it looks like the investment in infrastructure would in fact be doing Israel and Jordan's work for free as they control these territories. As stated "Israel controls the economic life of the Palestinians".
Jared's Uncle Bibi Netanyahu has found a possible golden calf in Kushner. This 'peace plan' stage 1 is nothing more than a great big con.
Since Israel and the Arab Nations have little interest in investing in anything, get Europe and the US and other private investors from around the globe to give money to Israel (in reality) to build up the occupied territories. It will keep 'em happy 'down on the farm' so to say.
Glad there is great skepticism about this whole scam.
What does Jared do except use his White House office to roam the world for billionaire 'friends' to scam money from?
21
Instead of Jared they should have sent Al Pacino playing the part of Michael Corleone.
22
His conference in Bahrain
'An aberrance. His brain!'
Hears of big dream plans
'In between these clans'
Divorced from reality
'The cost! It's insanity!!'
Jared Kushner
'Married? Shush! Er...'
2
Imagine the outrage of Republicans if Hillary Clinton had won in 2116 and installed her daughter and son-in-law into the White House as key advisers and policy makers.
Imagine the investigations into the Clinton Foundation, Benghazi, and her e-mails.
With Trump in office, all we hear from Republicans about his outrageous behavior is, crickets.
So much for the rule of law, family values, societal norms, transparency, accountability, and fiscal restraint. Not to mention the image of America as the leader of the free world.
We have a moron as President who profits from his office, embarrasses the nation on the world stage, and views the entire world as either good for him or bad.
Still, forty percent of Americans support him. Where have we gone wrong?
43
Trump Corridor. Trump Towers along the way. Gaza becomes Trumpland. It’s perfect!
12
New border crossings and upgrades for the ghetto! Wow, and they are not even grateful?
16
The very idea that you all — the much vaunted NYT editorial board — thought to write an entry concerning Nepotism Boy’s ludicrous and stupid, hilariously clueless yet predictable “plan” AND NOT blow the thing out of the water for its aforementioned risible stupidity is, at the very least, interesting...
11
A slick promotional publication? Slick as sandpaper, I'd say. Read the plan and you will find that there is not one single financial statement listed. In fact, the only financial number is $50 billion for a list of broad goals with pictures of clean cut children laughing and farmers unloading their harvest. If this plan were submitted in any MBA course, it would receive an F. It is pure propaganda that would only excite a dotard. Maybe Henry Kissinger will invest now that Theranos is debunked.
The political plan is forthcoming and evidently is as 'robust' as the economic plan.
Anthony Scaramucci endorses it and plans to invest. Go for it Anthony and let us know how it works out for you.
This plan is plan is viewable by using the links within this article which take you to whitehouse.gov.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/MEP-narrative-document_FINAL.pdf
12
Agreed, the Arabs won't contribute to the welfare of the Palestinians. The only people helping them are the Iranians, who are already overstretched.
As for 'peace', well, the Israelis could begin by returning all the land and water they stole, and continue to steal, from the Palestinians:
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190627-the-steal-of-the-century-stolen-land-stolen-water-stolen-images/
It is as if a thief were to confront you and make a proposal for peaceful coexistence. Wouldn't you respond: "If you are sincere, first return all my stolen paintings and jewelry, then I'ii decide when and under what circumstances we can hold negotiations."?
12
His jail-bird father bought him a seat at Harvard Law School. If Clown College hadn't closed down, that's where he would have wound up.
13
Seems more realistic then the Green New Deal the Times was much more supportive of recently
1
Jared Kushner has undercut Palestinians wanting their own land, has cuts funds and all funds have to be approved by Israel, really? The arrogance of it all. But then he is just an arrogant person who only cares about himself and making a deal, very much like his father in law and his own father. How can he be friends with the Saudis, 15 who were responsible for our twin towers to be obliterated? The Saudis who killed our Journalists.
This man was not approved to be a national security advisor. His father in law has been flouncing the law of our country.
Heaven help us if this President gets re-elected.
We are one election away to becoming a dictatorship, to role back many advancement we have gained for working people etc. Our voting rights are being tramped on by gerrymandering, by voter suppression, etc. Citizens wake up. especially the once who voted for this liar. Can they not see the average working person will NOT benefit from this liar?
16
Waste of time from corrupt developer who couldn't get security clearance without daddy stepping in.
18
I scanned the photo and it lacked Israelis and Palestinian delegates. As if Australia, Brazil and Canada were at Yalta. Empty suits and empty thawbs. Kushner is on our payroll, for what ?
13
Just another scam and not really a clever one.
20
The only sane, rational and workable (in all its senses) solution is a single State. Not easy, I know, but--the people are genetically exactly the same: Ben Gurion and other early Zionist leaders speculated (because of dietary and funerary practices) that the Palestinians were the remnants of Jews left behind at the diaspora, and evangelised by Christian and Muslim conquerors. Studies have shown Palestinians are more "Jewish", in their DNA, than some recognised Jewish populations.
The two populations are too intermingled to separate--unless Israelis go back beyond the Green Line---and that wont happen.
Why doesn't the world invest $50 billion on a solution in the interests of ALL the people---but it wont be easy.
I can think of no other solution which can work, that the world would sanction.
5
Chunnel, Brexit.
This is a sound plan to build more targets for the Israeli military to destroy.
5
Kushner is too arrogant and ignorant to realize that he has no qualifications to be trying to manage a mideast peace plan. It’s beyond belief that Kushner is buddies with MBS after MBS killed the American resident and reporter Jamal Khashoggi.
I wonder if Kushner and Trump are some how profiting off their relationship with Saudi Arabia.
16
Poor Kushner and Ivanka’s kids. They come from crooks on all sides. Sad.
15
The Dolt In Law has no plan, just a power point.
13
Kushner is looking for one thing: money for his pocket. As he and his Daddy sneakily try to move their business out of NY and to New Jersey for reasons I would attribute to avoiding criminal prosecution, he and his wife travel the world in luxury on the tax payers dime. He is a shiny faced prep boy with no true talent or intelligence and a further demonstration of the trump family's 'steal everything that's not nailed down' theory of success. Lock him up.
17
Kushner's plan is a perfect storm of arrogance, ignorance, and greed. The Trump family is the Beverly Hillbillies of US diplomacy. I surprised he didn't offer the Palestinians 'cement ponds' on the Gaza Strip, at an wholesale.
12
How surreal it is that someone with no deep knowledge of the Middle East and no sympathy for the people he claims to be trying to help (he is not even sure they are up to the task of governing themselves) is in charge of determining the fates of those people. The Times does a disservice by taking this seriously at all. Kushner is the equivalent of a Federal Reserve Chief who has never studied Economics. The stories that need to be written are stories about how ignorant and callous and self-interested he is.
18
of course this will be set up as an LLP leaving all investors holding to bag just like trumps casinos
8
So Kushner proposes a modern rail line for the Palestinians while we have Amtrak sans positive train control.
4
No justice, No peace.
9
Lest we think that Jared Kushner is brain dead in proposing this ludicrous road to Palestinian Israeli peace, let's figure out how much money the Trumps, Mnuchins and their assorted henchmen intend to make from it.
23
When will the Trump/Kushner nightmare end.....this era will live in infamy.
17
The Palestinians want freedom, a homeland, a state where they make the laws and what does Kushner offer, a way for billionaires to make money off of them, this is an ugly proposal.
21
This: "officials of the Israeli and the Palestinian governments, whose futures are most at stake, were absent from the two-day conference in Bahrain."
This is just more colonialism -- people who don't live there making decisions about and taking advantage of some presumed economic opportunity. Fortunately, it's simply a fluff piece. No one who was there was of any importance.
8
The Palestinian aspiration for a state cannot be bought-off with high-speed Wi-Fi. Has the Trump administration ever heard of the slogan, "Give me liberty or give me death!"?
9
I'm trying not to laugh.... but it's difficult.
6
They'd have to be nuts to trust trump in a deal. Once he got his publicity from it, he'd cut them off.
9
By bringing foreign investors and taking no Palestinian input, the real aim seems to be to carve out and sell off the remaining Palestinian territories.
8
Ahhh, yes, let’s build a lot of expensive things that the right wing government in Israel can threaten to destroy if the Palestinians act up. Or even better, confiscate and declare to be part of new Jewish settlements.
9
What a total cluster and why are we taxpayers funding secret missions for a corrupt real estate developer that got an illegal loan to pay off his 666 building in NYC!
Get the prison suits ready for the entire trump and Kushner families.
January 21, 2021 can’t come fast enough!
13
They took the whole Palestinian nation, and put it on a reservation. This sounds like the deal we served the American Indians.
13
I'm shorting this middle east peace plan.
8
Jared Kushner is but another overrated egoist with limited actual business accomplishments, just like his father in law: A guy who has been playing with his daddy's money and yet somehow thinks he is some kind of master deal maker. He has zero credibility in these circles.
As is typical for Trump, he believes everyone can be bought for money, even at the expense of their principles. He attempts to deal with the Palestinians just like women he's slept with: Treat them badly but then throw some money at them to keep them quiet. He even seems to be using the Karen McDougall playbook---get somebody else to pay for it. (I'm guessing he thinks the EU is in the David Pecker seat for this deal).
Deep down, Trump knows this deal will never happen. But he also knows Sheldon Adelson and Trump's evangelicals will love this proposal. So its good for the re-election coffers and shoring up his base ahead of 2020.
14
I read it initially as Jared Kushner middle “school” instead of Middle East. Freudian slip on my part?
Yes,
10
This is the genius scheme the in law of the massive trump brain has come up with.
The base will love it. What a joke.
And this is the man de facto running your foreign policy.
Why not stick to ruining your own country and leave the poor suffering of the Middle East alone.
6
Bottom line....what's in it for Trump Organisation and his family?
9
A corrupt, two-bit, spoiled boy/man in charge of peace in the Middle East?
More Trump administration lunacy.
I'm so fed up with this Trump fiasco.
The U.S. and the world deserve better.
13
After all the secrecy leading up to this peace plan, this is it? Really? What a flop. Kirshner should go back to buying overpriced real estate. He's an embarrassment.
