There has not been much news about Jared Kushner’s trip to the Middle East. That is probably because during the visit not much was done. President Donald Trump’s top adviser and son-in-law held two-and-a half hours of talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem recently, before going to Ramallah and holding talks with PA President Mahmoud Abbas as the US continues to sound out the sides about resuming peace negotiations.
But so far the Trump administration continues to talk in general terms about its desire to broker an agreement. It has given no concrete indication about how it plans to bring that about. The administration has made clear it has no plans at this time to convene a Trump-Netanyahu-Abbas summit or to put forward a road map or framework for getting back to negotiations. The US is also exploring the degree to which Arab states are willing to become involved in the process.
At this stage Washington is looking for commitments by the sides in the peace process and for steps that could be taken to improve the atmosphere. One step that is not confidence-building: Hours before Kushner's arrival in Israel, Netanyahu announced the beginning of construction on a new Jewish settlement in the West Bank. Netanyahu had vowed to compensate the residents of Amona with a new settlement, after their previous illegally built outpost was dismantled in February under orders from the Supreme Court. The new settlement, known as Amichai, is being built to house about 300 hard-line residents of Amona who were evicted after it ruled their houses were on privately owned Palestinian land.
Amichai will be the first entirely new state-approved settlement constructed in the Palestinian territories since the Israeli-Palestinian Oslo peace accords were signed in 1993, although illegal outposts have been constructed in that period and other settlements have expanded.
The timing of the announcement could not have been better if it were designed to undermine peace efforts. It also could not have been worse for Trump who this year requested from Netanyahu to “hold back on settlements for a little bit”. The construction also could not have helped Kushner whose trip was supposed to provide an opportunity for the 36-year-old to start making a mark in a foreign policy issue in which Trump has high hopes. But right now, Kushner’s plate is full to the brim. He is not only responsible for the Middle East but North America and China. Kushner's expansive responsibilities don't end at foreign affairs. He is tasked with leading a presidential office on reshaping the federal bureaucracy, discussing criminal justice reform, improving the Department of Veterans Affairs and tackling the nation's opioid abuse epidemic. So even though he is originally a real estate developer with little experience in international diplomacy, he has been thrust into the center of US foreign relations and domestic affairs. Any one of these tasks is a full-time job.
To top it off, it has been reported that Kushner’s business dealings are being investigated by Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller, who is looking into Trump’s possible ties to Russia during the presidential campaign and transition.
How will Kushner be able to attend to all this while finding the time to reach a peace deal between the Palestinians and Israelis is anybody’s guess. The talks collapsed three years ago and an agreement has been unattainable in the 50 years since the 1967 war — a seminal event in which Israel captured the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip and whose anniversary is this month.
The night before his inauguration, Trump reportedly told Kushner, “If you can’t produce peace in the Middle East, nobody can”. The expectation as to what Kushner can do is thus huge and not a little unfair. We must wait to see how broad his shoulders really are.
