Jared Kushner’s Junket Bound to Fail

He’s at it again. Donald Trump has sent his son-in-law Jared Kushner on a diplomatic junket in the Middle-East. If Trump really wants to solve international problems, sending Kushner is a bad idea for a variety of reasons. The first reason why Trump shouldn’t use this guy is because he is not a State Department official or diplomat. He has no formal training in International Relations or Diplomacy. He has thus far talked to Hamas in Egypt and is set to talk to Netanyahu.

As an Orthodox Jew and fierce Zionist, the idea that Kushner can utilize any charm with those he negotiates is next to nil. He is a close personal friend of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who frequently stays at his apartment in New York when visiting the United States. Not a good look. In previous decades there used to be a core group of so-called “Arabists” in the State Department. I doubt at this time, there are any pro-Arab people left at State. There are, on the other hand, some Arabic and more importantly Farsi-speakers at the State Department, though much fewer than there used to be. A canny diplomat who could speak to Iranians in their own language would be a real asset.

The Kushner reputation for making “side-deals” that enrich the Kushner family is a persistent one. The Kushner family does have a deserved reputation for corruption. Jared’s father, another real estate developer, is a convicted felon. The senior Kushner pled guilty to an 18 count indictment in 2004. The crimes included tax evasion for filing false tax returns and claiming personal expenses as deductions. There were counts charging him with making illegal campaign contributions and lying to the Federal Election Commission. There were also counts involving witness tampering and Retaliation because he hired a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law and mailed a tape of the encounter to his own sister to prevent her from testifying against him. Wonderful family it seems.

This war needs to end. The US has essentially been defeated and if things aren’t wrapped up in a few months, economic disaster is in the offing. As Netanyahu’s cat’s paw, Kushner has every prospect of lengthening this war. It seems that in this second Trump Administration, our president is unable to do anything right in foreign policy. Trump’s refusal to get the US out of Afghanistan in his zeal to get a “perfect deal” gave the lie to his campaign promise to extract our nation from that morass. As much as I disliked the senile President Biden, at least he got us out of that war. I fear we are going to see a repeat of Trump’s Afghanistan misadventures.