Senior advisor to President Donald Trump, Jared Kushner, on Thursday defended the Trump Administration’s punitive actions against the Palestinian Authority in interview to the NY Times (Kushner Says Punishing Palestinians Won’t Hurt Chance for Peace Deal), saying the Palestinian leaders deserved to lose aid after vilifying the administration.
He also suggested the money the US had been pouring into UNRWA and various PA causes had been misspent. “Nobody is entitled to America’s foreign aid,” he said, meaning that the PA can’t attack the US and expect to continue receiving its money.
The Times interview took place on the 25th anniversary of the Oslo accords. Kushner, who said he did not want to be too critical of accords, suggested his own peace efforts in the region offered a radical break with past failures involving Bill Clinton, Yasser Arafat, and Yitzhak Rabin.
“There were too many false realities that were created — that people worship — that I think needed to be changed,” Kushner told the Times, adding, “All we’re doing is dealing with things as we see them and not being scared out of doing the right thing. I think, as a result, you have a much higher chance of actually achieving a real peace.”
Kushner insisted that the PA and Washington can still find a common ground on his and his partner, Jason Greenblatt’s “deal of the century,” despite its complete rejection by Ramallah. “In every negotiation I’ve ever been in,” he told the Times, “before somebody gets to ‘yes,’ their answer is ‘no.’”