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You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Friday Evening Open Thread: Jared Kushner, Real Estate Dealer

Friday Evening Open Thread: Jared Kushner, Real Estate Dealer

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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?”

But then, when Masoud pointed out that Palestinians don’t want to leave Gaza for fear Netanyahu might never let them return, Kushner quickly provided justifications for that outcome as well.

“Maybe [they won’t be able to return], but I’m not sure there’s much left of Gaza at this point,” he said. “If you think about even the construct, Gaza was not really a historical precedent, right? It was the result of a war. … So, you have another war. Usually, when wars happen, borders are changed, historically over time.”…

In our interview, Kushner told me he was just making historical observations about the subjective nature of borders. “Most of the modern Middle East, since [the 1916 agreement known as] Sykes-Picot, is based on arbitrary lines drawn by foreigners. There does seem to be a different standard being applied to Gaza than there was to Syria, Yemen and a lot of other places,” he told me…

I’m not a professional, but I read the narrative differently. As I said above, it seems to me an indicator that Kushner is not involved with the Trump campaign. More importantly, IMO: Any Palestinian supporters still cherishing some hope that Saudi Crown Prince / Prime Minister MBS might step in to help them out can ditch those dreams right now. Because if Mohammed Bone Saw had any complaints about Kushner’s proposal, Jared would’ve walked it back no later than 24 hours of the original speech, much less the current controversy.

And while Jared Kushner is under scrutiny…

Reader Interactions

37Comments

  1. 1.

    Shalimar

    On a positive note, at least Kushner didn’t personally approve any killings to free up his new blood-drenched development sites.

  3. 3.

    trollhattan

    I just became aware of this today, although it occurred two weeks ago.

    At the opening of its annual conference on fighting antisemitism on Wednesday, the Anti-Defamation League’s CEO defended the decision to honor Donald Trump’s son-in-law and former senior adviser, Jared Kushner.
    Jonathan Greenblatt, the ADL’s chief, presented Kushner with an award recognizing his Middle East diplomacy. It came less than a day after Trump won a string of overwhelming primary victories, essentially guaranteeing him the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
    Kushner is not involved in his father-in-law’s 2024 campaign, but he defended him from the stage of the ADL conference. Speaking after Greenblatt, he touted Trump’s record on Israel and said, “You can think whatever you like about Donald Trump, but he’s not an antisemite.”
    The ADL Abraham Accords Champion Award for Kushner marks a pivot of sorts for the ADL, which in 2016 and 2017 was an early and frequent critic of the Trump administration and was the first major Jewish group to call for Trump’s removal from office after the US Capitol riot on January 6, 2021.
    It also comes as the ADL has emphasized its battle against anti-Zionism — especially following Hamas’s October 7 invasion of Israel and the war it started — drawing a parallel between antisemitism on the far right and far left.
    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/adl-honors-jared-kushner-at-annual-summit-despite-pushback-from-some-groups/ar-BB1jtqep

    Optics, how the fuck do they work, anyway?

  4. 4.

    Betty

    Well, Kushner is in line with Putin when he says wars can change boundaries. That’s Putin’s game plan.

  5. 5.

    Tony Jay

    There’s nothing much to say about this, other than what we have here is the son-in-law of a former US President (who is currently seeking re-election) casually talking up the logic of ethnic cleansing, concentration camps, and military conquest while dismissing the historical existence of a city mentioned in the fucking Bible, and you can guarantee that the News Media will spend 0.001% of its coverage acknowledging how mind-blowingly obscene Air-Head’s opinions are and 99%+ explaining how he didn’t actually mean what he said because if he did he’d be a sociopathic loon, and that can’t possibly be the case.

    People like Jared are what the Crown of Gold was designed for.

  6. 6.

    NotMax

    The guy whose own metropolitan newspaper would not commit to about-to-be Dolt 45 for the general election.

    In 2016, the [New York] Observer became one of only a handful of newspapers to officially endorse United States presidential candidate Donald Trump in the Republican Party presidential primaries. The newspaper’s owner and then publisher, Jared Kushner, is Trump’s son-in-law and was an advisor to the Trump presidential campaign. The Observer did not repeat its endorsement after Trump became the Republican nominee for President. Source

  7. 7.