7
Imagine your home had been"taken" as a result of West Bank expansion onto Palestinian land some year or two ago. You grew up in that house and now you're living with relatives in Gaza. Would you welcome some kind of compromising deal set by a young Jew from New York? Until the boundaries after the 1967 conflict are returned to reality, there will never be peace. The Jews must repatriate the land belonging to Palestinians.
6
I expected this to be a pointless read but, the last two paragraphs are exactly right.
2
I have spent time in Israel and Palestine--6 times to be exact. I know people from A to P. P to Z nobody deals with on either side. I was present and very attentive around the so-called Roadmap, the peace agreement drawn by a EU coalition WITH the Palestinians. The Roadmap was a performance drive set of steps leading to statehood. I read every inch of it--and it was brilliant and doable. One problem: the Palestinians signed it--and 12 hours later denounced it. To me, it was the end of the potential for a two state solution for another generation. The rejection seemed exptremely puzzling, considering. But the reality is that cirrption in the Palestinian system is so present top to bottom that even the World Bank will not endrse operations (security, banks, loans, etc) in either the proposed state or Gaza. In fact, in not a single company from the EU operates in the teritores--why? The EU whines constantly about the lack of opporunity but invests nothing. Why? Corruption. Palestinians will not gaina footing toward a state UNTIL they reform all levels of finiancial exchanges. Kushner at least understood the economic carrot needed--but he does not have a snowball's chance in hell of creating peace in the middle east. And he knows this. He like daddy Trump is interested in marketing his name--especially in Israel. He makes me sick.
5
Why on earth would the Palestinians even consider Kushner's neo-imperialist "peace" plan with a gun to their heads? Even more sanguine, how does a guy who knows NOTHING about the long, tortured history of the Arab-Israeli conflict get to play Moses in yet another Trumpian policy farce? America, show at least some understanding and impartiality towards the parties, or repeat after me, Yankee Go Home!
11
Seems too easy to be true...so it probably is: Give the Palestinians the Casino Licenses. It's been done with moderate success throughout the US.
4
Jared Kusher aka 'The Butler' - proud architect of one of the very worst real-estate deals in history in NYC now has plans to fix the Middle East.
Only in the bizarre world of trump could nepotism go this far. Would anyone pay any attention to this ninny if his father-in-law wasn't president?
It is touching to notice Christine Lagarde's expression in the front row being forced to listen to this twaddle.
14
“Divorced from realty......” isn’t this true of this entire administration of incompetents?
11
"The Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity."
--- Abba Eban, after the Geneva Peace Conference with Arab countries (December 21, 1973).
I looked through this article several times searching for the names of Palestinian leaders who have ever tried to make a serious peace with Israel, before remembering that there never has been one.
Please Times editors, let us have an article soon about the search for new Palestinian leaders, seriously interested in establishing a Palestinian State alongside a permanent Jewish State of Israel.
11
I noticed that all of Trumps really beautiful plans are promises of construction. N. Korea can have beautiful buildings, Iran can have beautiful hotels, Palestinian can have lovely roads. America can have a beautiful wall. This administration knows construction nothing more. Children love new toys but soon lose interest. This regime is sooo naive and their one trick pony should be put to pasture.
9
Trump thinks the Palestinians should take the money and give up on any chance on establishing their own independent country. Does anyone think our forefathers would have taken a similar deal offered by the British in 1775? Would Jews have taken the same deal offered by Arab states in 1947?
119
"The Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity."
--- Abba Eban, after the Geneva Peace Conference with Arab countries (December 21, 1973).
I looked through this article several times searching for the names of Palestinian leaders who have ever tried to make a serious peace with Israel, before remembering that there has never been one.
Please Times editors, let us have an article soon about the search for new Palestinian leaders, seriously interested in establishing a Palestinian State alongside a permanent Jewish State of Israel.
6
It's all to make a buck. Every policy put into place is to make money for Trump, his family and his friends. No one else wins in this. I won't be surprised if when he does finally leave office that he hasn't emptied out Fort Knox.
8
Kushner's plan, and Trump's by default, is Israel über alles and, in close second, fortifying their own real estate interests.
This informs all their Middle East radically egregious actions, from moving the US embassy to Jerusalem, refusing to explicitly support a two-state solution, canceling the Iran deal, nuclear arming Saudi Arabia, and the list goes on and on.
Heck, Israel is even naming one of their illegal settlements in Trump's honor. And that should tell it all.
11
That the billions of dollars given to ameliorate the living conditions of Palestinians post 1947, has not significantly advanced their plight, speaks volumes about their governance.
Palestinian leadership, both on the West Bank and Gaza, has already siphoned billions held in European banks while average Palestinians still suffer. The proposed infusion of billions will likely enrich these same few and little will change for the masses.
A Western Ethos cannot be spontaneously imposed. There is no compromise in the mindset of many Palestinians where Israel is concerned. They are committed to reclaiming “all” the territory of Israel. No amount of money or wishful thinking will assuage their desire to do so.
Time, and a confluence of events which leaves the Palestinian leaderships no alternative but begrudging acceptance of Israel’s existence, “may” eventuate... but don’t hold your breath.
In the interim, Israel advances and Palestinians unnecessarily suffer both at the hands of Israel’s grip, and their own leaderships inability to compromise.
4
The idea of linking Gaza and the West Bank is as old as the hills such a link would have to traverse and about as realistic as Trump and Netanyahu learning some manners.
One can unilaterally blame and condemn Palestinians for the seemingly endless fighting and animosity but the fact is Israel is in complete control. The only "solution" Israel will accept is for Palestinians to completely and subserviently submit to Israeli hegemony, accept second or third class "citizenship," or, and probably what Israel most prefers, just get the Palestian people out of there--to have them go someplace else, vanish.
So much for a "democratic and Jewish State." What a lie.
11
Meanwhile the population race among the various religious factions for political control of the region proceeds at full speed ahead, into the expanding desert.
1
I started reading this editorial curious to see what was in it for Jared Kushner and his wallet. Had to read almost to the end before it was clear the entire purpose of the plan is lining the pockets of billionaires. I’d say the lede was well buried.
12
Eyewash. Distraction. Deflection. The trademark style of a con artist as practiced by the con artist's son-in-law.
As the piece states, basically, been there done that, and all Prince Jared has done is spend more of our tax dollars on tourism.
10
Jared Kushner is a National Joke!
My gut feeling having worked in the Federal Government for 32 years, is that he may be the least respected Federal Employee in history along with Ivanka, and an International Joke as well.
14
If the slogan is “America First”, where is our national infrastructure plan hiding?
6
“‘If we are going to fail,’ he [Jared Kushner] has said, ‘we don’t want to fail doing it the same way it’s been done in the past.’”
Translation: “We don’t care if it fails so long as me and my family make out like bandits.”
11
Kushner is surrounded by nervous Trump sycophants too scared to point out emperor has no clothes. He also doesn’t have the basic intelligence, diplomatic savvy or experience to pull this off.
Kissinger was an amoral disaster, but at least one understood that his brilliant amorality allowed his rise to the top. This guy? Nepotism at its worst.
10
I will never forget the video of Ivanka and Jared sitting in an Israeli auditorium with Netanyahu as bombs were being lobbed at Palestinian protestors.
The bombastic hubris of these families is grotesque. There is a complete ignorance of past attempts for peace while paving a road over every Palestinian’s hope for valid citizenship in a valid state.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said, “It’s going to be like a hot I.P.O.” He wants to bring movie studios to Saudi Arabia while the Kushner family builds Israeli condos in contested land. This is government corruption and incompetence at its worst.
16
"Like a hot IPO." That similitude says it all, doesn't? After all, I suppose this is what we get when real estate developers and corporate bankers bring their mindsets to governance.
8
Geez, everything is fake in Trump’s makeshift WH administration. Promises are fake, summits are fake, polls are fake and the economy, propped up by 1 trillion deficit, is fake.
At this point, the meeting with Kim Jong Um is all about setting a phony agreement, you pretend to denuclearize, and we pretend to lift sanctions. Win-win, and Trumpworld ecstatic.
8
As the (R)egressive whiners say about the (D)'s proposal to provide basic healthcare to all (including undocumented peeps who are paid minimal wages while butchering our chickens and hogs, mowing our upscale lawns, cleaning Spanky's hotel rooms, picking our strawberries, tending our kids and our grandpas - you know, all those really, really good jobs that bona fide citizens want but just can't get), how about spending that $50 Billion on our crumbling infrastructure right here like VeryGoodBrain promised but failed to act on?
9
Stunning that all look away from how this person got a security clearance. Quit bashing trump and turn the intensity on Congress.....Mitch and Nancy
1
Where to start.....
This isn't a peace plan, it's a colossal property deal which like so many Kushner or Trump plans uses OPM (other people's money). Cue loads of back scratching for JB (Jared's Buddies).
What about the illegal occupation of internationally recognized Palestinian territory? Where's the equal treatment and application of basic human rights, access to healthcare and education?
Palestinian groups may have committed awful crimes over the years but I don't see them flying round in F16s, packing the latest military hardware or having nukes. This is a wildly one-sided situation and no amount of nice new roads, Trump hotels and electricity grids (which could all be bombed in a heartbeat) will solve this tragic mess. Kushner et al need to realise that when you're fighting for your cultural existense you're not thinking about IPOs because frankly, some things don't have a price tag.
8
This would be laughable but it isn't funny. Israel and Palestine weren't there. Investment money won't create peace: it might follow it. I'll believe it better when some of Javanka's own money gets in there. They could probably do $100 mill to get the ball rolling.
Come on Jared! Show us you mean business! (I should probably rephrase that.)
3
But first, daddy has to start a war with Iran, then we can build the Trump highway through zero contested land. I’m sure the Palestinians have watched all the re runs of the apprentice, they sure don’t want to be fired.
