Guardian March 19 item -
Jared Kushner says Gaza’s ‘waterfront property could be very valuable’ --- Donald Trump’s son-in-law also says Israel should bulldoze an area of the Negev desert and move Palestinians there
Jared Kushner has praised the “very valuable” potential of Gaza’s “waterfront property” and suggested Israel should remove civilians while it “cleans up” the strip.
The former property dealer, married to Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka, made the comments in an interview at Harvard University on 15 February. The interview was posted on the YouTube channel of the Middle East Initiative, a program of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, earlier this month.
Kushner was a senior foreign policy adviser under Trump’s presidency and was tasked with preparing a peace plan for the Middle East. Critics of the plan, which involved Israel striking normalisation deals with Gulf states, said it bypassed questions about the future for Palestinians.
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 normalisation deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel.
“Gaza’s waterfront property could be very valuable … if people would focus on building up livelihoods,” Kushner told his interviewer, the faculty chair of the Middle East Initiative, Prof Tarek Masoud. Kushner also lamented “all the money” that had gone into the territory’s tunnel network and munitions instead of education and innovation.
“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,” Kushner said. “But I don’t think that Israel has stated that they don’t want the people to move back there afterwards.”
Masoud replied that there was “a lot to talk about there”.
Kushner also said he thinks Israel should move civilians from Gaza to the Negev desert in southern Israel.
He 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.”
He reiterated the point a little later, saying: “I do think right now opening up the Negev, creating a secure area there, moving the civilians out, and then going in and finishing the job would be the right move.”
The 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 leader], suggesting that Gazans trying to flee the fighting could take refuge in the Negev. Are people in Israel seriously talking about that possibility?”
“I don’t know,” Kushner replied, shrugging his shoulders.
“That would be something you’d try to work on?” Masoud asked.
“I’m sitting in Miami Beach right now,” Kushner said. “And I’m looking at the situation and I’m thinking: what would I do if I was there?”
Asked by Masoud about fears on the part of Arabs in the region that the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, would not allow Palestinians who flee Gaza to return, Kushner paused and then said: “Maybe.”
He went on to say: “I am not sure there is much left of Gaza at this point. If you think about even the construct, Gaza was not really a historical precedent [sic]. It was the result of a war. You had tribes in different places and then Gaza became a thing. Egypt used to run it and then over time different governments came in.”
Responding to a question about whether the Palestinians should have their own state, Kushner described the proposal as “a super bad idea” that “would essentially be rewarding an act of terror”.
Heavy stuff. For the full hour and a quarter video, this link. There might be some Crabgrass follow up thoughts this seeds.
For now, watch the full interview if you'd like. After posting, I shall watch it.
____________UPDATE____________
https://www.thejc.com/news/israel/what-is-israels-plan-for-the-evacuation-of-rafah-dpa2qvji
That is The Jewish Chronicle - talking of a proposal to move Rafah population, swelled to well over a million humans, into neighboring Egyptian land.
The proposal was presented to the Egyptians in recent days, as they would be in charge of setting up the camps and field hospitals, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
It envisions 15 campsites of around 25,000 tents at each site (375,000 tents in total) where displaced Gazans will be relocated along the coast of the Strip running from Al-Mawasi (in the area of the former Gush Katif) close to Rafah to Sheikh Ijlin (also spelled Sheikh Ajleen), a neighbourhood in southern Gaza City.
Citing Egyptian officials, the Journal report said that the camps, which would include medical clinics, are expected to be funded by the US and its Arab partners. The Egyptians would coordinate with Israel to decide how wounded Palestinians could exit Gaza.
An Israeli delegation was in the Egyptian capital on Tuesday to discuss the latest hostage release deal being proposed, while also talking about the upcoming IDF operation in Gaza’s southernmost city to dismantle the last Hamas battalions and destroy the weapons-smuggling tunnels along the Gaza-Egyptian border.
A most interesting feature of the report, which continues from there, is not one single word about letting the Gazans back into Gaza. Only ousting them to allow the IDF free rein. It seems an oversight. Perhaps not. More of the item:
According to Israel, there are four Hamas battalions positioned in the city along the Egyptian border, the population of which has swelled to some 1.5 million, more than half of Gaza’s total of 2.3 million, after the IDF directed northern Gazans to a humanitarian zone there when fighting began in October.
US President Joe Biden said on Monday that Israel “should not proceed” with a military operation in Rafah without a plan for the civilians sheltering in the area.
Conquering Rafah is essential to defeating Hamas, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly stated.
“Victory is within reach. We’re going to do it. We’re going to get the remaining Hamas terrorist battalions in Rafah, which is the last bastion, but we’re going to do it,” the premier told ABC News in an interview that aired on Sunday.
Let us hope the Netanyahu government is not so blatently greed motivated and evil, as to want no Gazans to return, with that Jarad-admitted valuable beachfront then part of Israeli spoils of war. (Hope and expectation do not go hand-in-hand.)
And there is off-shore natural gas, which will likely be fodder for another UPDATE.
Hopefully Schumer will revise and extend his remarks, to include a clear Gaza for the Gazans addendum. It's due. Not for Jarad's Saudi funded private equity adventuring. At least that would be so if Biden is reelected. We'd expect.
___________FURTHER UPDATE_________
I watched most of the Jarad at Harvard thing. He's a bullshitter. Asked about why was the Golan Heights concession "the right thing" notice he talks at length without any answer. I'd not spend much time deciding his used car was not something I'd buy, were I face to face with him on that issue. I quit at the first canned question from the audience. The woman talked as Jarad talked. Too much.