    Shalimar

    @JPL: I meant the property in Serbia that was bombed in 1999 and also the property in Albania, not his verbal misadventure into Gaza.

  8. 8.

    SenyorDave

    “My words were taken out of context”.  The list of leaders who have probably said that include Hitler, Stalin, Idi Amin, Mao, etc.  Jared, you are in excellent company!

  12. 12.

    Scout211

    Jared and his lady wife have insisted that they are out, out, never getting back together with a potential second Trump administration

    Yeah, no. Not believing that for a second.  They said the same thing the first time.  Plus, Bone Saw would be at a great advantage if Jared could get his filthy hands on more US intelligence.

  13. 13.

    Joe Falco

    Future Jared conversation:

    “Ok, but have we thought about the job opportunities for those who will work at the beach resorts that will spring up after the end of the war?”

    Reporter: “You mean the displaced Gazans?”

    JK: “Oh I didn’t say that.”

  14. 14.

    Geminid

    Israel won’t shelter Gazans inside its southern region, and early in the war US, French and UK leaders told Netanyahu  they wouldn’t stand for Israel shifting Gazans into Egypt, so Kushner is just talking shit.

    Kushner made an obvious point, that Gazans will have have a better life when they give up the dream of reclaiming lands held before 1948. They are an educated people with as much potential as anyone. But Kushner is not contributing to that future with this scheme, but rather is undermining it.

  16. 16.

    Quadrillipede

    If someone lies repeatedly and provably for years, then, outside of a legal proceeding, who even cares what they say? Why does “known liar says words” even constitute news?

    IJDGI… 🫤

  17. 17.

    John Revolta

    @NotMax: Damn, I never heard about this show! (I stopped following Broadway productions more or less when I moved out of NY in 2004.) Sounds like it’d be right up my alley…..

  18. 18.

    JoyceH

    Of course he meant that the Palestinians would only be removed temporarily! After all, someone is going to have to clean all those hotels and casinos.

  19. 19.

    Geminid

    @Geminid: Saudi Arabia and the UAE have said they will help rebuild Gaza, and they’ve got the money to do it. But they’ve said they won’t help if Hamas is in control, and think that Western countries were fools to let Hamas leaders convert billions of aid into personal fortunes. And they won’t help if Israel is in charge either. They intend to help a Gaza controlled by the Palestinian Authority, and they are already engineering a P.A. that could be up to the task.

    Many Westerners think this cannot be. They’re like, “Alas! I once believed in a Two-State Solution to this terrible problem, but I see it is now impossible.”

    The Saudis and the Emiratis are like, “We’ll git ‘er done.” They know this situation better than Westerners and have more at stake. They also have the resources and the backing of the U.S., so I do not discount their plans.

  20. 20.

    Jay

    @Geminid:

    Kushner made an obvious point, that Gazans will have have a better life when they give up the dream of reclaiming lands held before 1948.

    Nope, Gaza will still remain the worlds largest open air Prison.
    There will be no Two State.

  21. 21.

    Leto

    @Tony Jay: Back in December and January there were posts on Imgur of Israeli real estate firms saying, “Come buy beach front property in Northern Gaza now” with pictures of beach homes. Doesn’t surprise me that Shitvanka is working with them to potentially move this forward. Settlements 2.0.

  23. 23.

    Geminid

    @Jay: Not sure why you are tagging me with this. I don’t represent anyone but myself.

    But since you did, I’ll just say that Belazel Smotrich can claim that land all he wants,  but that doesnt mean he can make good on that claim. He’s Treasury Minister for a government that is fast running out its tenure.

  24. 24.

    Leto

    @Geminid:

    The Saudis and the Emiratis are like, “We’ll git ‘er done.”

    The same “git’er done” attitude that led to 9/11. Fuck the bone saw Saudi’s forever.

  26. 26.

    pluky

    Well Jared, perhaps if the Israeli government hadn’t put a strangle hold on the Gazan economy such a development might have happened decades ago.

