By Iqbal Jassat

Given his close association with the settler colonial regime, it is indisputable that Kushner has a vested interest in Netanyahu’s ongoing genocide.

Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who is known to be a close ally of both Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) of the House of Saud and war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu, has let the cat out of the bag in a recent interview.

Speaking to Harvard’s Middle East Initiative faculty chair, Professor Tarek Masoud, Kushner lauded
the “very valuable” potential of Gaza’s “waterfront property” and suggested Israel should remove civilians while it “cleans up” the Strip.

According to a report in the Guardian, the former property dealer, married to Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka, made the comments in an interview at Harvard University on March 8.

As if echoing Netanyahu’s grand plan of ethnic cleansing Gaza’s 2.3 million population, Kushner said “It’s a little bit of an unfortunate situation there, but from Israel’s perspective I would do my best to move the people out and then clean it up.”

Without any hint of empathy for the suffering inflicted on the Palestinians which has outraged the world, Kushner advanced his idea that Israel should move civilians from Gaza to the Negev desert in southern Israel.

As the executioner of Trump’s “normalization” project, his comments carried the tone of a cold calculated plot to eradicate the presence of Palestinians in Gaza.

As per the Guardian account of the interview, Kushner said that if he were in charge of Israel his number one priority would be getting civilians out of the southern city of Rafah, and that “with diplomacy” it could be possible to get them into Egypt.

“But in addition to that, I would just bulldoze something in the Negev, I would try to move people in there,” he said. “I think that’s a better option, so you can go in and finish the job.”

The report points out that Kushner’s suggestion drew a startled response from Masoud. “Is that something that they’re talking about in Israel?” Masoud asked.

“I mean, that’s the first I’ve really heard of somebody, aside from President Sisi (Egypt’s President), suggesting that Gazans trying to flee the fighting could take refuge in the Negev. Are people in Israel seriously talking about that possibility?”

And in response to a further question about whether Palestinians should have their own state, Kushner dismissed it as “a super bad idea” that “would essentially be rewarding an act of terror”.

Patrick Wintour, Guardian’s Diplomatic editor who compiled the report on Kushner’s interview, reminds us that as a senior foreign policy adviser under Trump’s presidency Kushner was tasked with preparing a peace plan for the Middle East.

“His remarks at Harvard gave a hint of the kind of Middle East policy that could be pursued in the event that Trump returns to the White House, including a search for a normalization deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel”.

Given his close association with the settler colonial regime, it is indisputable that Kushner has a vested interest in Netanyahu’s ongoing genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza.

Philip Weiss of Mondoweiss revealed way back in 2016, that Kushner’s family foundations gave $325,860 to the Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces during that period.

“The FIDF is headquartered in New York City and provides support services to soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF)”.

The Seryl and Charles Kushner Family Foundation gave the ‘Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces’ over $200,000 in the years 2010 and 2011. A second family foundation, the Charles Kushner Companies Foundation, also made gifts to the FIDF.

Not surprising at all given that Jared Kushner is on the board of the Friends of the IDF.

Haaretz and the Washington Post also reported back then, that the Kushner Family Foundation had given nearly $60,000 to settlement organizations between 2011-2013.

What is apparent from his history of association with Israel’s illegal settlement projects as well as his funding of the Israeli army, Kushner can never be regarded as an honest broker.

As Weiss pointed out, support for an occupying army that has committed many human rights atrocities does not speak to Kushner’s impartiality.

Not that impartiality has ever been a criterion for US mediators nor the state department. This has been borne out for decades and is in sharp focus today with the hypocrisy and double standards of the Biden Administration.

Most of the world is aware that Biden has thrice vetoed UN Security Council resolutions calling for an immediate ceasefire.

Also well known is the fact that an airbridge of unlimited supply of weapons from the US to Israel has been in operation since October ’23 in addition to financial aid running into billions of dollars.

Critics of both Trump and Biden have justifiably claimed that Washington is deeply vested in keeping its Zionist colony alive at all cost, including at the expense of the lives of Palestinians.

– Iqbal Jassat is an Executive Member of the South Africa-based Media Review Network. He contributed this article to The Palestine Chronicle. Visit: www.mediareviewnet.com