U.S. President Donald Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner blamed Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday for the increase in tensions and violence in the West Bank in response to the release of the Mideast peace plan on Jan. 28.
He said that those who want a state “don’t call for days of rage and encourage their people to pursue violence if they’re not getting what they want,” and that Abbas “was surprised with how good the plan was for the Palestinian people, but he locked himself into a position.”
Kushner warned that the plan, which he played a big role in creating, “might be the last chance” for the Palestinians to have a state.
After briefing the U.N. Security Council at a private lunch at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, Kushner told a small group of reporters that the window for a Palestinian state is close to being shut, considering the rate of expansion of Israeli neighborhoods, which may prevent the formation of a state for the Palestinians.
Abbas is scheduled to address the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday, followed by appearing at a news conference with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who objected to the proposal, which was accepted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Kushner labeled Olmert’s participation “almost pathetic.”