4
Surrender worked for Japan and Germany. It could work for the Palestinian Arabs. Doesn't the US still have military bases in Japan? In Germany? Don't Japan and Germany govern themselves? The Palestinian Arabs (all the Arab states) have lost every war they started with Israel. Time to surrender and enjoy the benefits of peace and economic development. Why does the world continue to indulge Arab/Muslim antisemitism, Arab/Muslim anti-Jewish racism and play into the fiction that the Arabs didn't lose their wars. Even the US, which lost in Vietnam, has made peace with that country. The Arabs could have built a state for their Arab brothers and sisters in Palestinian territories anytime they wished by accepting the reality of Israel. It isn't Israel, or the US, that has betrayed the Palestinian Arabs. It's other Arabs.
4
Why is anyone going to take the word of a slumlord?
12
A PowerPoint presentation by a minor oligarch to an audience of oligarchs about creating an oligarch in Palestine who will rule like an oligarch. Who is the target? Are Palestinians involved? Who?
$50 billion over 10 years? Really? That’s $5 billion per year. Wow!...”In October 2014, the Cairo Conference on Palestine, an international donor conference on reconstructing the Gaza Strip, garnered $5.4 billion in pledges, of which $1 billion was pledged by Qatar. Half of the pledges were to be used for rebuilding efforts in Gaza, while the remainder was to support the PA budget until 2017” Kushner has proposed nothing. It’s a sham. It’s a con. Kushner is so strange that he thinks it is legitimate. His audience is playing him, and Trump for money. America is for sale under Trump. Our missiles, our stealth tech, nuclear tech are all for sale. What’s left? Trump has opened our cyberspace to all comers. We don’t even get paid for wholesale theft of data and cyber tech.
It’s tough to accept the fact that we have a carney in the WH, but every so often, a mini carney does a miracle show and as in the Wizard of Oz we all get a glimpse behind the curtain.
7
Forgive me, speaking as a Jew. But, Mnuchin and Kushner are representative of what gives us a "bad name." Who should know better than we the absolute need for a sovereign homeland? Without Statehood there remains no Palestine. Did we forget a thousand years of history, when Jews made contributions to societies, only to be turned upon, exploited and ruined? Kushners grandparents should flip in their graves with disgust. Money is not more important than your true freedom and self-determination.
9
Kushner certainly married into the right family; Profit at any and all cost.
Not a day goes by that he and his father-in law neglect to continue to lower the moral status of humans.
'Imagine' this Jared:
It's Tuesday, November 3, 2020. Daddy-in-law just lost the 59th quadrennial U.S. presidential election. Voila' 'peace and prosperity' for America.
3
"To you Plains Indians, we propose to take away your lands, but as compensation, we will make you Christians".
I sense that the Palestinians do not want a modern global economy if it means giving up their lands and their way of life. It is not the choice I would make, but the Palestinians have rejected it. They want what they had before, their own land and their own way of life.
4
This reminds me of the Amazon deal for Queens. Oh how wonderful it would have been. Unless you are poor and have lived there all your life. Your cost of living would have skyrocketed and you would be forced to move. Maybe not at first, but when your landlord gets an offer for the building that is too good to refuse....So then what....are you being helped, saved, or ruined by Amazon? The people that move there, not the locals, will be the primary beneficiaries. So Palestine buys in? Where will the displaced people go? All this money will go to make their lives better? They will get all the jobs? Or will they be forced out? To where exactly? Israel? Ha, Ha. The sea? Perhaps. But when Jared and Trump put an offer on the table that is too good to be true, it must be. Just like a Trump resort on the shore of North Korea would be. What the Times needs to do is watch very closely. We need to know how much money Jared and Trump will make off this. Because they never, ever do anything for nothing. Because they now NEED to make their dough from their government perches. Do you think people will be tripping over each other to do business with them after they are kicked out? That the U.S banks will look at them differently after all this is over? And like with every thing else they do...if this fails, the lost money won't be theirs. They take their cut and get out before the sky falls. Leaving more 'partners' stuck with the mess.
5
Kushner Inc. (and Trump Family Enterprises) would of course be the real beneficiaries of this grand new “vision” of the Middle East. This is called: exploitation.
Palestinians want statehood. Period. They want the right, “endowed by our Creator” according to the American Declaration of Independence, to pursue life, liberty, happiness, sitting under their own fig trees, living in their own houses, yet breathing the same air and living side by side in peace with Israel.
And what are they told? To SURRENDER! Ah yes, it will do you good, you will feel so much better, if you JUST GIVE UP.
Let’s do a thought experiment. What if, in 1775, King George III had offered the American colonials an IPO and all sorts of other inducements if they would only give up their claim to independence. What would they have done?
Wait a minute! I remember now. As we approach the Fourth of July, I remember what they did! And it wasn’t to accept the IPO of George III, or Donald I.
They—we—wanted FREEDOM. The Palestinians want FREEDOM.
Everything else is secondary. There can be no freedom without a peaceful and secure Israel. But there can be no truly peaceful and secure Israel without a Palestinian State.
4
Buy off a people’s aspirations of a nation state. Bribery will never work. This from a family of slumlords, tax evaders, grifters, and con artists. They have the conscience of a gremlin (chosen because I don’t want to disrespect any living being). Real ideas and trust must be earned on both sides of this equation. History has shown that enemies can become friends, a much better state of mind. It’s time for both sides to grow up. Vote blue everyone in 2020, a domestic terrorist is in the WH.
7
So. Two American Jews , Kushner and Mnuchin , are offering a "Hot I.P.O." predicting outside investors will give money to the poor in order to solve an Israeli problem while Kushner , Mnuchin and Israel have not committed a dime.
Kushner has been able to unload some timeshares in his downtown real estate debacle to the same group , so it will likely go the same way .... half baked and half done.
2
A highway connecting the two Palestinian Territories ...through Israel?
Without a political solution, what good does that do?
Arrogance combined with Ignorance.
156
It is a great proposal. There seems to be money on it which it would be a good thing for everyone. But somehow it seems just another scheme, if not a scam altogether.
If they really wanted peace in the Middle East, there are so many things they could have done already since they have close tides with Israel. They could have pushed Israel to do A LOT more.
And if it was an achievable plan, they could also have envision similar projects in other parts of the world too where services are very much needed like Africa and Central America.
So NO, I do not believe this is done in good faith. I am certain there is a vision of financial gain here for the Trumps and Kushners on all this and that is it.
7
This “project” is utterly unworkable, patronising and ludicrous. It – just like the author himself – can’t be taken seriously. In Bahrain Jared Kushner spoke of a workshop rather than a conference; of a vision rather than a plan.
It’s clear that the Trump and Kushner hope to substitute economic incentives for the Palestinians’ dream of statehood. And they won't win Palestinians' hearts and minds.
The timing of presenting this project couldn’t have been more opportune – 16 months ahead of the US presidential election in 2020. It’s obvious what Trump hopes to gain politically – he seeks to use it to garner votes from the pro-Israel camp, which consists of evangelical Christians, and Conservative Jews.
It’s hardly realistic that anything meaningful will be agreed on implementing Kushner’s master plan.
6
What this young and unproven man can not understand is that Dignity can not be bought.
Contrarily to his father in-law.
17
Settling the Israel Palestine National Border Conflict is separate from some large development project.
Kushner scores zero for his presentation and his two year mission. He should be relieved, along with all his millionaire business advisors.
Any move to resolve this seventy-five year old conflict must start with illustrating an acceptable national border between Israel and Palestine. Not the border of the wartime agreements on military zones. The border must preserve Jerusalem as a joint Israel Palestine access zone, place Gaza inside the national boundary of Palestine, and it must cleve an Israeli portion of the West Bank from Palestine and a portion of the Golan Heights from Syria that allows military security for Israel.
Israel’s continued invasion of Palestine through its settlement initiatives and it’s taking of Palestinian land with no compensation is a violation of international law.
Until international negotiations draw a border that both sides can accept, no ground rules can be resolved for the start of serious talks between the two nations.
1
The Palestinian people are never going to accept any plan that persists in treating them as a subject people, forever dependent on Israel or anyone else. The people of Israel won't accept their lives on such terms, and neither will the Palestinians. Mr. Kushner isn't the only American who shares this absurd illusion, but he is only the latest to promote it. It will never work.
4
Is there a mover and shaker with less gravitas than Jared?
7
Throwing money at the problem just makes the problem bigger.
Seriously, when will the DOJ rid us of this farce. We may complain about Trump but Kushner is the true face of corruption. Gaze on it with reverence because our legal system can’t beat him. DOJ you go at the weak and claim victories. Go at the man ruining our nation to save his poor business decisions.
5
I profoundly dislike and distrust Kushner as a mealy-mouthed dangerous pretty rich boy who thinks the world is a Lego board, but I have also been forever disturbed by the fact that Palestine is a country mercilessly split north to south all the way down to the ground by the angry iron wedge that is Israeel. In that context, building a corridor across the wedge seems like the beginning of a a healing process. Of course, Israel would never accept to be not wedged but sliced by the knife edge of a Palestinian highway across its territory. Then I remembered Elon Musk and his boring tunnel company talking about a 230 mile long tunnel between New York and Washinton. The shortest distance between Gaza and the West Bank is 25 miles and from Ramallah to Gaza City about 50 miles. The tunnel would be Palestinian sovereign territory, like an embassy, with the added advantage that it would be out of sight out of mind for the benefit of xenophobes like Netanyahu and his ilk. Of course, this is just a technical solution that goes nowhere without the necessary political will, but at least it shows that there are physically and technologically viable solutions.
4
Kushner's "uncle Bibi" clearly blessed this plan, which is all sizzle and no steak. The Israelis have been running US Mideast policy via AIPAC in the past, and now it is hands-on via Kushner.
There was once the notion of Palestinian rights, and the dignity this would also confer to Israelis, in keeping with Jewish values. That is old history.
Now the only question is whether Israel can continue to successfully seek cover behind the Jewish experience by calling its critics anti Semitic. It is time to give Palestinians in the US a voice.
6
It's ironic that Trump and Kushner both play-actor businessmen have inherited everything and have been bailed out after losing against real market forces their whole lives, the casinos, 666 Fifth avenue, etc, now propose luring the Palestinian people into a business deal essentially believing they can buy them off. This just continues their lack of reality as they play-act in their roles destroying American credibility. Disruption as a justification for incompetence is not policy.
