White House Middle East Team Pivots To Gaza As Kushner’s Peace Plan Stalls

Jared Kushner speaks on his cellphone before a meeting between President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on January 25, 2018. Image by NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images
The White House’s Middle East peace negotiating team is refocusing its efforts on improving conditions in the Gaza Strip after its proposals were met with a cool reception by the Palestinian Authority, The Washington Post reported Saturday.
The team of officials, led by presidential advisor/son-in-law Jared Kushner, travelled to the region last month but found their proposals unlikely to be implemented because the Palestinian Authority refuses to meet with them, still infuriated by the Trump administration’s decisions to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move its embassy there.
“We definitely have a Gaza focus right now because the situation is the way it is, and we want to try to help,” a senior administration official told the Post. “But it’s not as though we think we need to fix Gaza first before we would air the peace plan.”
The new plan will likely involve utilizing international aid, especially from Arab nations, to improve Gaza’s electric and water systems. The U.S. cut Palestinian aid in half earlier this year in protest of the Palestinian Authority’s negative reaction to the capital recognition.
The coastal enclave is blockaded by Israel and Egypt, and the Jewish state, while still providing aid, frequently turns off power supplies during spats with the Palestinian Authority over electricity payments. Gaza is run by Hamas, which is recognized by Israel and the United States as a terror group, and which has frequently fought with the Palestinian Authority for control over the last decade.
Worsening humanitarian conditions in Gaza spurred 13 Democratic senators, including Bernie Sanders (an independent who caucuses with the Democrats) and Elizabeth Warren, to sign a formal letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo beseeching the Trump administration “to do more to alleviate the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.”
Contact Aiden Pink at [email protected] or on Twitter, @aidenpink
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion The dangerous Nazi legend behind Trump’s ruthless grab for power
- 2
Opinion A Holocaust perpetrator was just celebrated on US soil. I think I know why no one objected.
- 3
Culture Did this Jewish literary titan have the right idea about Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling after all?
- 4
Opinion I first met Netanyahu in 1988. Here’s how he became the most destructive leader in Israel’s history.
In Case You Missed It
-
Culture I have seen the future of America — in a pastrami sandwich in Queens
-
Culture Trump wants to honor Hannah Arendt in a ‘Garden of American Heroes.’ Is this a joke?
-
Opinion Gaza and Trump have left the Jewish community at war with itself — and me with a bad case of alienation
-
Fast Forward Trump administration restores student visas, but impact on pro-Palestinian protesters is unclear
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.