“Trump’s plan called for a two-state solution and investments in the Palestinian economy.”…12/21/2023, Wall St. Journal…Addressing Saudis in Oct., 2023, Jared Kushner said Palestinians need their own functioning state. 10/25/2023, Bloomberg
12/21/2023, “Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner Visit Hamas Attack Site in Israel," Wall St. Journal, Sune Engel Rasmussen and Vivian Salama
“Trip comes as U.S. voters criticize Biden over his response to war.”
“Ivanka Trump, daughter of Donald Trump and her husband Jared Kushner landed early Thursday in Tel Aviv, amid questions about how the former U.S. president would deal with Israel if he returns to the White House.
The couple were met by Knesset speaker Amir Ohana and were taken on a guided tour near the southern border with Gaza, where they visited the Kfar Aza kibbutz, which was attacked in the Hamas-led assault on Oct. 7, according to Israeli media.
They were expected to meet Israeli President Isaac Herzog in the evening.
Neither Ivanka Trump nor Kushner has any plans to join any future Trump administration, although both support the former president’s renewed bid for the White House.
Donald Trump has said publicly he didn’t expect Kushner or Ivanka Trump to serve in the administration again if he wins in 2024.
A person familiar with Kushner and Ivanka Trump’s visit to Israel said the couple traveled to the country to show their support for its people, adding that the trip was not directly related to politics or Trump’s re-election bid.
The visit comes as Trump has pulled ahead of President Biden in a head-to-head test of the likely 2024 presidential matchup, according to a recent Wall Street Journal poll. Meanwhile, Biden is facing criticism from U.S. voters for his response to the war, with 37% of those surveyed saying they approved of Biden’s handling of the conflict, compared with 52% of people who disapproved.
Biden, under pressure from some U.S. voters to stop Israel’s military operation in Gaza, has criticized Israel for “indiscriminate bombing,” which he said could cost the country support among Western countries outside the U.S. Yet, he has refused to call for a cease-fire and repeatedly stated his unwavering support for Israel.
While supporting the war in Israel has the potential to harm Biden at the polls, given that his party is divided on the matter and more Democrats sympathize with the Palestinian people than with Israel, it is unclear how Trump’s stance could affect his presidential run, because party affiliation is a crucial factor among Americans when it comes to support for Israel.
Nearly a quarter of Democrats said they were more sympathetic to Palestinians, compared with 17% who said they sympathized more with the Israeli people. Just under half said they were equally sympathetic to both.
By contrast, more than two-thirds of Republicans said they were more sympathetic to Israelis, compared with 2% who sympathized more with the Palestinians and 17% who said they sympathized with both groups.
Another Trump presidency presents a potential wild card for Israel. Trump in 2017 ordered the relocation of the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, recognizing it as the capital of Israel, a decision that was sharply criticized by Arab, Palestinian and European leaders who said it could hamper future peace negotiations.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the time praised the decision, yet relations between the two men have grown strained since.
Trump chastised Netanyahu for congratulating Biden,
even though the Israeli prime minister
waited until after most other world leaders to do so.
More recently, Trump has faced criticism for remarks during a campaign speech in October, when he characterized the militant group Hezbollah as “very smart” and faulted Netanyahu over a 2020 mission that killed an Iranian military leader.
Among Israelis, meanwhile, Biden is more popular than Trump. The former president stirred anger in Israel after the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack, which Israel says killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, when he blamed Netanyahu for not being prepared and said that Israelis have “to strengthen themselves up.”
A survey released Thursday by the Israeli polling company Midgam showed that while supporters of Netanyahu’s coalition prefer Trump by a significant margin, 41% of overall Israeli voters prefer Biden—compared with 26% who favor Trump.
During his presidency, Trump relied on Ivanka Trump as a senior adviser,
and put Kushner, who at the time had limited Middle East experience,
in charge of what he called “the ultimate deal” to broker peace in the region.
Trump’s plan called for a two-state solution
and investments in the Palestinian economy.
In 2019, Kushner organized a conference to promote a $50 billion economic program aimed at reviving talks between Israel and the Palestinians. Kushner played an instrumental role in crafting the 2020 Abraham Accords that normalized ties between Israel and several Arab states, including the United Arab Emirates. Many Palestinians said Arab states were neglecting their cause by forging ties with Israel.
Kushner himself benefited from
his previous role as
appointed Middle East peacemaker,
touring Persian Gulf monarchies
shortly after Biden took office with a pitch for investment opportunities in deals made possible by Trump-administration initiatives in the region, including the Abraham Accords.
Kushner raised money from Saudi, Emirati and Qatari investors
through his new fund, Affinity Partners,
leading to criticism that he capitalized on the unique position he held in the Trump White House.”
Write to Sune Engel Rasmussen at sune.rasmussen@wsj.com and Vivian Salama at vivian.salama@wsj.com
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Added, 10/25/23, “Jared Kushner Says Palestinians Need a Functioning State,” Bloomberg…images from Bloomberg video
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