8
When the only tool you own and ever use is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. In this case, the tool is greed and profit.
5
The Trump-Kushner con of promising fortune and luxury for the benefit only of American citizens worked great for buying votes.
But it is a catastrophe when they try to adapt it to foreign policy.
The rest of the world can hear what Trump tells his people in his America First charade.
And many countries -- most of Asia, in fact -- have centuries to millennia of entrenched, actual nationalism built in to their cultures.
Unlike you, Donald, much of the world believes in something bigger than themselves.
And they don't just show it with an occasional hug of a flag or tweet about a church service -- they are willing to suffer, sacrifice and lay their lives down for it.
Your empty promises and dirty money won't move them.
3
All of this avoids the basic problem. The Israelis stole - yes, stole the land of an indigenous people. They did it at an inconvenient time - after World War Two when international laws had been passed making this practice illegal. Nobody can change this fact, not even UN votes or any other body. The law is clear.
Therefore might makes right once again, and international law is only applied to the weak. Voltaire said it best- the law is like a cobweb. The strong break it easily, only the weak are trapped in it. Justice in this case is a farce.
4
It is instructive how often the real-estate developer approach comes up, and how it is a shameless shimmering of imagined wealth to people the developer has actually helped to make poor. Before any realistic consideration of the underlying obstacles, the President tells North Korea it can look forward to being rich, the President tells Iran that it has a great and prosperous future, and young Jared tells desperate Palestinians that milk and honey await. It is good to ask disputing parties to keep their eye on a brighter future, but all this looks more like a con job, making the people across the table more suspicious rather than less.
1
Jared Kushner is working on Middle East PIECE. Meaning he wants a piece of the action from all the U.S., Israeli, Saudi, and UAE money being thrown around.
Emoluments Clause.
Follow the money.
8
Another real estate boondoggle designed to enrich the unworthy. Follow the money.
4
Kushner and his Team of extreme Zionists regard Palestinians as a burden. Empowering the occupation and demarginalizing Palestinians is the primary goal. The Team does not consider the Palestinians as people that deserve freedom and self-determination. The Team thinks that the best Palestinians is a dead one. This mentality is dangerous, but it seems highly pursued by the Trump administration.
4
When you are a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.
When you are a real estate developer, every problem looks like a development deal.
When you are a failed real estate developer, every problem looks like a bad deal doomed to fail (666 Fifth Avenue).
2
Jared Kushner is as delusional as his daddy in law.
Kushner didn't even qualify for a classified security clearance in the WH (Trump had to override) much less broker a Middle East "Development" deal.
The only dealing Kushner knows is self-dealing. He's salivating at the billions he could make for himself and Ivanka.
5
It’s comforting to know that peace in the Middle East rests in the hands of an expert like Jared Kushner. Thank goodness for nepotism.
7
This proposal reminds me of a Steve Martin routine from years ago, "How To Make A Million Dollars And Never Pay Taxes."
"First," Steve said, "get a million dollars...."
5
The Times editorial board speaks to us from a knowledge base that is beyond our own abilities to see what is valid and what can be achieved.
"Palestine" is not a country and the Arabs that live in areas described that way are also Jordanians and members of other Arab nations. Just ask OAC and she will show you where Palestine is on the map....not.
As many Israeli Arabs will tell you, they wouldn't have jobs if it were not for Israel's economic vitality. The Times editorial board should opine on what the so-called "Palestinians" would be able to do with the proposed funding without the backing of Israel. The Palestinian Authority has already established a track record on such matters. Yassir Arafat "invested" a lot of Palestinian funds in his Swiss bank accounts.
3
Kushner and the Trump administration are no more than advocates of Netanyahu's policies in the Middle East.
Israel, troublesome nation without international significance, leads the U.S. around like a puppy dog.
5
I don't think Kushner is a lightweight as so many critics have implied. The Kushners are billionaire class real estate developers and Jared did go to Harvard and NYU law even if his admittance was do to family influence. Athletes are commonly recruited by these elite schools with only minimal academic qualifications (e.g. Corey Booker, Stanford University football).
The Kushners are Holocaust survivors and Modern Orthodox Jews which means they have very deep ties and experience with Israel. The proposed deal may not be feasible now, but the idea is correct. The entire Middle East beyond the superrich Arab Gulf States, requires a capitalist revolution. The West Bank and Gaza need public infrastructure and private capital if they are to emerge from the abyss of militant extremism and poverty. They need to grow and prosper and that can be done without a comprehensive peace settlement. If we wait for a comprehensive regional peace settlement that wait may be for a very long time or forever. Economic reconstruction should begin now.
2
Brilliant analysis and a welcome response. Newspapers fossilize hatred and incite doubt because fear sells better than optimism. The public doesn’t check news facts and takes partial information for fact . As clearly states ,These potential billionaire investors became wealthy from excellent business decisions and are not going to throw it away . Israel IS in the picture but it’s simply not going public . My personal political bent or opinions are not relevant to this economic scheme which will eventually tip the balance in favor of peace ,because ALL people EVERYWHERE want to live in peace good economic standards and health. No one is born to hatred . Time to shelve the cynical public culture of trashing others and give good faith to those who know better ( the said investors )because they have already done that and it worked
Only three certainties can arise from this proposal, Goldman Sachs will be the middleman, underwriting what is sure to involve U.S. government(taxpayer) guaranteed debt and Israel will have shiny new objects to bomb when the infrastructure is finished.
5
A road from Gaza to the West Bank, cutting through Israel? Sounds impractical to me. Given the hostilities between Israel and the Palestinians, how could that work?
This initiative has great potential to advance peace in the ME. Building up the economy of the Palestinians should stresmgtrj the moderates who want peace
1
@lieberma
Mean strengthen
I'm as much of a Trump & family skeptic and disparager as the next guy, but to me, this goes hand in hand with moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem, as a strategy that might actually work.
This is a Presidency of endless blunders and total incompetence .
It is not only lead by a mindless individual but also by appointed minions who follow in his footsteps. This proposal, and that is giving it too much credit as one, is absurd by not addressing the political solution. It is the political solution that has remained allusive all these decades. So, to ignore it now and cover it up with a financial offer is just ridiculous. This effort by Kushner just illustrates further the incompetence of the Trump Administration.
And from here we go deeper into the dark. Trump planning is further illustrated by his recent offer to NK to meet- "I just thought of it now" says Trump. And that folks is how our administration conducts foreign policy.
2
Palestine is for all intents and purposes an Israeli occupied territory and would be profits would be funneled almost exclusively to Israelis. A few Palestinians may get low level jobs, but it seems Israel and its investors would be the beneficiaries of this money making scheme. The whole scheme seems just another wolf in sheep's clothing where peace is claimed as the goal, but money is the real objective and not for the Palestinian people. Before any of this has a chance of helping Palestine, they must have a state separate from Israel under the control of Palestinians, but don't hold your breath as domination and profits seems the goal of Israel and they will never give that up.
2
Ludicrous! How/why would any private investor put money into infrastructure in a place where Israel destroys it every few years? Why is Israel not rebuilding the infrastructure it destroys? I'll give Jared this; at least it won't be the World Bank and other donors throwing good money after bad building out infrastructure to let Israel destroy it slowly by not letting in resources to maintain it, our quickly with "smart" bombs. And we (and the Bretton Woods and other institutions) give Israel the financial and political cover for all this and then pull our funding from health and education for people suffering the consequence of it. Disgraceful. Or maybe it's just we're now being consistent.
5
You can't buy a passport. Neither can you buy your way through a chocked checkpoint.
Better schools are great. But some Palestinian students won scholarships to Ivy league schools but couldn't attend because the Israeli's told them they had no automatic right to return to their families.
A Palestinian child recently died from cancer in an Israeli hospital. While the Israeli's provided her with excellent care, her parents were denied the right to be at her side as their daughter took her last breaths.
Currently if there is a civil dispute in the West Bank between an Israeli settler and a Palestinian, the Israeli is governed by Israeli civil law but the Palestinian is governed by military law.
This is why a political solution is the only solution. Money can't create the inalienable rights citizenship. In Gaza a new electric grid is critical, as is a new water plant, replacing the one bombed by the Israeli's.
But a sovereign state would be better. Palestinians would be free to travel, pass their own laws, mange their own schools and negotiate their own loans and development projects.
Like any nation, they will do well with some of these responsibilities and poorly with others. But they will be free to make those choices just as the Israeli's are free to manage their own affairs.
The will to be independent and free is common to all people. And the will to resist those who quash that freedom is just as common.
Why is this so difficult to comprehend?
4
There's a paternalistic attitude toward the Palestinians, that they are somehow incapable of ruling themselves.
We know how that attitude worked out in India, Korea, and Vietnam.
Please, USA and Israel, get out of the way, and let the Palestinians rule themselves.
Yeah, but will this really help the Palestinians or just make a small group of wealthy people more wealthy?
Being divorced from reality doesn’t seem to be an issue with this crew.
2
Apparently he is unaware of history. Since WW I, a lot of Palestinian land was "purchased". Maybe that is one of the reasons why his plan is a non starter.
Everyone knows what it will take to resolve the "problem" in Palestine. This is not it.
2
This is just what Palestinians have been waiting (dying) for for the past 7 decades. Although their ancestors inhabited, farmed and raised their families in Palestine (including the portion now called Israel) for thousands of years, the current generation is willing to say goodbye to their history and their self-determination...because a failed real estate developer offers them a road to travel back and forth (probably charging exorbitant tolls because...well, Kushner and Trump do nothing without a double digit profit margin).
I cannot help but wonder when will Israelis realize that their justification for oppressing Palestinians based on the biblical promise of their religion is as justifiable as the ancient Egyptians enslaving Hebrews because their sun god promised life after death in exchange for building glorious pyramids.
If Israelis want peace they need to treat Palestinians with dignity and equality. If Israelis and Palestinians cannot share the land then Palestinians must have their own state, not under an Israeli thumb and certainly not purchased by profiteers in exchange for their self-determination.
4
The emperor has no clothes, just a father in law.
1
Gaza was linked by rail to Palestine and beyond in 1900. Proposals led by Charles Franz Zimpel began in 1865.
