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Showing Original Post only (View all)Jared Kushner Says Israel Should "Finish the Job" in Gaza So It Can Focus on Building Valuable "Waterfront Property" [View all]
In 2017, on the eve of his inauguration, Donald Trump made a bold and unintentionally hilarious prediction: His son-in-law, Jared Kushner, was going to bring peace to the Middle East. If [Jared] cant produce peace in the Middle East, nobody can, Trump said, adding, All my life, Ive been hearing thats the toughest deal to make, but I have a feeling Jared is going to do a great job. Unfortunately, Jared did not do a great job, and failed to even come close to bringing peace to the region, despite reading 25 books on the topic. Yet, he still apparently believes his insights on the matter are valuable, and recently offered Israel a big piece of advice: It should get rid of everyone in Gaza so it can focus on developing hot waterfront property on the strip.
Yes, in a February interview at Harvard that was posted online this month and uncovered by the Guardian on Tuesday, Kushner opined that the Gaza Strip could be very valuable from a real estate perspective, if Israel could forcibly remove everyone currently living there to develop waterfront property. Speaking to Harvard professor Tarek Masoud, Kushner said: Its a little bit of an unfortunate situation there, but from Israels perspective, I would do my best to move the people out and then clean it up. Where does Kushner suggest these people go? Ivanka Trumps husband explained that if he were in charge of Israel, his top priority would be removing the people living in Rafaha Palestinian city in southern Gazaand moving them into Egypt with diplomacy. And that wasnt his only piece of advice: In addition to that, he said, I would just bulldoze something in the Negev, I would try to move people in there . I think thats a better option, so you can go in and finish the job.
He repeated the idea later in the conversationas well as the words finish the jobsaying, I do think right now opening up the Negev, creating a secure area there, moving the civilians out, and then going in and finishing the job would be the right move. Seemingly shocked by the suggestion, Masoud responded, Is that something that theyre talking about in Israel? I mean, thats the first Ive really heard of somebody, aside from [Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi], suggesting that Gazans who are trying to flee the fighting could take refuge in the Negev. Are people in Israel seriously talking about that possibility?
(snip)
Appearing on CNN after Kushners comments were reported, Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin told Kaitlan Collins: My initial reaction is sort of shock by the sheer callousness and insensitivity at calling it a little unfortunate, when 30,000 people have been killed, there was a terrorist attack that killed hundreds of Israelis, the entire region is inflamed, and Jared Kushners reaction is, Oh, well, its a real shame we couldnt put some condos here. But if you put that aside, what we see is a preview into what a Trump administration Israel policy would really look like, and Jared Kushner said the quiet part out loud: that he thinks we should move the people out and clean it up. And if thats not exactly a call for forced displacement of 2 million Palestinians and ethnic cleanings in Gaza, its pretty close and that is a really troubling prospect for an American administration.
(snip)
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/jared-kushner-israel-gaza-waterfront-property
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