A high-level US delegation on Wednesday arrived in Tel Aviv to hold meetings with Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah to explore avenues for jumpstarting the peace process.
This is Kushner’s third visit to Israel since Trump assumed office. On Friday morning he will leave for Washington.
Kushner recently visited Arab states including Saudi Arabia Jordan and Egypt and met with their leaders in a bid to know if they could help restart the peace talks between the two sides.
Several Palestinian officials said off-the-record in recent days that the American peace team was biased in Israel’s favor and was even reciting Netanyahu’s talking points.
Abbas also at the beginning of the current week frankly criticized the Trump administration during his meeting with a delegation from the left-wing Israeli Meretz party by saying that he did not understand the White House’s conduct on the peace process.
He told members of the delegation that his cooperation with the US peace initiative would be conditional on the US administration publicly stating its commitment to the two-state solution and its rejection of Israel’s continued settlement construction.
Palestinian officials already warned that if Kushner’s visit failed to yield positive results they would consider resuming the international campaign for statehood in UN institutions.
This would mean pushing for a declaration at the UN General Assembly in support of accepting Palestine as a full UN member and increasing efforts to sue Israel in the International Criminal Court at The Hague according to Haaretz.