Christensen, P.H. Germany and the Ottoman Railways. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2017. P. 12.
The envisioned rail network from Berlin, Germany, to Basra, Iraq, was not completed until 1918. This network had a branch from Aleppo, Syria, to Cairo, Egypt, which involved Palestine.
Trump may as well send Kushner back to Russia to further talks about an eventual Moscow Trump Tower. Apparently all's fair when the President and his immediate family embrace nepotism and view no conflicts of interest or boundaries in their exploits.
"You know what else they say about my people? The polls, they say I have the most loyal people. Did you ever see that? Where I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters, okay? It’s like incredible." Donald J. Trump, 1/23/16
1
U.S. has NEVER had an impartial role or an impartial negotiator in the Middle East.
U.S. has been Israel advocate in all 'negotiations' of Middle East 'peace'.
The current administration has just put a 'blunt edge' to the precision tool the U.S. normally uses to truncate Palestinian aspirations and expand Israeli dominance.
Not much has changed except now it is 'poorly educated' rubes trying to run the same con.
3
You bet this is ridiculous and unrealistic for all the reasons listed. But the editorial board ignored one glaring fact - Palestinians have not been at a loss for peace plans nor financing for infrastructure over the past 40 years. They simply have a corrupt government led by terrorists who use the money for terror tunnels and rockets rather than schools, roads, communications and hospitals. You put leaders in Palestine and Israel who actually want two-state peace and you'll have peace.
46
@C
I would like to add another reason the plan is ridiculous and unrealistic.
Israel has a corrupt government led by people who merely go through the motions of seeking peace so as to appease the U.S.
You put leaders in Palestine and Israel who actually want two-state peace and you'll have peace.
28
@C "put leaders in Palestine and Israel ... " But the leaders in Israel don't want a two-state peace. They want a one-state dominance and they haven't quite figured out how to fit all the Palestinians onto a small enough fraction of the West Bank that would sell to the rest of the world.
30
It is not going to take a financier to solve the Israeli-Palestinian problems.Remember that Jared Kushner and his family thought that 666 Fifth Avenue was a wonderful deal and that they would make a fortune.They had to be bailed out by Brookefield Associates to get out from under the debt.Trump and Kushner eschew diplomacy in favor of promises of lucrative real estate possibilities.Trump thinks he can sell North Korea on great development and Kushner thinks he can solve the Middle East problems with infrastructure.For them money talks-for the Palestinians there will need to be years more of diplomacy in addition to financial benefits.
12
Huge investments cannot be made in a risky political vacuum. All these ideas would be worthwhile once there is a peace agreement between Palestine and Israel that guarantees an independent Palestinian state with viable borders. It's hard to envision the US being the trusted intermediary to make this happen in light of all the policy decisions it has taken favoring one side and damaging the other. Its Middle Eastern policy seems to be a perfect train-wreck.
14
Gentrification and real estate development is rarely if ever undertook for the benefit of current residents, but rather to push them out of the way for the financial gain of the developers.
41
@Mary
Geesch, is Kushner really this naive?
Dangle the "promise" of a few dollars and the atrocities committed by both sides over the past last hundred years will all be forgotten?
3
What is unrealistic is the two state solution itself. Insofar as Kushner's plan is meant to advance that "solution" it is doomed from the start. That being said, however, trying to find ways to improve economic conditions in the area makes a lot of sense.
1
'Making the whole initiative even more surreal, it arrives after the administration in which Mr. Kushner serves sharply cut funds for programs that support Palestinian schools and health care.'
Kushner wants to build up the infrastructure to support 'his' family's future development in the region. Nothing new!
36
Patronizing is an understatement. I can’t imagine what the average Palestinian would think of a young rich Jewish real estate tycoon holding a “workshop” (cringe) where the solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict is framed as a business opportunity.
106
The article does not mention what Haaretz clarifies--Palestine would see only $25 billion of the $50 billion over ten years. The other $25 billion would be shared by Jordan and Lebanon and another Muslim state that have given refuge to millions of Syrian refugees. 90 Palestinians protesting the death of a man shot for throwing firecrackers at police were wounded by Israeli police yesterday. A political solution is desperately needed before economic relief can be fruitful. The Palestinians were only ever offered what Israel was willing to give. The world sees the U.S. as the enabler of the occupation.
206
With Palestine, there is no such thing as a realistic plan forward. So unrealistic plans are the only ones possible and, perhaps if the stars align, Mr Kushner will work. Was the Times this negative about Obama’s Arab Spring before it crashed and burned? No. Sadly, it seems that the Opinion Editors reflexively attack any plan coming out of the Trump Administration, including plans to help Palestinians, immigrants at the border and American citizens. It doesn’t bode well for the future.
2
@ehillesum. Obviously the Trump administration, with its disregard for the emoluments clause and security clearances, love for secret foreign deals, and a bad actor with heavy debts like Kushner allowed to roam all over the ME on taxpayer financed business trips, is unable to gain the trust of many voters. The voters see any plan coming out of the administration as meant to help the Trumps and their friends, not the Palestinians or anybody else.
Carter, Clinton and Obama weren’t unethical real estate salesmen, heavily in debt and trying g to drum up business while still in office. For many reasons, including complete incompetency and lack of qualifications, Kushner is not the person to be makIng deals with anybody.
I hope The NY Times continues to investigate, report and criticize when necessary. On the outside chance that there might be something praiseworthy in proposed peace plans they will let us know about that too.
The Trump administration can’t gain the trust of many US voters who know how to read. Why should the Palestinians or any other foreign group trust them.
1
Why would anyone with half a brain invest $50 billion in a war zone, a place where the infrastructure constructed will easily be destroyed in the next uprising, which is guaranteed to happen without a political solution? Maybe only the person who thought $1.8 billion was a bargain price for 666 Fifth Avenue.
47
The board gives too much credit to Mr. Kushner. Mr. Kushner wasn't appointed in charge of the Middle East to bring peace or anything. He was appointed because that's where the money is, I mean the easy money.
The Trump/Kushner understand that they can't have a foundation like the Clinton Foundation after leaving the WH. No one will donate to that foundation. So their goal is to make as much money as possible before Trump is out.
From their support to MBS in Saudi Arabia or this so-called peace to prosperity summit, where most attendees are billionaires, this is all about money. Why else do you think Mr. Kushner was bypassing the State Department while dealing with those Princes in the Middle East?
Kushner and his wife have always attended official meetings and gatherings where they can exchange business cards with wealthy and well-connected people.
Again, Mr. Trump knows that unlike former presidents, he will not be able to cash in after he leaves the WH since he will be too toxic. So Trump and Kushner are cashing in right now.
76
Where does the money come from? Who gets the money and builds the projects? What has to happen to start the investment? Is this just idle speculation on what might happen if investors thought things were more stable politically or is someone actually committed to do any of these things?
6
Mr. Kushner does most of his work in the background, off camera, out of the public eye. People were speculating what his voice sounded like nearly a year after he began working in the Trump administration as he was rarely seen and never heard.
I wish he would do more in full public view so people could see what a farce he really is.
483
@Don
This is a cheap shot. You complain not to hear "Mr. Kushner" and condemn him as a farce anyway. If you think he's a farce – which is certainly a possibility – please tell us why.
7
@Don
Honing in on “voice” as surrogate for competency is pretty superficial. Have you ever listened to Ross Perot or to the goofy laugh of Jeff Bezos? By the “voice” metric these guys should be abject failures. Kushner is justly open to criticism for his multiple conflicts, failed security clearances and shady financial history but his apparent vocal shortcoming isn’t relevant.
11
@JMS
And this plan didn't prove to you he's a fraud!!!!
61
The sense I get when reading the media coverage about this - what little discussion there is - is that the critique isn't so much about the merit of the projects themselves, but more about the personalities involved and the assumptions about their motivations. But this is not a zero sum game. As pointed out in the article, many of these projects have been proposed by other respected voices precisely because these kinds of projects have the potential to make a significant material difference in the everyday lives of Palestinians and create the foundation for viable prosperity in the region. It is the wrong question to ask if they will create a Palestinian state by themselves. They may or may not. But by creating incentives for prosperity, you de-incentive conflict. Peace will never be achieved if we let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
4
What the Trump/Kushner family doesn't understand is that while it's relatively easy to buy the rich and striving middle class, poor people are less likely to sell out.
18
Why is this man in charge of vast areas of American foreign policy? Out of the many questions and indeed pending court cases challenging the Trump family and their unlawful practices, the question of Kushner must be addressed more urgently. Former Trump cabinet members (!) have spoken on the issue of Kushner, his ill-preparedness to speak on our behalf around the world, and the fact that he was denied a high level security clearance for very good reason. Apparently, the President can override denials of security clearances for family members? I would prefer that our Middle East policies be negotiated by an expert in the region and someone who does not count Bibi and MBS amongst his closest partners. Enough already.
66
So cute that Jared would give voice to uncle Bibi's fantasy peace plan. Now be a good boy and go play with your blocks in the Oval!
54
wqhat i expected form a self entitled ignorant know nothing looking to line his own and family's pockets As a fellow American jew this one is a serious embarassment
37
Anything this administration tries to do it fails at .
This 4th of July campaign rally for deplorable people will be a prime example of the administrations inability to do anything!
As a prior draftee I’m looking forward to this administrations screwing up and having to reinstate the draft too.
9
This is a good idea but put it in Gaza. Give the people there something to do that makes them acceptable and able to earn them some money. The alternative, firing rockets into Israel at Iran's behest is not working out very well for them, is it?
At the same time the UN needs to declare that Gaza is a state. What is it now? It's not Israel. It's not Egypt. It's a big nothing. In fact this status is unprecedented anywhere in the world.
In regard to the West Bank, it's about time that Israel annexed it and made it a de-facto part of Israel where the people there are full Israeli citizens but retain some autonomy like the French do in Quebec, Canada.
4
I first read @Don's comment without my reading glasses and I thought he said what a FORCE Jared really is, instead of the farce my glasses revealed!
Oh my gosh. I haven't laugh this loudly this early in the morning since I was a kid watching Saturday morning cartoons!
