White House senior adviser and presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner expressed support for Palestinians to have “self-determination,” though stopped short of endorsing a Palestinian state.
“I do think they should have self-determination,” he told Axios in an interview aired by HBO. “I’m going to leave the details until we come out with the actual plan.”
Kushner also said “I’m not here to be trusted” by the Palestinians. He added that they should judge the Mideast peace plan “based on the facts and then make a determination: Do they think this will allow them to have a pathway to a better life or not?”
Regarding whether Palestinians should have a state, he said “there’s a difference between the technocrats and ... the people,” adding that “when I speak to Palestinian people, what they want is they want the opportunity to live a better life. They want the opportunity to pay their mortgage.”
When the peace plan will be released is yet to be determined, a Trump administration official told JNS on Thursday.
“The Bahrain workshop will go on as scheduled, June 25-26,” said the official in an email. “As far as the rest of the plan/rollout, we’ve long said that we will release the plan when the timing is right.”
Kushner said in April that the so-called “deal of the century” would be released after Ramadan, which concludes on June 4.
The Bahrain workshop is the first part of the peace proposal rollout and is expected to deal with revitalizing the Palestinian economy.
The second part is expected to deal with the political issues surrounding the conflict, including geographic boundaries.
Nonetheless, the Palestinian Authority believes that Israel’s unprecedented election status will delay the remaining part of the rollout, reported Haaretz on Thursday.
The failure of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to form a coalition largely came as a result of an impasse between former defense minister and Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Lieberman and the ultra-Orthodox parties—Shas and United Torah Judaism—over a military draft bill for ultra-Orthodox men.
