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Trump questioned if Kushner accomplished peace in the Middle East 'after all' amid recent Israel-Hamas violence, report says

Jun 23, 2021, 21:30 IST
Business Insider
President Donald Trump's White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner pauses while speaking to a member of the audience as he arrives for a news conference with President Donald Trump and Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos in the East Room of the White House, Thursday, May, 18th, 2017, in Washington. Andrew Harnik/AP
  • Trump and Kushner are growing apart, according to a new CNN report.
  • The former president has reportedly begun to question Kushner's accomplishments in his administration.
  • Trump, for example, asked if Kushner accomplished "peace in the Middle East after all" when violence broke out between Israel and Hamas.
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Donald Trump and Jared Kushner are growing apart over the former president's obsession with the 2020 election, according to a new CNN report, and it's leading Trump to question his son-in-law's accomplishments.

Amid fighting between Israel and Hamas in May, Trump reportedly began to question whether Kushner had truly accomplished "peace in the Middle East after all."

A spokesperson for Trump did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Kushner was tasked with spearheading the Trump administration's approach to the Middle East peace process.

But the "peace plan" Kushner ultimately unveiled involved no consultation or negotiations with Palestinian leaders, and experts dismissed it as little more than a PR stunt for then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - who is closely allied with Trump - ahead of an election. Palestinian leaders categorically rejected the plan, denouncing it as the "slap of the century."

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Kushner also helped facilitate the Abraham Accords, which normalized diplomatic relations between Israel and two Arab Gulf states - the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed published in March - just weeks before violence would once again flare up in the region - Kushner adopted a sanguine tone regarding his impact on peace in the Middle East.

"We are witnessing the last vestiges of what has been known as the Arab-Israeli conflict," Kushner wrote, describing the issues between Israel and the Palestinians as "nothing more than a real-estate dispute." Top human rights groups have decried Israel's treatment of Palestinians as a form of apartheid.

Roughly two months after Kushner wrote this, more than 260 people - mostly Palestinians - were killed in fighting between Israel and Hamas. The UN said at least 128 of those killed in Gaza were civilians.

The Trump administration's overall handling of US-Israel relations inflamed tensions in the region and undermined the US government's long-standing goal of a two-state solution. Trump repeatedly took controversial steps in line with Netanyahu's right-wing agenda, such as moving the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, recognizing Israel's annexation of the Golan Heights, and declaring that the US no longer viewed Israeli settlements as inconsistent with international law.

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