Kushner: Abbas, Olmert jealous they couldn’t bring about peace themselves

Jared Kushner spoke out against Ehud Olmert and Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday, saying that they are jealous of the peace plan for having the potential to accomplish what they could not.

By TAMAR URIEL-BEERI, OMRI NAHMIAS
US President Donald Trump and senior adviser Jared Kushner leave the World Economic Forum, 2020. (photo credit: REUTERS/DENIS BALIBOUSE)
US President Donald Trump and senior adviser Jared Kushner leave the World Economic Forum, 2020.
(photo credit: REUTERS/DENIS BALIBOUSE)
Kushner: Abbas, Olmert jealous they couldn’t bring about peace themselves
Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law, spoke out against former prime minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s planned joint press conference opposing the “Deal of the Century,” calling their actions “almost pathetic.”
“It is almost pathetic that they are criticizing other people’s efforts to try and reach an agreement,” Kushner said to reporters as he left the UN on Thursday night. “It comes from a lot of jealousy that they couldn’t do it themselves.”
He attacked Abbas and Olmert, explaining, “if you really want to make peace, then you need to encourage the efforts of other people to try and make peace instead of trying to make headlines when you are not relevant and [instead are] intervening in the situation to get attention.”
He claimed that the event is because they did not manage to bring about peace when they had the chance.
According to Channel 12, he additionally spoke with the press before a United Nations Security Council meeting on the peace plan, stating that “people are publicly opposing the plan when they had the chance and failed; I see that as disrespectful.”
Kushner added that both sides must cooperate, but they will not succeed if they continue going down the path they had previously gone down.
He additionally blamed Abbas, who will address the Security Council on Tuesday, for the recent escalations leading to multiple injuries on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “He calls for days of rage in response... before he even saw the plan,” he said.
Kushner further explained that Abbas met with him personally four times while the peace plan was still being written up, but that “they chose not to meet with us again.”
During his visit to the UN, Abbas plans on pushing for a condemnation of Israel and of Trump’s peace plan, namely Israel’s intention to annex settlements. The US is expected to veto the vote, though it may pass in the General Assembly.

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Abbas is scheduled to meet with Olmert throughout the trip. They will be taking questions from the press and will discuss their mutual opposition toward the “Deal of the Century.”
“Today’s meeting with the UN Security Council representatives was constructive,” a senior Trump administration official told The Jerusalem Post. “It provided us an opportunity to brief them on our vision for peace and hear their views.”
The official said the representatives “were engaged and asked lots of questions.
“We hope we can work together in the coming days and weeks to set a new pragmatic approach to this issue,” the official continued. “For too long, this issue has been stale and has consisted of people trying to solve it by doing the same failed things over and over again.
“The status quo has only left the Palestinian people languishing,” the official noted. “We have presented a logical plan based on the realities of today. A real opportunity to achieve their aspirations. People should encourage the Palestinians to engage. If there are things in the plan that they do not like, they should come to the table and negotiate.”
Lahav Harkov contributed to this report.


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