"Gaza’s waterfront property could be very valuable … if people would focus on building up livelihoods" — Jared Kushner https://t.co/RkDjUKHh51
— Josh Kovensky (@JoshKovensky) March 19, 2024
Jared and his lady wife have insisted that they are out, out, never getting back together with a potential second Trump administration… and there’s no reason not to believe him (until, Murphy forbid, it actually happens), because Kushner’s found a new actually-super-wealthy sugar daddy in Saudi Arabia. The ‘beachfront condos in Gaza’ story is, IMO, further confirmation: If there were any communication between Kushner and TFG’s handlers, they’d have found *some* way to keep him from running his mouth about displacing two million Palestinians until after the election.
And once it’s being pigbladdered discussed in the Washington Post, it’s too late to cobble up some polite fantasy about ‘misspeaking’. Josh Rogin, “Kushner’s Gaza remarks are a dark signal for Trump’s second-term policy” [gift link]:
… In a Feb. 15 interview at Harvard University, videos of which have recently emerged, Kushner said several striking things about the Israel-Gaza crisis. “Gaza’s waterfront property could be very valuable,” he said, lamenting that Palestinians had diverted resources away from economic development and toward weapons and tunnels. “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.”
This language prompted widespread criticism in Arab media as a call for giving Gazan land to Israelis — and as an evocation of ethnic cleansing. Kushner said on X on Tuesday his words were taken out of context. Reached on Thursday, he said he was proposing Gazans be moved only temporarily. “With regard to moving the people, if Israel is going to invade Rafah, there are options they should consider to protect the civilians,” he told me.
In fairness, Kushner did at first say during his Harvard interview that if he were in charge in Israel, he would create “a secure area” inside Israel’s Negev desert to house Palestinians while Israeli forces “finish the job,” in the absence of Arab countries willing to take them in as refugees. Tarek Masoud, his interviewer and faculty director of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Middle East Initiative, asked if this was something under actual consideration in Israel.
“I don’t know,” Kushner said. “I’m sitting in Miami Beach right now. And I’m looking at the situation, and I’m thinking: What would I do if I was there?”
Friday Evening Open Thread: Jared Kushner, Real Estate DealerPost + Comments (37)