The Unholy Trinity

THE IDEA TO TURN Gaza into a “Middle East Riviera” was first floated exactly a year ago by Donald Trump’s billionaire son-in-law Jared Kushner.

This is what Kushner told Tarek Masoud, faculty chair of the Middle East Initiative at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, on February 15, 2024, even as the four-month-old Israel-Hamas war raged in Gaza: “Gaza’s waterfront property could be very valuable.

It’s a little bit of an unfortunate situation there, but from Israel’s perspective, I would do my best to move people out and then clean it up.”

As if that wasn’t enough, Kushner said to Masoud: “But in addition to that, I would just bulldoze something in the Negev desert and try to move people in there. So you can go and finish the job.”

A year later, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met President Trump at the White House and used almost exactly the same words: “So we can go and finish the job.”

When Kushner was asked by Masoud at last year’s Harvard event whether he supported the two-state solution for an independent Palestine and Israel co-existing in peace—an outcome supported by the UN and virtually every democracy including, officially, the US— Kushner replied that Palestinians having their own state “was a super-bad idea”.

Kushner is married to Trump’s daughter Ivanka and runs a successful real estate business that he inherited from his father, Charles Kushner.

Charles Kushner was sentenced to two years in prison in February 2005 for tax fraud. US District Judge Jose L Linares, while passing the judgment 20 years ago, called Charles Kushner’s crime “disgraceful and reprehensible”.

US Attorney Christopher J Christie, who prosecuted the case, added: “The court of law was the great leveller for Mr Charles Kushner, who had obviously convinced himself that his power, influence and immense wealth put him above the law.” Charles Kushner’s status as a convicted felon did not deter Trump, himself a convicted felon, from nominating Kushner as US ambassador to France within weeks of winning a second term as president.

Meanwhile, Jared Kushner has tried to keep a low profile in the new Trump administration. He has no official role. In Trump’s first presidential term, Kushner was designated White House senior advisor and Middle East envoy. He built a rapport with Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler Mohammed bin Salman. The two spent hours together, often in desert tents, discussing the Middle East’s future.

Kushner, now 44, has taken a back seat in the second Trump administration. But he retains Trump’s ear on the Middle East. For second-term Trump, ending the Russia-Ukraine war is top priority. Next comes global trade and tariffs. The third is the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) where he has given Elon Musk carte blanche to ruthlessly cut the federal bureaucracy down to size.

With the Israel-Hamas truce holding as hostage-prisoner swaps continue, Trump is letting the idea of Gaza as a Middle East Riviera with two million Palestinians evicted to the Negev desert or neighbouring countries sink into a shocked world before he unleashes Kushner.

Though Trump’s Gaza proposal is in clear violation of international law, the real problem Trump faces is getting three disparate entities on board. The first prong of this unholy trinity comprises reluctant Arab states led by Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Jordan and Egypt. The second prong is US public opinion that strongly backs the Israel- US plan. The third element is the international community that is aghast at the idea of ethnically cleansing Palestinians from their homeland.

Trump believes the US and Israel can ignore global opposition, the United Nations, human rights bodies and the rest of the world. They did so earlier: flouting UN resolutions in the illegal Iraq war, the bombing of Libya, and regime change in Syria.

The key to unite this unholy trinity, however, lies with the Saudi-led Arab states. Trump knows he can bully them by threatening to withdraw the US military umbrella that keeps terrorist groups like Al Qaeda and IS from targeting the Arab monarchies, and one day dethroning them.

If the choice lies between a new Arab Spring uprising backed by militants as in Syria that could overthrow them without US military protection and consigning two million Palestinians to their fate in the Negev, the Arab monarchs will be left with no choice.

Donald TrumpGaza StripIsrael-HamasMiddle East RivieraRachel Kushnerreal estate