11
@common sense advocate
Me too ! Lol.
Seriously.
1
Jared lives on Fantasy Island. The Palestinians have been given billions of dollars over the years and used it to invest in building underground tunnels and buy weapons of war and material to manufacture suicide vests not to build a country with an economy.
Hamas is in charge of the Palestinians and since they are a terrorist organization their only goal is to totally destroy Israel not to build an economy. In order for them to reach this goal they must keep the Palestinians poor and hungry so that they are angry enough to fight.
Actually, one could say that the Palestinians do have an economy it’s called war.
5
@KJS How much of the terrorism practiced by Hamas is fostered by Israel and its policies?
You make assertions that Hamas is doing this and that without looking at the other dance partner.
1
Jared and Ivanka both fly round the globe on tax dime playing at being diplomats.
What fun !
People in such roles used to be characterized by relevant education, experience, qualifications, and dedicated public service.
This whole administration is an exercise in ridiculousness.
75
@r mackinnon I remember well when Trump made a boastful statement that he would hire only the best people.
Well, who knew the best could be so inept and ignorant to the issues of the real world, not Trumpland.
5
It's ridiculous to expect an unethical businessperson to create a fair and equitable peace plan. It's likely that Mr. Kushner has some yet undiscovered financial interests in his scheme.
31
Forget the glitzy bribes.
* With Israel’s economic blockade of the Palestinians,
* Israel’s barriers that make Palestinian movements difficult or sometimes impossible,
* Israel’s restrictions on Palestinian fishing,
* Israel’s construction of “settlements” in the West Bank,
* Israel’s failure to abide by U.N. laws governing the creation of Israel,
* Israel’s ignoring of Human Rights Conventions,
* Israel’s removal of Palestinians from lands and orchards that had belonged to Palestinian families for centuries . . .
Kushner’s new proposal will do nothing for the Palestinians.
The Palestinians need control of their lands, their lives. They need a sovereign independent state. The alternative is to merge them into an enlarged Israel where everyone has the same rights. Because right now Israel is not working. The Palestinian Territories are not working and their people are oppressed.
30
Seems like a great way for a lot of wealthy men to get even wealthier, with absolutely no changes for the Palestinians.
And, why can’t we get this kind of grand infrastructure plan here in America, first?
25
So unqualified for this or any job in government that it is mind boggling. Trump had no plan for government and since the shock of winning meant Really governing he had no able people to appoint. Hence the only ones he had not scammed. Since he trusted no one, we have Jared and Ivanka.
22
Just another bankruptcy in the making bought to us by a family with a seemingly endless denial of reality.
15
There is nothing to lose by trying new approaches to old problems.
2
We're in big trouble if we let Kushner be in charge of anything.
26
Did Kushner's fancy presentation detail how much profit for Team Trump and their other criminal sponsors was buried in the proposal?
27
The West Bank as a New York Lower East Side,development.
Message to investors: Invest $1 to relocate the current (Palestinian) tenants, and get $5 back from (Israeli) developers and wealthy new tenants: Can you say "high rises": It'll be like the most fantastic IPO in your lifetime, better than the tax break we gave hou. Signed: Kushner, Mnuchen, Miller, Trump, and Netanyahu.
15
Pure nepotism. Kushner has not one iota of experience or qualifications other than family money. This is a farce.
24
“Demands on Israel”?
How can this be a starting point when the other parties refuse to even acknowledge it should exist?
4
So instead of fighting Israelis for land and freedom, they are going to fight corporate America? Spearheaded by two American Jews (one whose proIsrael slant is hardly hidden), Mnuchin and Kushner.
We continue to ignore the political/religious fractures in this region to our peril. The Sunni (Saudi & UAE) Shiite (Iran) divide has been going on for centuries as they vie for power and resources. Thrown in the most recent decades was a new economic/religious force of Israel.
In order for the power to be in the hands of the few in these countries, a religious faction must be satisfied to control the masses. Sound like something familiar stirring to the west?
Bottom line, the Kings, military forces and Netanyahu can’t buy their way out. A few dollars will NOT erase the hate the leaders around the world have unleashed for decades for their own gain.
14
It’s ALL about the Benjamins. Profit, for the Trump Brand.
Sad.
17
"If we are going to fail we will find a way different from the past." Spoken as someone who has been an observer of the failed trump schemes for years. Maybe this will at least keep the boy out of the business of governing in which his father-in-law is failing ---- once again. Oh by the way, the billionaires are on the way to scam another country besides the good ole USofA. Have a happy fourth.
15
The key detail of the editorial is "yet the plan makes no demands on Israel". This is because Kushner is Israel's biggest cheerleader and wouldn't want to step on any Israeli toes.
Continual encroaching is the name of the Israeli game, which only diminishes the chances of a peaceful settlement. Restitution is required.
11
Jared really has no gravitas or expertise to represent this country in any way.
He is just another informercial for this family.
20
After reading a few paragraphs, I had to stop. How sad that this man is representing our country. The fact that Jared and Ivanka are involved in US policy discussions is a pathetic reminder of what MAGA and KAG actually mean. Send them back to NYC if they're even welcome. Perhaps they could live at Mar-a-Lago where they can insulate themselves from public disdain and pretend that they are loved.
21
The fundamental premise underpinning the "Kushner Plan for Prosperity and Peace" is that everyone is like Kushner and Trump, they'll do anything, anything for money.
If (as is the case with Kushner and Trump types) nothing matters but making a profit to the people of the Middle East, then there may be some hope to this purblind "solution".
My guess is that there are a few other "issues" at play, issues that have been ignored, and this project will crash and burn with spectacular pyrotechnics (hopefully without loss of life, but I'm fearful).
171
So, the Middle East got an infrastructure plan before the U.S. did.
354
Once again Trump’s “values” shine through. When you have no principles except ego and wealth, and no capacity to respect or understand anyone else’s views, you get a transactional proposal like this.
Trump believes everyone else is willing to betray their history, morals, and religion for a few dollars because that’s what he would do.
Another example of the worst president in history.
312
@PKF And he sent his tragic, oily-faced son-in-law over to present this "master plan." Kushner has NO experience in foreign policy. He has no experience in LIFE for that matter. He's not a business man. He's a little rich kid who had everything handed to him on a silver platter. What an embarrassment! This entire experience has been like watching a horrible movie in slow motion. I just want to fast forward to the credits and make sure it has a happy ending.
44
What will the Palestinian economy produce with all of this? With what funds will this infrastructure be sustained? Without education and statehood this idea will only serve as the snake oil which real estate developers base their livelihoods upon.
29
@Tommybee. why would anyone invest in an infrastructure that will be bombed at any moment by Israel? Europeans spent millions building up Gaza schools, power plants and homes only to see it repeatedly blown up by Israeil.
4
Well , at least this administration is totally transparent. The shallowness of the plan reveals that only a buck matters to them above all and considers any other human condition, political, social and moral totally subservient to economics .
29
How very Trumpian! Line up a bunch of ultra-wealthy, potentially criminal investors, promise huge returns, take a big piece of the action for Trump and Kushner.org (using borrowed money of course) and then when things go bust, simply default on the loans, declare bankruptcy and tell investors better luck next time. We’ve seen this movie before but now Trump is risking the reputation and credit rating of the United States of America.
99
Because the traditional “two-states first, development later” was going SO well. The way I see it you can push for development then separation or separation then development, and as much as the former has been unsuccessful the latter has been an abject failure. The Palestinians cannot survive on empty promises that one day they’ll get their own country anymore.
9
The Trump administration seems to think it's dangling a carrot, but the Palestinians see it as a baited hook. Money may make the world go round, but a proud people whose land and lives have been taken from them are unlikely to trade their destiny for uncertain promises of future prosperity.
24
This plan is unlikely to work but not because it isnt serious. It won't work because Palestinians will never accept a negotiation which will not give them their maximal dermands. Lets face it, Palestinian leadership loves the stalemate because it gives them foreign aid that they have stolen and put into European bank accounts. If they should ever make peace the gravy train would end. There is not a plan that they have not rejected out of hand and the plan that the talking heads have prescribed has been on offer for them on and off for the past 30 years and they have rejected it. Its high time for a new paradigm that tells them that they either negotiate now or lose more and more.
5
I have a question that has never been answered when I have raised it in the past. After the war in 1948 why wasn't a Palestinian State formed? The U.N. created two states: Israel, and Palestine after World War II. The Arab nations attacked Israel with the objective of eliminating their new state. After the dust cleared and a cease fire established Jordan took over the administration of Palestine. Why didn't the Palestinians go to the U.N. and demand control of their territory. After the 7 Day War which Egypt and Syria started and a number of other Arab nations supported, including Jordan demanded the winner of the conflict, Israel, give back the land attained. Israel said no territory would be returned unless there was a peace treaty between Israel and all the Arab states. Israel stated that everything was open for discussion except that they wouldn't give up the old city of Jerusalem as they were not permitted to visit their holy sites during the cease fire. All the Arab nations refused. Only after another war in which they started and lost only Egypt wanted to talk peace which they did. The Egyptian president , Sadat, paid for that with his life not long afterwards.
10
This inconsequential nobody practically bankrupted himself, just like his father-in-law, and now comes his greatest non-achievement. Peace in our time! A man-child with a portfolio so vast his next area of undertaking will surely be the his Reinvestment in Reconstruction plan where he takes a fresh look at reworking, re-energizing, and synergizing the South as his legendary business acumen tells him that things could have been done much better after the Civil War. Oh if the immeasurable power of a great mind such as his can bring peace to the world just think of how he will be able to bring South back up-to-speed in the twenty first century.
13
The art of the film-flam. I do not trust this administration at all. I am convinced that all ‘foreign policy ‘ negotiations are nothing more than an elaborate way to profit from roiling the stock markets. This is similar to the way Jared’s father-in-law profited from rumors of plans to purchase various companies in the past. These people are worse than useless.
They are dangerous to the U.S. and to the world.
46
A laudable goal without adequate details but looking to require lots of capital is certainly worthy of scorn. Wait, were we speaking about the “Green New Deal?”