  27. 27.

    Skippy-san

    Kushner is trying to cater to Likud and other right wingers in Israel who want to push the Palestinians out of Gaza permanently. Bezalel Smotrich has as much said so and that he does not care about them whatsoever.

    It’s an example of how stupid Kushner really is, because he would understand that you can’t just build in the Negev. There is no water. Once you get south of Beersheba, settlement is problematic and Israelis know this.

    Kushner is truly evil and he screwed things up badly in Israel the first time. I know, I was there. And don’t forget Trump’s abomination of an Ambassador too.

  28. 28.

    RSA

    So you telling me the dude who couldn’t get a clearance to work in the White House…

    The first step in getting a clearance is filling out SF86 (Standard Form 86 – Questionnaire for National Security). It’s a lot, over 100 pages (with repetition) to fill in, but here are some sample question:

    Do you have, or have you had, close and/or continuing contact with a foreign national within the last seven (7) years with whom you, or your spouse, or legally recognized civil union/domestic partner, or cohabitant are bound by affection, influence, common interests, and/or obligation?…

    Have you, your spouse or legally recognized civil union/domestic partner, cohabitant, or dependent children EVER had any foreign financial interests (such as stocks, property, investments, bank accounts, ownership of corporate entities, corporate interests or exchange traded funds (ETFs) held in specific geographical or economic sectors) in which you or they have direct control or direct ownership?…

    Has any foreign national in the last seven (7) years offered you a job, asked you to work as a consultant, or consider employment with them?

    Have you in the last seven (7) years been involved in any other type of business venture with a foreign national not described above (own, co-own, serve as business consultant, provide financial support, etc.)?

    It’s pretty easy to see what the federal government considers potential risk factors, and it’s pretty easy to see why Jared wouldn’t have gotten a security clearance under normal circumstances. Donald as well, of course.

  29. 29.

    Geminid

    @Leto: If you are waiting for people with clean hands to show up and solve this problem, you will have a long wait.

  31. 31.

    R'Chard

    @Joe Falco: To say nothing of Gaza’s coastal erosion problem, a few meters a year, like pretty much every sandy beach in the world. So (pretty much) Florida 2.0 is what he envisions. All the little people need to move, move, move…

  32. 32.

    Villago Delenda Est

    As I mentioned the other day at Wonkette, I’m shocked that Kushner hasn’t scarfed up some old SS properties to redevelop into luxury resorts. “The Spa at Birkenau”, anyone?

  33. 33.

    Geminid

    @Jay: Well, I have no problem with the Saudis and Emiratis playing a role in rebuilding Gaza. Beats having Hamas run the place, or the Israelis for that matter. Maybe you have a better way in mind. But you very confidently say Gaza will always be an open air prison, so maybe you don’t.

  34. 34.

    Tehanu

    A real pascudnyik, Jared. My grandma’s 2nd husband, a really sweet man, was a Kushner — no relation, I hope! — and I’m embarrassed and disgusted on his behalf.

  36. 36.

    Matt McIrvin

    Here are the logically possible endpoints:

    1. Some sort of two-state solution.
    2. Some sort of secular-pluralist one-state solution, with equal representation for Jews and Muslims. (But that wouldn’t be “Israel” as originally defined.)
    3. Elimination: Push the Palestinians into the sea. (Or at least some vaguely defined not-there.)
    4. Elimination: Push the Jews into the sea. (Or at least some vaguely defined not-there.)

    1 and 2 both seem like impossible dreams. 3 and 4 are both morally unacceptable. In addition, 4 isn’t actually going to happen, because of the power dynamics–some superpower would have to decide to eliminate Israel (which has nuclear weapons) and nobody currently on the planet is actually going to choose that.

    But it seems to me like there are a lot of people out there who are insisting that 3 and 4 are the only alternatives available, because really they want either one or or the other (and it’s not very hard to tell which).

    The Saudis and Emiratis, though? I don’t trust them as far as I can throw them. They do seem to want normalized relations with Israel because, at this point, it’s in their self-interest. But they’ve never been particularly good-faith partners.

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