Trump's son-in-law is trying hard to push through an Israeli-Palestinian peace plan that's been roundly rejected by the Palestinians.
Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner said on Tuesday that the administration's newly released Israeli-Palestinian peace plan will work if you simply forget decades of history regarding the conflict.
"What I would encourage people to do is try to divorce yourself from all of the history that's happened over the years and read this plan," Kushner said in an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour.
Conflict between Israelis and Palestinians has existed for decades, dating back years before Israel became a state in 1948.
Deadly wars have been fought over territory, with multiple attempts by American presidents to try and resolve the land disputes.
And the peace plan Kushner helped craft — which Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Tuesday — looks just as likely to fail as past attempts.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has already rejected the proposal.
"After the nonsense that we heard today we say a thousand no's to the Deal of The Century," Abbas said at a news conference on Tuesday.
Yossi Mekelberg, professor of international relations at Regent's University in London, also told NBC News this week that Kushner's plan might in fact worsen the situation.
"Is it going to lead to an agreement with the Palestinians? Categorically not," he said. "In fact, it will harden their position."
Kushner is still pushing his plan despite the criticism, explaining on "Fox & Friends" Wednesday morning that the plan was substantial and even contained "a map."
"If you look at the original proposal, the Arab Peace Initiative, that was an eight-line proposal, it was a good faith proposal, past proposals have been two to three pages, this is an over 80-page proposal with a map, never been done before," Kushner said.
Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.