3
As usual, the TRUMP team always thinks the solution to any problem is money. And because they are affluent real estate investors, they see another opportunity to make a buck. But there is so much more to the now very complex peace effort for the Palestinians and Israelis, success is unlikely. Trump and Kushner have wild dreams of making money and fame over this deal. But the players don't like each other and will not play in the same sandbox anymore. You simply cannot put a bandage over it. Better, smarter and politically savvy people from the US have worked on this problem for a very long time and still no solution. Now ignorant American real estate investors with none of the history and deep understanding of both sides, and the Middle East in general, are going to fix everything. Such conceit and narcissism.
22
Mr. Kushner thinks money will erase the problems of the Palestinians. Many Palestinians are indeed poor, but their biggest shortage in life is they no self-determination and live under a system where they are second-class and always will be, no matter how much money they have.
19
Jared is the poster boy for why nepotism isn't a good idea.
Two plus years on the job and this is what he come up with?
15
@Michael Kelly
And, as useless as this is, it is more than he has come up with for "transforming government bureaucracy" and ending the opioid crisis. Weren't those also in his alleged wheel house? I guess there is more money to be made for the Kushner family in the Middle East than in helping addicts in Appalachia.
4
Why would the Palestinians trust the Trump crime family after Trump gave Jerusalem and the Golan Heights to Israel without any negotiations? A lack of trust would be compounded by Trump’s history of refusing to breaking deals (e.g. Iran) that he doesn’t like, even if they’re being honored.
And then there's Kushner himself. Besides having no qualifications, he's so conflicted with his family businesses that he was denied a Top Security clearance until his father-in-law overrode the decision of the career civil servants.
Kushner/Trump have chosen to back Israel against the Palestinians. That’s been implied by former administrations, but it’s blatant under Trump. The Palestinians would be foolish to trust them.
21
The wrong people, with the wrong plan, in the wrong location.
The wrong people.
With Kushner's background and his family's (Trumps) recent actions, these are not the guys who will be able to sell anything to their victims.
The wrong plan.
The problem with a plan like this is that it assumes that everyone else also worships the dollar above everything else in life.
The wrong location.
If he was hoping to sell this plan, at the very least it needed to be presented to the people most affected, where they are and where the problem is.
Some distant palace will have very little import to people on the alleyways of Gaza.
If this is really the best they can do, it makes you wonder hoe they make a living.
14
@Les Anderson
"If this is really the best they can do, it makes you wonder hoe they make a living.:
Simply put: it's called the art of the Con
All this without a government. Right.
Robber baron imperialism.
32
All the negativity in this piece and the comments is troubling. The effort seems to follow a simple theory that energizing economic infrastructure may lead to a more peaceful political system. This theory has been used many times in history, by many different leaders. If this proposal had been offered by President Obama, I doubt that the reactions would be so negative. Regardless of who sponsors the proposal, I hope that the Palestinian economy can be energized and that the humans who live there can have better lives, free of violence.
4
@Bill Bluefish
I appreciate your views as representing a perspective fresh from Cape Cod.
Consider, however, the feelings of Palestinians.
Are they not justified in perceiving Jared as simply a salesman, proposing to buy them off?
When sitting down, face-to-face, at the negotiating table to hammer things out in good faith has so far failed, can we really expect that a little money in the mix will make the aggrieved party feel any better?
More like salt to the wound, i'd say.
15
Mr. Kushner's plan reflects an understanding of the world in which everything has a price, even principles and human dignity. Sell out and enrich yourself. Diplomacy as informed by New York real estate hustle.
36
It never fails. Regardless of its merit any plan suggested by one political party will be criticized by the other party for no reason other than creating dissent and getting elected. What have we become?
2
This is not a peace plan, or a regional development plan. It is certainly a financial plan, guaranteed to enrich Consolidated Javanka Industries and their friends. When will republicans wake up to the fact that their guy and his family are out to feather their nests at the worlds expense?
56
Kushner's goal was never the middle east peace. His goal has been to make connections with rich people to make money. This is also exactly what other Trumps including the President have been doing.
139
Well, it least it’s pease talks and not war talks.
Maybe by pure luck the plan can be tweaked, modified morphed and transformed into something which may just work out.
I’m no fan of Jarad, but maybe this a beginning.
This is a frozen conflict, maybe it can be jarred and worked
to an outcome which has some positive results.
Give peace a chance.
3
@New World Yes, peace talks which will lead to war. Bravo!
3
@New World
Sure, a "plan" for the poor Palestinians crafted by their Hebrew overlords; r-i-i-g-h-t. It's not only patronising, it's vile and cynical. And why dignify these creeps with titles? "President" Trump? Just "Trump," the same thing plastered on his buildings. "Jared" Kushner? "National Security Advisor John;"? No first names, no titles necessary; we all know who they are.
1
As the saying goes, "If you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail."
If you are a real estate developer, everything looks like a new real estate development.
If you are a Trump/Kushner, everyone is motivated by profit, above all.
So, they showed Kim Jong Un a video of beautiful condos on their "great beaches." Surely he'll give up his weapons, the thinking seems to be, in order to live Trump's version of the good life: a dictator in a gilded castle on the beach. That Kim needs his weapons to maintain control and power seems to be ignored.
Likewise, with the Middle East, the Kushner/Trump crowd seem to believe that the only motivation is money and that the prospect of economic investment will cause all other concerns to melt away.
While most people probably do respond well to the promise of wealth, they often have other, overriding concerns--like power and autonomy. To think otherwise is naive.
But what else can we expect from a real estate developer who because of nepotism has leapfrogged over people who have studied these regions all their lives and appreciate the complicated histories and concerns?
188
The 'investor conference' is laughable...resembling one of those sketchy condo time share presentations that promise you a free weekend vacation...
Let's get real here. Money is not the issue. If a sovereign Palestine were established tomorrow, tens of billions of FDI, assistance, and loans would flow in from all corners of the world. For one thing, there is billions of dollars worth of natural gas sitting under the ocean just off Gaza's coast line (which Israel is also busy trying to exploit). There's probably oil nearby the West Bank as well (Israel detected oil/gas deposits in the Golan Heights).
Look at any frontier or emerging market around the world. No one invests unless there are political guarantees.
Until that day when a treaty is signed, the Gaza/West Bank population will increase by ~150,000 per year. Issues of sanitation, electricity, access to water, security, and all the rest of it --- will become increasingly severe.
Israel holds all the cards here; it's a pity there is no political leadership in place with a long term sustainable vision (difficult to find anywhere in the world at the best of times).
82
Trump’s transactional diplomacy has so far borne no fruit. Maybe because not everybody sees their soul as for sale?
101
Kushner and Trump, supported by Bibi and MBS and ill suited to try to solve any issue that is rooted in human rights. The end of WW 2 focused world leaders in a different direction rather than the conquest of territory. A clear path to a much more peaceful future was laid out in the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Kushner and the others believe all problems can be solved through money. Sorry, but there are issues that are far more important. Besides, would you buy a used car from any of those listed above?
97
"Israel controls the economic life of the Palestinian territories, meaning none of the proposals are possible without its concurrence. Yet the plan makes no demands on Israel and its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu."
Of course. Netanyahu is a family friend of Kushner family. So there would be no demands on Israel and Netanyahu.
What is amusing about all this is the faith that Trump has placed on Kushner who cannot even get real estate investments right.
Kushner's disastrous investment in 666 Fifth Avenue has dogged him for years and his efforts to keep it afloat may be influencing US foreign policy.
In a ThinkProgress article, "Jared Kushner’s $1.2 billion miracle," there is this gem about Kushner family's effort to secure funding to renovate the building.
"The Intercept reported that Kushner’s father met with Qatar’s finance minister, Ali Sharif al-Emadi, in New York last April. They pitched a $1 billion investment to renovate the struggling tower. The Qataris rejected the pitch because they did not believe they’d ever be able to recover their investment. Soon thereafter, the Trump administration supported an economic blockade of the country by Saudi Arabia."
One has to wonder whether or not Trump/Kushner financial interests are intermingled with this "Middle East Development Project."
270
@RK Do we really "have to wonder?"
17
@RK
Ya think. ?
9
Who is giving Kushner/Trump money to propose this deal? The Palestinians have no infrastructure to deal with these funds, except for theft that will be shared by select Israelis. Ordinary Palestinians, especially those who just want to lead normal lives, will not benefit from it. You use financial incentives to close a diplomatic solution, not the other way around.
37
In the end it will never matter who is the president of the US or the PM of Israel when it comes to making peace deals. As long as the the head of the PA doesn't want to make a peace deal, it will never happen regardless of who's there. Keep in mind that there were two major offers in both 2000 and 2008, but both were rejected by the PA even though it would have granted them a Palestinian state. In all honesty, I don't exactly see how Kushner's idea will help promote peace through business. Keep in mind that Hamas does have a history of misusing any money from aide to buy weapons that should have gone into help into helping the infrastructure instead, while Fatah has been known for embezzling it for themselves while everyone else goes poor. In reality, if something needs to be changed, it's the nature of the Palestinians and their autonomy, because until then, any peace deal will just be seen as a road to nowhere. As for a possible rail line between the Gaza Strip and West Bank, I won't be surprised if Hamas will place bombs on the trains when going in between to attack Israeli civilians, which will be a big fear on that.
11
Not waiting for the PA. Just do it anyway and the rest will follow through . We are living forward not living karma
@Tal Barzilai You're bringing out the old arguments blaming Palestinians for their own problems. The reality is, every single other country on the planet has dealt with internal civil conflicts successfully...except for Israel/Palestine. South Africa, Sri Lanka, FARC in Columbia, Northern Ireland...even the Afghan government is negotiating with the Taliban. There are no intractable problems that do not have a political solution...it takes leadership from all sides; this is something Israel has been lacking for a long time.
3
@Tal Barzilai how about US recognizes Palestine as a country to the 1967 borders and puts it's embassy in the East Jerusalem and spend a trillion dollars with our armed forces and construction companies to take care of the newly created country! U
Otherwise it will be one state when you and I are dead and gone and fighting will continue! LOL!
