Jared Kushner’s “Ultimate Deal” Is Falling Apart

“If you can’t produce peace in the Middle East, nobody can,” Donald Trump confidently told his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, shortly before his inauguration. “All my life I’ve been hearing that’s the toughest deal to make, but I have a feeling Jared is going to do a great job.” Yet it seems increasingly likely that “nobody” would be a safer bet. Kushner’s hypothetical peace plan was kneecapped before it could take shape by an announcement from his father-in-law that the U.S. would move its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. That pronouncement infuriated Palestinian leaders, who declared an effective end to peace talks. Now, The New York Times reports that the plan’s release is on the horizon, but that even Team Trump acknowledges it may be dead on arrival.

Despite a global outcry following the embassy decision, in recent week both the White House and the president have insisted that all is well—“The Palestinians, I think, are wanting to come back to the table very badly,” Trump said during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent Washington visit. But the Times notes that behind the scenes, the administration is working overtime to find a way to present its plan as viable. And so far the details—which were reportedly drawn up by three people, including Kushner, who have no diplomatic experience—do not inspire confidence:

The administration’s recent stumbles on the Middle East front have made it even more likely that Kushner’s plan will fall flat. Palestine’s leaders were more or less unequivocal in their condemnations when the White House announced the embassy move, which officials claimed would not undercut Kushner’s work but would instead paint the president as “someone who stands by his word, isn’t intimidated by threats, and doesn’t cave to international pressure.” “There is no way that there can be talks with the Americans,” Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi said at the time. “The peace process is finished. They have already pre-empted the outcome. They cannot take us for granted.” To prime the pump, the White House will hold a conference on Tuesday to parse the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Per the Times, the Palestinian Authority has already announced that it will boycott the meeting.

Meanwhile Trump and Kushner’s closest Israeli ally, Prime Minister Netanyahu, may soon be indicted on several counts of fraud, making him less inclined to make concessions to Palestine so as to avoid alienating his hard-line right base. Nor is Netanyahu exactly sold on the details that have been hammered out thus far. “There is no concrete U.S. peace plan on the table,” Netanyahu reportedly told his Cabinet after he spent last Sunday in talks with Kushner and his team. “I am not saying there couldn't be one in the future, but right now there is none.”

It’s further unclear how Kushner will continue to spearhead the peace effort, considering his security clearance was downgraded last month to a level below the White House calligrapher’s, cutting off his access to sensitive documents. Though the White House insists Kushner will be able to do his job without a high-level clearance—“he’s going to continue to do the work that he’s done over the last year,” Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said during a recent press briefing—last week the First Son-in-Law was laughed out of Mexico by lawmakers who considered him “very weak” and devoid of the president’s blessing. Though Israeli officials, with whom Kushner has a good relationship, are less likely to air their doubts so publicly, doubtless similar conversations are occurring behind the scenes. For Kushner, whose standing in the White House has gone from bad to worse, simply releasing the plan and hoping that the Palestinians don’t instantly reject it may be the best in a lineup of bad options.