Jared Kushner, son-in-law and senior advisor to former President Trump, was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize this week. This nomination comes at a tumultuous time of controversy surrounding the Trump family, especially in the aftermath of the Jan 6. Capitol Building attack.
Kushner, along with his deputy Avi Berkowitz, were nominated for their role in brokering agreements normalizing relations between Israel and the governments of the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco. These agreements were forged to ensure a stable environment for Israel to cement its large-scale displacement and apartheid rule over Palestinians.
Additionally, these agreements have been described as an effort to form a regional axis to ramp up aggression against Iran and its allies. These deals involved considerable pressure from the United States as well as rewards for regimes that agree to betray the Palestinian cause. For example, in November the Trump administration approved the sale of 50 F-35 fighter jets to the UAE, along with other advanced weaponry totaling $23 billion.
In addition to the fact that his accomplishments actually advance the opposite of peace, it is hard to imagine a more utterly unqualified and incompetant diplomat than Jared Kushner. Kushner’s rise to a position of great political influence was essentially a stroke of luck, having married into the Trump family. Daniel Golden, investigative journalist and editor of ProPublica, exposed a $2.5 million donation to Harvard by Charles Kushner, patriarch of the Kushner family and a convicted criminal. Maybe — just maybe! — this facilitated Jared Kushner’s admission to Harvard despite his less than stellar grades and qualifications. Five year later in 2004, Charles Kushner pleaded guilty to tax violations and illegal campaign donations among other crimes.
Before his bizarre stint as a leading Middle East negotiator, Kushner oversaw Kushner Companies, a massive real estate development company with properties across the East Coast. Various complaints have been lodged against the company for widespread health code violations, including the presence of lead and carcinogens. Kushner is known for his heavy-handed abuse against his tenants and for using government connections to secure deals for his private company. His criminal slumlord practices were even the subject of an episode of the Netflix documentary series “Dirty Money” titled “Slumlord Millionaire.”
Kushner’s nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize is nothing but a farce that covers his role strengthening the apartheid regime imposed on the Palestinian people. It is clear from his track record, both domestically and internationally, that Kushner is no advocate for peace and is rather an opportunist committed to extending the reach of U.S. imperialism and its partners in crime like Israel.