1
As the Palestinian leadership had no part in the formulating of this plan, not surprising they reject it out of hand. So why weren't they involved and what possible hope for success without them?
55
@bob ranalli very simple, because the Palestinians don't negotiate, they simply issue red lines which make any deal impossible.
1
There are three possible political outcomes: maintain the status quo, establish two states, and form one state with the Palestinians as full citizens (or, I suppose, 2nd class citizens as Israeli Arabs currently are). The last will not happen because it would destroy the nature of Israel as a Jewish state (or majority Jewish state).
- The status quo does not work and will become increasingly unstable if Bibi follows through on his promise to annex more of the West Bank.
- That leaves the two state solution, which given the geography of the two pieces of Palestine, is very difficult to imagine. A highway/rail line between the two sounds good, but it is hard to imagine Israel agreeing to something which would bisect its territory.
Of course investment into the Palestinian areas is a desperate need, but with all the controls outside the territories held by Israel, commerce is very difficult. The Palestinians are essentially confined to the two strips of land. Israel has some legitimate security concerns and certainly has a right to protect its people. That said, no economic solution will work without a resolution of the political issues. Trump has been doing everything in his power to sabotage efforts in that area.
20
IPO. Initial Public Offering. I had to look it up! It's an investment term. We have what amounts to a private businessman who's father happens to be president of the united states toodling around the world playing in the big leagues. And nobody in this government even looks his way? Meanwhile a huge project has no environmental impact statement, no survey of communities surrounding building sites, no comments about water sourcing or needs: no considering at all about the human impact. And absolutely no respect for the cultural and/or social history or context. At best this is completely BIZARRE.
62
@annpatricia23 But you know a site has been a pick for a new Trump Tower
1
How can Palestine be a state when they are fenced in and the territory divided and there is still divisions between the most powerful armed factions in Palestine?
Kushner and Trump based on their own lives believe people will do anything for money.
The only solution to the problem that exists today which is the responsibility of all of the parties involved over the last fifty years is to integrate the Palestinians into the existing state of Israel.
13
This is all about money to be made... probably including by Trump-Kushner. A way for billions to be made by billionaires. A way to keep the Occupation going, with bribes to keep the so called status quo that has never been status quo in reality. A way to see how much money will Palestinians take for their dignity, their years loss. And possibly another way for the Palestinians to be blamed for rejecting "a very generous deal". If the Arabs sign on, it will be yet another sign that they have abandoned the Palestinians.
Economic plans such as described have been around for years, including a viable Palestinian state. As it stands, without a statehood plan and withdrawal from the territories, without getting Israel's big foot off the Palestinians, Kushner is asking the Arab states to rev up their support for this 52 year occupation.
38
The crowd appears unmoved.
The ideas if executed would change the region, and Palestine would have the mobility and income it needs.
But it seems unlikely that serious investments would be committed unless there was a halt to the endless fighting, a commitment from Israel, and relinquishing claims to more territory, and acceptance of Israel's permanence.
The rare view of Kushner at work is a stick in the eye for many of us, who see him as operating as if he was the personal emissary of a giant private developer, not of the United States.
54
Odd that Kushner didn't include Hamas and Hezbollah in his grand plan. These proxies for Iran will have a vote, more likely a veto. DOA.
6
I wish someone will write why Iran thinks it should be involved. Their involvement doesn’t seem to aid or advance either the Palestinians or Iran. Take Gaza: ocean front property. It should be a tourist destination. Instead they build tunnels. Note I think Bibi’s policies are awful. But Iran’s worse.
The post-1967 root of the territorial dispute between Israel and the Arabs is the differing English- and French-language versions of UN resolution 242.
The English version of 242 referred to a "return of territories" captured by Israel in 1967; the French, "les territoires," or "the territories" captured by Israel.
Naturally, Israel prefers the English-language version and the Palestinians, the French.
I recall that about 20 years ago, the late Shimon Peres gave a speech to the Knesset in which he suggested that 242 be renegotiated so as to create conditions for a successful negotiation.
Until that happens -- and unless the two sides to the conflict sit down to negotiate directly, everything -- EVERYTHING -- that is cooked up by the rest of the world will be nothing more than a band aid, no matter how well-intentioned.
21
In effect, this plan aims to buy off Palestinians. Hardly a surprising action by the likes of Kushner and Trump. Offensive? Yes. Patronising? Yes. Doomed to fail? Absolutely. It is painfully apparent that Kushner is incapable of fulfilling the role he has been given by his father-in-law. Don’t confuse over-privilege for intelligence and good judgment.
379
@Concerned
It is a mistake to assume that (a) the Palestinians actually want a state, and (b) the Palestinians cannot be bought off.
Were it not for their sclerotic leadership -- which enjoys a high quality lifestyle in Europe care of Saudi funding -- there might well have been a negotiated settlement by now.
16
@Frank J Haydn you lost me when you assumed Israel would even entertain the idea of a Palestinian state instead of just blaming Palestinians!
17
And the projection likely to come true: this won't fail the same way past proposals have failed.
It has its own, unique, built-in failure mechanisms. Like, not including the Palestinians and Israelis in a plan for their own futures.
Boy genius at work.
155
Maybe Jared should make available whatever he has taken when he devised this "plan" to a broader public - whatever it is, it replaces reality with nicely shaped pink clouds. /s
If this is all that this administration has to offer for the "greatest deal ever" then there is no hope for peace in the Middle East any time soon. To believe that the Palestinians will let themselves be bought off by 50bn, for all those years they have been humiliated and had to suffer is ridiculous. And yet we haven't even heard what the political part of the "deal" is - any bet, the term "2-state-solution" will not play a prominent part.
12
With blind support to Israel in its Palestine annihilation drive that Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner are thickly involved the promised economic foundations of peace and prosperity in the Middle East sounds not just hollow but a cruel joke to the Palestinians confronting the existential threat in their own annexed territories. It's time to call the bluff of Trump-Kushner duo.
62
@Prof. Jai Prakash Sharma Unnecessary to call their bluff. No one was ever faked out by it.
4
@Prof. Jai Prakash Sharma
"Palestine annihilation drive"
Please explain what this means. I will checck back later. Thank you.
Mr. Kushner is rich and smart. He also combines a unique mix of hubris, ignorance, incompetence and opportunity. Go figure.
14
@Sam Tennyson
What evidence at all besides being born into money is there of him being “smart”?
16
@Sam Tennyson Kushner was a middling student who's father (a convicted felon), donated millions of dollars to Harvard, securing him a placement. Money doesn't buy one smarts; it does buy snappy looking suits than can fool people you're smart.
4
Waste. Of. Time. Moreover, it reeks of colonialism. Mnuchin spelled it out when he described it as an IPO. The goal is not peace, but profit.
326
Reread of the efforts Samantha Smith, that dear, sweet Maine girl, made for world peace in the 1980s for a more sophisticated approach: Not to mention a bigger-hearted one.
It's worth going back to Samantha, just for a dose of undiluted good intentions. The good really do die young.
4
Sorry to be cynical, but if Jared Kushner is raising capital, he's looking to siphon off a cut for himself.
218
@D Price
That's not cynical, I suspect that's the driving motive.
20
@D Price
There is nothing cynical about telling the truth. This is most cynical bunch that have ever taken over our government. It is a patriot's duty to call out their corruption. And it is opposite of cynical. It is speaking truth, and there is absolutely nothing to be sorry about.
14
"presidential son-in-law, senior adviser and, formerly, New York real estate developer"
This says it all about Jared's qualifications for the job his dad-in-law has entrusted to him. We need hear no more on that score.
It seems one does not have to be an emperor to appear in public without a stitch on.
31
@An American in Sydney
He was a real estate guy who bough a greatly overpriced building in Manhattan with the address "666."
Seriously? He didn't know enough to go to City Hall to file a variance to get the number changed ? (los go way that can be done)
That's like having a 13th floor in an American hotel.
5
If you know NY, you know 666 Fifth Ave has a jumping joint on the top floor called “Top of the Sixes” 666. The address has cachet. But the building is mid-century and Fifth Ave has changed.
1
There's no "formerly" a developer in his resume. He's still shilling for developers. His arrogance and greed are transparent.
130
666 Mediterranean Avenue.
Just roll the dice and get two from Boardwalk, four from Park Place, or three from Luxury Tax—and collect $200 billion as you pass Go.
Isn’t monopoly fun when you get to start the game already loaded with properties, tax depreciation schemes, and red hotels?
59
When you have an uninformed president aided by his uninformed and inexperienced son-in-law, it is only reasonable to have lowered expectations.
I find myself comparing Trump's reliance on family members to that of Kim Jong Un, who has long used his sister, and in the past, his now executed uncle as his proxies.
The difference is that we are not, or at least were not, a monarchy or dictatorship.
As for being divorced from reality, everyone's is different, but I will allow as to how Donald Trump knows at least a thing or two about divorce.
111
Those who do not know history are condemned to repeat it. Jared Kushner - not one of the great minds of the day - truly has no clue, but he certainly does have the gall to think he can solve a problem that has vexed our greatest statesmen.
241
What a wonderful idea. Peace is now going to be a for - profit business. Why not!? We already have made health-care, education, prisons, and our military into for - profit private sector enterprises.
And we will measure success in terms of profits. And when the this profitable peace plan leads to the next war there will be further profits for the military - industrial complex.
447
@Benjamin ben-baruch
"Peace -- a profit business"
The fondest wish of Jared, and the GOP.
"If it dun involve profit for at least some of us,
it won't wash, guys -- sorry!"
6
It's also clear that there are militant factions within the Palestinian community that would destroy beneficial investments. Indeed, we've already seen that happen.
25
Someone should tell Mr. Kushner that it's hard to sell the promise of investment when a dominant outside group seems willing to destroy the benefits of said investment on a whim.
181
@Matt - minor, very minor, details. ;)
1
@Matt, you might want to suggest to Hamas and others that firing rockets at Israel is bad for Palestinians.
3
@Matt
That’s the whole point of this scam. The “investments” are meant to be simply another hostage for Israel to take. The Palestinians saw this rat coming hundreds of miles away.
9